Waste Minimisation

We are generating and throwing away more rubbish than ever. Existing landfill sites are rapidly filling up, and the manufacturing process of “throw-away” items such as plastic bottles and cardboard cartons uses energy and also creates mountains of rubbish. We need to “Rethink Rubbish”! Do we really need to buy all that packaging? Can we re-use many of the things we throw away and start seeing our rubbish as a resource?

Find out what happens to your recycling

The Trust has produced a series of videos for the Recycle for Wiltshire website. These follow the different household waste streams from collection to the reprocessors. You can see what happens to your waste (for example, glass bottles and jars, tins and garden waste) when you put it out for recycling, as well as how to use the recycling centres and your kerbside box. The films can be viewed at the Recycle for Wiltshire website.  

Love food hate waste

Every year in the UK we throw away £10 billion worth of food which could have been eaten. Love Food Hate Waste is a campaign from WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) and has lots tasty recipes and top tips to help us make the most of the food we buy.

How you can reduce your rubbish

Home composting
This means throwing into a compost bin rather than a rubbish bin all the things that are biodegradable and will rot down - fruit and vegetable peelings, dead cut flowers, crushed eggshells, used tea bags, paper and cardboard are all things that can be composted. Up to 50% of household rubbish can be composted!

Real nappies
The Trust’s Real Nappy Network promotes the use of washable nappies that can be used again and again. We can forget the horror stories about boiling nappies and messy, smelly nappy buckets. Re-usable nappies today offer parents real choice by being easy to use and clean, safe and cheap. They also come in a range of colours and patterns that is sure to please the most discerning of mothers and babies.

Recycling directories
A quarter of the 400 million tonnes of rubbish produced in the UK each year comes from households and industry, the average household in the UK produces a tonne of rubbish each year. Recycling Directories are handy A-Z guides on reducing, reusing and recycling rubbish in Wiltshire. Between 2004 and 2006 a directory was produced for each community area. A limited number of hard copies are available from the Trust's office in Devizes. 

SMART shopping
Every year the average UK adult spends £1,725 on wasted food and goods. By SMART shopping we can avoid this – we can cut down on the amount of waste we produce and save money.