Your freezer’s a hero
You can freeze food you haven’t had time to eat right up to its ‘use by’ date. It acts like a pause button, giving us more time to eat the food we buy. Once frozen it won’t spoil and puts the ‘use by’ date on hold.
It’s safe to freeze almost any food. If it’s got a ‘use by’ date freeze before the date, defrost and use it within 24 hours. For guidance on making the most of your freezer please see our Love Food Hate Waste webpage.
Queen’s Jubilee
This year Love Food Hate Waste is partnering with the Big Jubilee Lunch to help reduce the amount of food thrown away as a result of jubilee weekend events.
The Big Lunch will be held on Sunday 3rd June 2012 and is a simple idea from the Eden Project. The aim is to encourage as many people in the UK as possible to have lunch with their neighbours once a year, for a few hours of community, friendship and fun. This can be anything from a few neighbours getting together in the garden or on the street, to a full blown party with food, music and decoration that quite literally stops the traffic.
If you want to get involved it’s not too early to start planning! Simply request your free Big Lunch Pack online or call 0845 850 8181 to speak to one of the team. The pack contains a step-by-step guide to help you get your event off the ground, plus invitations, posters, 'crowd cooking' recipe ideas, stickers and much more.
Residents are encouraged to recycle e-waste
North Lincolnshire Council is encouraging residents to think carefully about what they do with their old electronic and electrical equipment this Christmas as they swap these items for newer models.
From cameras to kettles and hairdryers to games consoles, many people will be delighted to receive new electrical goods this Christmas. However, the arrival of new goods will often mean the replacement of old, so when it comes to disposing of their e-waste residents are encouraged to put small electrical items in a standard sized carrier bag and place it next to their blue and green boxes, rather than throwing them in the bin. Alternatively, larger electrical items can be taken to their local Household Recycling Centre.
All batteries need to be removed, placed into any clear plastic bag and put on top of the cans and glass in the green recycling box. All portable batteries (including rechargeable batteries) can be recycled - including AA, AAA, size C and D and button batteries.
This drive ties in with a national initiative to raise awareness of the importance of recycling old electrical and electronic equipment through designated recycling facilities, which will be launched through a four week TV Ad campaign on Boxing Day.
For more information on e-waste, visit www.recyclenow.com or the small electrical items section of our website.
Portion planner
A portion planner removes the guesswork out of cooking and reduces food waste. Useful suggestions of how much to cook, depending on who is coming for dinner can be found on Love Food Hate Wastes Perfect Portion Planner.
On some occasions you may be serving many types of vegetables in one meal meaning the individual portion sizes may be smaller.
WRAP reports significant progress on waste reduction
Food waste figures show a fall in household food and drink waste since 2006/07 from 8.3 million tonnes to 7.2 million tonnes per year – a decrease of 13 per cent. Reducing food and drink waste by 1.1 million tonnes is great news but there is still a big job to be done.
To find out how you can reduce your own food and drink waste and save money, please see our Love Food Hate Waste pages.
WRAP have produced a new report on household food waste arising, which can be found on their website.
Home composting – top tips
Home composting is easy to do all year round; here are some great tips to ensure we keep a good thing going by not overlooking our compost bin or heap during these cooler, darker months:
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Help next years’ plants grow by making use of this year’s tired vegetation. Adding spent bedding plants to your compost mix will help to capture all the nutrients and will give your new plants a great start when you wake the garden back up in the spring.
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Bring the inside, outside! A third of our household waste can be composted at home. Anything from toilet roll tubes and egg boxes to coffee grounds and tea leaves are all welcome additions to your compost bin.
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Make your compost mixture more a-peel-ing. Don’t forget to regularly add your kitchen waste to your compost. It will really appreciate the peelings from your tasty winter vegetables and fruits such as satsumas and clementines.
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Bicycle recycling
The council would like to encourage residents to take advantage of the Carlton Education Centre’s bicycle reuse scheme. This scheme maximises reuse, reduces the amount of waste going to landfill and helps a local organisation.
Carlton Education Centre is based in Barton upon Humber and is a not for profit organisation, which has been operating since February 2004. Bicycles in any condition can be donated to the organisation, as they will repair them to full working order. Even parts of old bicycles are welcomed, as these can be used.
