If you find your bins becoming full before collection day, or you just want to do more to help the environment, you should try to reduce the rubbish and recycling you produce. This page will give you useful tips for how to make less waste and use your bins more efficiently.
Reducing your general rubbish
- Put all food waste in your weekly brown food recycling bin rather than in your fortnightly general waste
- Take large or one-off items to Barrowell Green Recycling Centre instead of placing them in your bin
- Use reusable nappies, as disposable nappies generate a lot of waste. You can get a £70 voucher for Real nappies below.
Real nappies
We have teamed up with Real Nappies for London to promote reusable nappies as an alternative to single-use (disposable) nappies. We offer parents living in Enfield, with a baby under 18 months or parents-to-be, a £70 voucher to help with the initial cost of getting started using reusable nappies. The aim is to reduce the amount of nappy waste currently being disposed of in the borough.
Using reusable nappies can reduce your household rubbish and also save you money.
To apply for a voucher and for more information visit Real Nappies for London.
Reducing your recycling
- Squash bottles, cartons, and cereal boxes to free up space
- Place flattened cardboard neatly alongside your blue recycling bin on your scheduled collection day (larger cardboard boxes should be broken down into more manageable pieces)
- Reduce single-use plastics in your bin by:
- buying groceries and other products with less or no plastic packaging
- drinking from a reusable coffee cup and water bottle
- shopping with reusable bags instead of buying new plastic bags
- using paper or metal drinking straws and cutlery
- Reduce junk mail in your bin by:
- asking to be removed from old mailing lists
- ticking the box asking not to be placed on a mailing list when completing forms
- registering free with the Mailing Preference Service to remove your name and address from most mailing lists
- registering with Royal Mail to reduce the amount of unaddressed mail
Reducing your food waste
- Use leftover food for additional meals
- Plan meals in advance
- Manage portion size so you do not make more than you eat
- Try home composting
- See the advice from Love Food Hate Waste below
For more information, see how you can recycle more (PDF, 12606.32 KB).
Home composting
You can purchase a home compost bin and other accessories online at Get Composting, or in most garden centers.
Composting at home is a great way to reduce the amount of food sent to landfill.
Composting is a free, natural process that transforms your fruit and vegetable peelings and garden waste into valuable nutrient-rich food for your garden. It will take your compost about a year to rot down, after which you’ll need to use it. It will be perfect for flower beds, growing plants in pots, or digging into your vegetable patch.
For more advice about composting, visit Recycle Now.
You can also visit Love Food Hate Waste for more tips on how to reduce food waste and save money.
Love Food Hate Waste
Did you know the following UK food facts?
- 13.5 billion '5-a-day' portions are thrown away each year
- 3.1 million slices of cheese are thrown away each day
- In 2015 alone, £15 billion of edible food was thrown away from our homes
- Every day 20 million whole slices of bread are thrown away, mostly because they are not used in time
Your food isn't rubbish
The simple steps below can help you save money and create less food and packaging waste:
- Keep your fridge temperature between 0°C and 5°C
- Pre-plan meals and make a shopping list to prevent you buying too much
- Freeze food you think you might not be able to eat in time - fruit (including berries and bananas), bread and cheese can all be frozen
- Get creative and make tasty meals from leftovers
All information is from Love Food Hate Waste, where you can find more tips on how to reduce food waste and save money.
You can also share your recipes, photos and events by adding #lfhw_enfield to your social media posts on Instagram and Facebook.