For many years, householders in the UK have had no problem with throwing food waste in the dustbin as it was assumed that it is all bridgeable and would simply rot away at landfill. However recent research by scientists has suggested that as food waste breaks down it releases methane gas into the air which is very bad for the environment.

This recent research has led to many companies and organizations’ looking for ways to cut down on people’s food waste and ensure it is disposed of correctly.

One way of cutting down on your own food waste is by making sure that leftovers are reused so either eat them on the same day or freeze them for consumption at a later date. Love Food Hate Waste is a great site to visit to find some great recipes that can be made out of leftover food.

Another option would be to take your leftovers down to your local soup kitchen and donate them to help feed the homeless.

It’s estimated that every family in Britain throws away around £420 of food per year, this works out at a staggering £12 billion worth of food being thrown in the bin.

A recent survey carried out in the USA by ABI Research has found that only 5% of people that recycled their old mobile phones would do so without any form of incentive.

The study of 1000 US consumers found that 70% of those polled donated their old mobiles to charity and got a tax deduction, of the people that had never recycled a phone 98% of them said they wouldn’t consider it without some form of compensation.

The results of the study show that many people are prepared to do their bit for the environment but are not prepared to recycle their old handsets without a financial reward.

A recent survey in the UK also found that mobile recycling related searches have risen a massive 189% in the last 12 months, mainly due to the increase of online recycling sites offering a cash reward for old phones.

It looks like in any country; merely appealing to people’s environmental consciences is not enough to stop old mobile phones from ending up on rubbish tips.

Recycle your old mobile phone for cash

Christmas is the time to eat, drink and be merry but what happens to all the extra waste that is created over the festive season? It’s estimated that with all the presents that are given and received and the extra food and drink people consume an additional 15% of waste is created around Christmas time.

Whilst having a good time this Christmas, spare a thought for the environment by either recycling, reusing or reducing unwanted waste and goods, to help we’ve come up with some ‘green’ ideas:

Christmas Wrapping Paper

Wrapping paper can be hard to put in recycle bins as it is made up of sticky tape, plastic and foil which cannot be recycled. Why not get the kids to create their own wrapping paper out of newspaper or magazines to save a little paper. Alternately you could re-use last years wrapping paper or buy recycled paper to help the environment.

Christmas Cards

At the start of this year over 59 million Christmas cards were recycled, diverting over 1000 tonnes of rubbish from ending up at landfill.

Your old Christmas cards can be dropped off at WH Smith, M&S or TK Maxx stores in January where they will be sent for recycling via the Woodland Trust who will plant thousands more trees. If you can’t get to any of those stores make sure your old cards go in your own paper recycling bin.

Christmas Trees

Don’t dump your Christmas tree in the near year simply take it too your local household waste recycling centre and it will be composted along with other garden waste.

Food Waste

It’s estimated that the average family throws away over £420 of food every year; at landfill rotting food produces greenhouse gases that damage the environment.

Everyone eats more at Christmas time so remember to freeze left over party food or reuse what you can to help lessen waste.

Electrical Items

Many people will get a new mobile phone, iPod, digital camera, games console or other electrical item under the tree this year. Many electrical items can be taken down to your local household recycling centre to be disposed of correctly. If you want to earn some extra money for your old goods whilst helping the environment then you can find out more about recycling mobile phones, selling old iPods, or games consoles here.

Games, CDs and DVDs

Many people will find the latest console game, CD or DVD in their Christmas stocking but don’t throw the old one in the bin. Music Magpie will turn old CDs, DVDs and games into cash and have already paid out millions of pounds to their customers.

Jewellery

Many girlfriends and wives may be lucky and get some gorgeous new jewellery off their loved ones this Christmas. Rather than taking your old bracelet, ring or other item down to the local pawn shop why not check out one of the online money for gold sites to get some extra cash in time for the January sales.

According to a recent poll carried out by mobile phone recycling company, Envirofone British people are find many original ways to reduce their environmental impact. Some of the most interesting include showering together in order to save water or using newspaper instead of wrapping paper for birthdays and Christmas.

According to the survey, 40% of 18 to 30 years old said they would happily share a shower to help save water and found this to be a very enjoyable way of being ‘green.’

Other alternative ways of people living a greener lifestyle were uncovered in the study including: turning underwear inside out to wear it for another day, using socks instead of washing hankies or using tissue, using old knickers as dusters, recycling old mobile phones, using newspaper instead of wrapping paper, sharing bath water for the whole family and peeing in the shower.

Envirofone is one of the UK’s biggest and most popular mobile recycling companies; they have paid out over £20 million to their customers and donated over £500,000 to charities.

