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Recycled products have become the trendiest way to add the perfect furnishing to any home whilst helping the environment at the same time by reducing the 26.25 million tonnes of household rubbish created in the UK each year.

Campaigners for ‘Rethink Rubbish’, a nationwide initiative to encourage people to reduce their rubbish, have revealed that 60% of our dustbins’ contents can be recycled and have chosen a variety of attractive and eye-catching touches throughout the home, to showcase the wide range of stylish items which are made from recycled products.

In addition to recycling, the Rethink Rubbish team suggest we reduce (buy less highly packaged or disposable goods) and reuse (find an alternative home to the bin for things that are no longer wanted).

We can’t eliminate rubbish altogether but there are hundreds of ways in which we can cut down on what we throw away.

Tips To Make Rethinking Rubbish Easy

• How to Rethink Rubbish:
  • Just by recycling you can cut the amount of rubbish you throw away by a third. Most supermarkets have recycling banks for newspapers, magazines, food and drink cans, and glass jars and bottles, so remember to take your recycling with you when you do the weekly shop.
  • Garden and kitchen rubbish makes up the biggest single chunk of your dustbin. By composting your grass cuttings, hedge trimmings, and kitchen peelings you can reduce your rubbish by a quarter and produce some really good compost to use on your garden! Many councils sell special composting bins to residents at a discounted rate so call your Council for details.
  • Rethink Rubbish when shopping:
    • buy loose fruit and vegetables “unclothed” instead of those packaged in shrink wrap and polystyrene
    • re-use plastic shopping bags or better still use a ‘bag for life’. At present we get through 150 million carrier bags a week - each one will take 500 years to decay in a landfill site!
    • where possible buy refills rather than new products
    • look out for the increasing range of products made from recycled materials, including anything from bin-liners to kitchen roll to trendy home and garden accessories
  • And cut down on rubbish from the home:
    • Contact the Mail Preference Service (020 7291 3310) to stop junk mail
    • Take unwanted clothes to the nearest charity shop/jumble sale so that somebody else can make use of them
    • Have milk delivered in milk bottles which can then be reused
    • Disposable nappies account for four percent of the UK’s household rubbish so use terry’s instead
    • Store food in re-sealable containers and use them for packed lunches rather than using cling film and foil
    • Re-use paper for shopping lists and notes
    • Donate old magazines to doctors and dentists