Welcome to the sixth edition of Too Good to Waste, your indispensable guide to reducing, reusing and recycling in Edinburgh, the Lothians and the Borders.
The average household in Scotland now produces 1.1 tonnes 1 (the equivalent weight of a small family car) of waste per year. Since the first edition of Too Good to Waste was published in 1996, Scotland has made significant progress; with recycling and composting rates now reaching 25% 2, which is great! However, the amount of waste we are producing is increasing - by up to 2% each year 3.
Changeworks exists to improve quality of life and to protect the environment. Our Waste Prevention and Recycling Services aim to prevent waste from going to landfill in order to safeguard natural resources and to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases that cause climate change.
We hope you will use this guide to play your part and decrease the amount of waste your household produces by following the three Rs - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. And we'd like to set you a challenge: let's see if we can get as good at reducing and reusing as we are at recycling.
Reduce means exactly that: reducing the amount of waste we produce in the first place. There are some simple steps you can take to help achieve this - avoiding over-packaged products, buying experiences rather than gifts and refusing unwanted plastic bags. Waste that is not created does not need to be disposed of, making 'reduce' the most effective way to deal with it.
Reuse refers to the multiple use of an item for its original or a new purpose. Many items can have a new lease of life, instead of just being thrown away. And again, there are some simple steps you can take - such as buying from or donating to charity shops/reuse projects and using exchange schemes such as Freecycle and auctions such as eBay. Who says second-hand stuff can't be fun?
Recycle means using waste materials to manufacture other products, such as the bottles and jars we take to the local recycling point, which are cleaned, crushed and made into new bottles and jars.
Too Good to Waste is packed with top tips, handy hints and invaluable information about reducing, reusing and recycling, as well as practical advice about home composting. The guide is printed in A to Z format so you can easily find what you're looking for, and there are lots of useful contacts in the section at the back.
A printed version of the guide is available on request, and our Waste Information Service can provide additional advice should you need it.
Waste Prevention Team1, 2, 3 Household Waste Prevention Action Plan (Scotland) - SEPA - February 2007