Recycle your old mobile at Envirofone here

Batteries that are thrown in the bin amount to a large amount of the waste that ends up at Britain’s landfills. Once at landfill batteries leak dangerous chemicals into the soil which will cause damage to the environment. To try and avoid these problems strict guidelines and regulations have been set for companies that produce and manufacture batteries in the UK.

The new Waste Batteries and Accumulators regulations state that any company that either imports or manufacturers at least 1 tonne of batteries in the UK will be responsible for sorting out the waste and recycling and cleaning up the mess. The amount they will have to recycle will depend on how much of the market they share. Each company that produces over a tonne of batteries will have to register with Environmental Agencies in the UK.

Companies that manufacture less than 1 tonne of batteries will not be held accountable by the new regulations although they must still register with the National Producer Responsibility Database.

A new report claims that more than £650 million is being lost by throwing away rubbish instead of recycling it.

Senior waste campaigner at Friends of the Earth, Dr Michael Warhurst recognises that recycling rates across the UK have improved but urged for more action. “Our low recycling rate means that we have to import more expensive resources like aluminium – this is economic madness when they could be recycled here and sold for a profit instead”.

“It’s time we recognised the real value of the materials we throw away every day. We only have one Earth and its resources are finite – making better use of them would save money and help tackle climate change.”

Friends of the Earth explained that approximately 24 million tonnes of recyclable goods are being incinerated or sent to landfill across European countries. The suggest more focus on recycling will significantly reduce carbon emissions and imports.

All this comes at a time when the economy is at a low point, a reset button has been pressed if you will. The old economy collapsed and now we can build and grow green, eco friendly ideas from the ground up.

We can eliminate the concept of waste through design, and that’s what is happening in many new green products now. The next economic boom will be full of efficient, recyclable and low wastage products along with new companies that will pay cash for recycling items like mobile phones and other gadgets.

In a recent study carried out by Suez Environment it has been found that 52% of rubbish that is dumped in London is ending up at landfill. This makes London the biggest dumper of rubbish out of all capital cities in Europe.

According to the report the average Londoner is dumping a massive 520kg of waste every year. Only 22% of waste in London is actually being recycled correctly.

Under new laws due to be introduced next year, local councils will be fined if they are found to be dumping to much waste at landfill. These fines will be £48 per tonne of landfill.

The greener capital cities in the report included Copenhagen who is throwing away 20% less rubbish than London which amounts to 420kg per person per year.

If more waste was sent to recycling plants rather than landfill the figures suggest that up to 40,000 extra jobs in London could be created.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is calling for a scrappage scheme to be introduced similar to the current cash for old cars scheme.

The BRC said that by introducing the new scheme a message would be sent out to households that by switching to low emission generating products, fuel bills could be cut. As with the current car scrappage scheme consumers would receive a discount on a new appliance that is much more energy efficient by trading in their old appliances.

A modern fridge uses just half the energy of an older model from the 1990’s, over its entire lifetime it would easily pay for itself in saved fuel bills. Consumers are put off upgrading to a newer model because of the up front costs, a fridge scrappage scheme would help solve this problem.

The BRC also asked for VAT to be removed from energy efficient appliances, this would cost the government just under £510 Million in lost VAT receipts but would lead to CO2 emissions being cut by a massive 1.3 million tonnes every year.

The car scrappage scheme which gives car buyers a £2000 discount on a new model has proved extremely successful with orders hitting just under 155,000 since it was introduced.

A Recycling body has recently revealed that Ireland has reached its EU recycling target 3 years ahead of target. Ireland has recycled enough waste last year to take just under 175,000 cars off the road, according to Repak.

The recycling body revealed that 713,000 tonnes of waste were recycled by Irish homes and business, a 9.5% increase on last year. They also found that 2/3rds of Irish households were now recycling their waste in their green bins.

Help the environment and recycle your old mobiles today.

There are many environmentally friendly things that we all can do in our own homes to make it a greener place to live.

If you are a home owner you can do much more than people who are renting, as people that own their own homes have the power to make structural changes to make the home more energy efficient.

Even if you don’t own your own home there are still a few basic tips that we all can do including:

• Changing the light bulbs – Energy saving light bulbs last much longer than standard light bulbs plus they use less energy so will decrease your electricity bills.
• Switch off electrical items and lights when they are not in use.
• Conserve Water – Switch off the tap when not needed and only run the dishwasher with a full load.
• Plant trees around the house – Planting trees will help the environment as they absorb the carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.
• Reuse packaging that goods come in, including plastic bags.
• Recycle old mobile phones, iPods, CDs and other unwanted items for cash.

Making your house a greener place to live can be very easy with a few little changes. Not only can you make or save some money along the way but you will also be making our world a better place to live.

Recycle mobile phones for cash.

Recycle CDs, DVDs or games for cash.

Recycle iPods for cash payments.