If you can help, Carlton Education Centre is located at:
31 Fleetgate
Barton-Upon-Humber
North Lincolnshire
DN18 5QA
Telephone: 01652 637489
Please contact them before dropping off your bicycle.
A trial is being run at the Barton upon Humber and Scunthorpe Household Recycling Centres. The two sites will separate the bicycles and store them to one side for Carlton Education Centre to pick up.
Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust receives donation
People in North Lincolnshire have helped raise £3,000 for Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust through their commitment to recycling.
The donation is courtesy of Palm Recycling, the company that collects the blue and green kerbside boxes and textile bags. Palm Recycling has pledged that for every tonne of cans, glass, paper and textiles recycled through the scheme it will donate £1 to charities.
The Mayor of North Lincolnshire, Cllr Keith Vickers and Ben Saunders, UK Operations Manager at Palm Recycling Ltd presented a cheque at Far Ings Nature Reserve on Thursday 17 November.
Lionel Grooby, North Lincolnshire Regional Warden at Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, accepted the cheque on behalf of the charity.
The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is a voluntary charitable organisation that cares for Lincolnshire’s wildlife and countryside. It was founded in 1948 and is affiliated to the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.
The £3,000 donation has enabled the charity to build a new footpath linking the Ness End Farm car park to the ramp at the bottom of the double decker Ness Pit Bird Hide. A plaque will also be put up on the presentation day.
It will have a level, dry surface that will be suitable for all visitors and improve access.
Ness Hide is extremely popular with birdwatchers and wildlife photographers.
A variety of interesting birds are frequently seen in the Hide area from Bittern and Marsh Harrier to Kingfisher. On some occasions foxes and otters can be seen.
Thank you to the recycling efforts of North Lincolnshire residents for making this happen.
East Africa Appeal Fund receives donation
Thanks to the recycling efforts of North Lincolnshire residents, The East Africa Appeal received a generous boost.
More than 12 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and the newly-formed Republic of South Sudan have been left in need of food, water and emergency healthcare because of one of the worst droughts in 60 years. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Somalia due to the drought and conflict, with parts of the country now afflicted by famine.
The donation of £3,000 is courtesy of Palm Recycling, the company who collect the blue and green kerbside boxes and textile bags. Palm Recycling have pledged that for every tonne of cans, glass, paper and textiles recycled through the kerbside scheme they would donate £1 to charities.
None of this money could have been raised without the dedicated participation of local residents in the kerbside collection scheme. So, the council would like to say thank you to residents for making donations like this possible.
When You Wish Upon A Star receives donation
When You Wish Upon A Star is a local charity, which makes dreams come true for children with terminal and incurable illnesses. Their aim is to simply make magical memories for a Wish child and their family to remember for a lifetime. The list of Wishes granted is very varied and includes holidays of a lifetime to Disneyland and Lapland, swimming with dolphins, trips to Drayton Manor and VIP days with celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Westlife and Cheryl Cole. The charity relies mostly on the support of volunteers so donations go directly to helping children in North Lincolnshire.
The donation is courtesy of Palm Recycling, the company that collects the blue and green kerbside boxes and textile bags. Palm Recycling has pledged that for every tonne of cans, glass, paper and textiles recycled through the scheme it will donate £1 to charities. The Mayor of North Lincolnshire, Cllr Keith Vickers and Ben Saunders, from Palm Recycling presented a cheque to the charity for £3,000 on 11 August.
This money would not have been raised without the commitment of North Lincolnshire residents to recycling, so thank you to everyone for making this possible.
Important changes to your brown bin collections
From the 30 May 2011 we will no longer be able to accept any food waste in the brown recycling bin.
This means that residents will need to stop putting kitchen waste into their brown bin and includes all fruit and vegetables, peelings, fruit cores, banana skins, tea bags, coffee grounds and any other items from your kitchen.
Previously, the council has encouraged residents to dispose of their raw fruit and vegetable waste in the brown bin for composting. However, as a result of recent changes in advice received on the treatment of food waste from domestic kitchens, we are no longer able to accept these items for composting. For more information on why we can no longer collect raw fruit and vegetable waste in the brown bin please see our brown bin page.
