Rubbish Resolutions

It seems that although 2009 is the year of money worries and high street hell, 2009 is also going to be the year of green.

Everywhere you look we are being encouraged snap out of the Christmas blues and recycle our festive rubbish that has been left over from 2008 or ‘swop’ presents to maximize their usefulness. We should do something about the un-eaten food that we eventually throw out, and make sure we recycle our Christmas trees. British households chucked out more than three million tonnes of waste this Christmas, including cards, trees and food waste, according to Recycle Now.

Now I reckon that I am pretty good with recycling cans, bottles, paper etc through the kerbside collection but I thought I would have a quick search online to see what else we can do this year.
Well, for food waste there is the option to start your own compost (See here for tips). Otherwise, when food is sent to landfill doesn't break down into compost but releases harmful greenhouse gases instead - this is because it's buried and doesn't get any air. Composting is definitely something that I am looking to do this year.

Most councils prefer not to take Christmas cards because of the glittery and shiny bits, but a scheme run jointly by the Woodland Trust and Recycle Now means that you can take your cards to WH Smith, Marks & Spencer, Tesco or TK Maxx stores - all you have to do is look out for the special recycling bins. I tend to reuse my cards by cutting them up into funky designs and turning them into Christmas tags for the next year.

A number of people I spoke to got a new mobile phone for Christmas. The best thing to do with the old one is to either give it to someone who wants it or give it to an organisation who will send it to a less economically developed country for reuse www.envirofone.com. Getting rid of your old phone safely helps helps reduce the amount of toxic chemicals (like mercury) and reusable elements (like gold, silver and nickel) being sent to landfill.

And what about other new presents like cameras or gadgets - it is really important to recycle the old ones rather than throw them in the bin. At www.recyclenow.com, you can find out which electricals you can recycle in your postcode, or which retailers near you will take back your old electrical appliances in store. Alternatively, there is Freecycle, an online forum where people give items away for free, in a bid to re-use and recycle unwanted goods.

None of this seems too taxing, maybe going greener would be a good additional New Year resolution for 2009.