Smart shopping

Products that are either unpackaged, contain the minimum amount of packaging or contain packaging that can be reused are often money-saving in the long-term.

Can you do any or all of the following things to help you cut back on the waste you create?

Reuse your carrier bags, or better still, use cotton or alternative hard-wearing bags for your shopping.

On average, each household in the UK gets through around 400 plastic carrier bags each year. Most of them go to landfill, but many others end up waving to us from the branches of trees or slowly drowning in ponds.

Fruit and vegetables in particular, are often unnecessarily packaged.

Try and buy fruit and vegetables loose. Locally produced fruit and vegetables often have less packaging and are much kinder to the environment in terms of reducing food miles.

Food transport is responsible for the UK adding nearly 19 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year.

Avoid single-use juice cartons, bottled water, cans and pouches (buy their larger equivalents). If your making a packed lunch, you can transfer the contents into reusable Tupperware containers and bottles.

Buy energy saving light bulbs. One energy saving bulb can out live 15 standard light bulbs.

Buy rechargeable batteries.

Buy detergents in refillable containers such as Ecover.

Read newspapers online or in a library.

If everyone made a conscious effort to buy products with less packaging, there would be a lot less waste going to landfill.

Learn more at the Recycle Now website.