In order to help prevent residents having to put their fruit and vegetable peelings into their general waste bin, the council has teamed up with Straight plc to offer home composters at affordable prices. Please see the leaflet below or visit our home composting page for more information.
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If you are unable to compost at home you will now need to put all of your fruit and vegetable waste, tea bags and coffee grounds into your general waste bin.
Obviously it would be better if food wasn't wasted in the first place, which is why the council is working to support the national Love Food Hate Waste campaign. For more information on how you can reduce your food waste visit the Love Food Hate Waste website.
New kerbside collection of small electrical items
Following the success of a pilot scheme collecting small electrical items from 3,300 households in the Scunthorpe area, the council's recycling contractor Palm Recycling Ltd have agreed to roll out the kerbside collection of small electrical items across the whole of North Lincolnshire.
This means that from Monday 16 May 2011 residents are now able to recycle their small electrical items including hair dryers, kettles, toasters and games consoles alongside their blue and green kerbside boxes.
For more information on this new scheme and how to take part, please visit our small electricals page or see the leaflet below.
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Donate your bric-a-brac for reuse at your local household recycling centre
All eight household recycling centres (HRCs) across North Lincolnshire now accept bric-a-brac for reuse.
If your item is no longer wanted but is still in good working order it could be suitable for reuse. Antique and contemporary furniture, gardening equipment, books, china, ornaments, toys...the list is endless.
So save your bric-a-brac from the bin and take it down to the household recycling centre. Simply present your items to a site attendant, who will determine whether it is suitable for the reuse scheme.
If the item is past its best and no longer appropriate for reuse it could still be saved from the landfill as it may be suitable for recycling using the many recycling facilities already available at the household recycling centres. Our site attendants will be able you advise you how to do this.
So don't condemn your bric-a-brac to the landfill, breath new life into your unwanted items by taking them along to one of North Lincolnshire's eight household recycling centres.
Please visit our household recycling centre page for more information about what you can recycle there.
The new business waste handbook
North Lincolnshire Council, in partnership with Leeds City Council, has created a new handbook to help North Lincolnshire businesses save money by reducing their waste.
Please visit our business waste handbook page for more information and to download the handbook.
Recycling rates rise
The council is pleased to announce that 51.4 per cent of household waste is now recycled - up from 49 per cent last year.
This means North Lincolnshire Council has the second highest recycling rate for a unitary council in England and the council would like to thank residents for all their recycling efforts, which have helped to achieve this.
Whilst this recycling increase is great news, there is still a lot more residents can do to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. The council would like to remind residents to think about reducing and reusing their waste before they recycle and encourage us to get the most out of the food we buy rather than throwing it away. A great way to do this is to try and buy products with less packaging, avoid disposable products like throw away razors and barbecues, reuse items like water bottles and carrier bags and follow a few simple hints and tips from the Love Food Hate Waste campaign to reduce the amount of food we throw away.
Box and bin changes
The council has recently introduced a wide range of improvements to encourage more people to recycle, including:
- free new blue and green boxes, brown and burgundy bins, and a 140 litre general waste bin for all new homes and for people moving home
- free first replacement of all 140 litre wheeled bins and boxes for those lost or stolen
- all residents can downsize their 240 litre bins to a 140 litre bin - free of charge
- one free larger 240 litre recycling bin (in burgundy or brown) for residents who choose to downsize their general waste bins
- to replace a 240 litre general waste bin residents will be charged £30.60.
- families of five or more permanent residents, who actively recycle, may qualify for larger 360 litre general waste bins
- a larger 360-litre bin for general waste is loaned to homes that contain one or more incontinence sufferers
Should you require any further information please visit the council's recycling pages or contact the customer helpline on 01724 297000.
Alternatively please email wastemanagement@northlincs.gov.uk and for more information and advice on recycling go to the national website recycle now.
The list is provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. You will need a suitable reader to view and print it. The viewer is available from the Adobe website (full instructions for downloading the viewer are provided on the website).
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