Worried about waste?

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• Re-use carrier bags. Next time you're at a checkout have a look at the number of plastic bags, and imagine them multiplied by the number of checkouts in the shop, plus the ones kept out in the store room, and then number of shops in the high street, and the number of high streets in the country, and the number of shopping days per year - It's a lot of plastic!
• Start saving envelopes, keep them tidy with an elastic band and re-use them.
• Recycle. Most councils now run recycling schemes but even if your council hasn't yet caught on, make sure you separate plastic, glass, aluminium cans, etc, and take them to your local recycle centre.
• Rather than throw things away, adding to the growing landfill mountains, why not swap them? You can swap things online on www.uk.freecycle.org. If you have any unwanted books, take them to your local Healthy Planet Books For Free store where you can also pick up some new books to take home.
• Buy local, seasonal produce. Not only will you support your local economy but you will reduce air miles. Next time you're in the supermarket, have a look at how far your fruit and vegetables have travelled. Imagine their journey - the packaging, the different forms of transport, the fuel consumption, and think how much energy could be saved if everybody stuck to seasonal produce.
• Better still, consider starting a vegetable patch. It will reduce your food mile impact from thousands of miles to a few feet, avoid all that wasted packaging, plus it will be a fun hobby that saves you heaps of money.

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