sustainable shefford

ENVIRONMENT Sustainable Shefford

Focus on: Food packaging

Contribution thanks to Michelle Turner & Claire Searle Sustainable Shefford

Facebook @SustainableShefford

Did you know that not all food packaging products which can be recycled are equal? Glass used for food products can be recycled infinitely – so milk bottles and jam jars can be crushed and made into new products forever. Aluminium can also be recycled infinitely so the same goes for those drink cans. And foil trays and wrapping. And tomato puree tubes. Metal cans and tins such as soup cans, biscuit tins and metal lids are often aluminium but can be steel – also infinitely recyclable. Paper can be recycled 5 to 7 times and after that used for lower grade items such as egg boxes. Plastic can only be recycled for food use once or twice and after that needs to be downcycled – made into other products which are then probably not recyclable. These often end in landfill where they will take hundreds of years to break down, if ever.

So how can we all help to avoid food packaging waste going to landfill?

• Make sure everything that you put into recycling is washed and clean, so it won’t contaminate the load.

• Avoid buying single use plastics such as bottles of water – use a refillable bottle and save money too! • Buy products with minimum packaging – e.g. wrapped blocks of butter instead of plastic containers, loose fruit and vegetables (take reusable bags available from some supermarkets or use paper bags). • Check where you can recycle plastic items that can’t go into home recycling collections, e.g. plastic carrier bags, bread bags, toilet roll wrappers and many more. Larger branches of supermarkets will often take these. Enter your postcode on the recyclenow.com website to find out what you can recycle at your local supermarket – you may well be surprised as to what they will take! • Buy local from small suppliers who will often use much less packaging. • Even better than making good choices on recyclable packaging is to have none. Take your own reusable containers – some supermarkets are happy for you to do this. Or use a refill or zero waste shop. Locally we’re lucky to have a great refill store – Bamboo Turtle in

Biggleswade and Letchworth. In refill stores you can take your own containers and refill rice, lentils, pasta, porridge oats and similar as well as washing-up liquid, shampoo etc. • Join Sustainable Shefford! We meet monthly and our Facebook page has lots of links to more ideas for reusing, recycling, and living more sustainably. Together we can take small steps to make a difference to our world. You will be very welcome (and you don’t have to live in

Shefford!).

Useful links: www.plasticfree.org.uk/community/shefford