Canny recycling tips from our waste team

OIC’s waste team set up at the Dounby show in August to share recycling tips with the public and answer questions they have about recycling.

The team focussed in on food waste – which accounts for around 38% by weight in 2016 of household waste in Scotland (32% in Orkney by weight from a 2017 analysis - so almost a third of a bin!).

Stall visitors could take a closer look at food waste composters, pick up some tips for saving food (and money!), or take some recipe books away for ideas on using leftovers.

Some food waste tips from the team are:

Plan meals ahead – focus first on perishables that need using up.

Check cupboards and fridges before going shopping.

Make a shopping list - and stick to it!

Don’t shop hungry – you’ll end up buying more than you need.

Food waste is heavy to transport - composting food waste at home, if you can, benefits the Council, your garden and the environment. There’s lots of options our friendly waste team can talk you though, or visit https://www.orkney.gov.uk/Service-Directory/G/Organics-Reycling-Composting.htm to find out more including discounts for Orkney residents on ‘Green Johanna’ hot composters.

Folk could also enter a ‘count the can’ competition, examining a bale of tins and cans bound for reprocessing to try guess the number for a chance at a £20 Kirkwall BID voucher.

Anna Gibb from the Council’s Environmental Services team said: “The bale stimulated a lot of discussion – a common question was ‘should I be crushing my tins and cans?’. The answer is you can squish them a little bit if you want for space reasons, but you shouldn’t completely flatten them. It actually helps the baling process if cans and tins are unsquashed and can therefore fold into and ‘grip’ each other as they’re crushed for baling – it helps the bales hold together better during transport.

“There are great reasons to recycle your tins, cans and foil. Firstly, metals are valuable – they fetch a really healthy return in the market, and so by recycling them you’re helping maximise the funds the Council has to support our community. Secondly, metals are a limited resource, and recycling them reduces the demand for newly mined material and the environmental issues that causes – aluminium is indefinitely recyclable and can be back on the shelf as a new product within weeks.”

More about recycling metals can be found on our website https://www.orkney.gov.uk/Service-Directory/R/your-metals-matter.htm

And for more on reducing food waste, visit the ‘love food hate waste’ website https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/