Recycle your Christmas cards for charity

National charity the Woodland Trust - who help maintain trees and forests in Shropshire and beyond are again promoting their Christmas card recycling scheme. 



The scheme is made possible thanks to the support of High Street retailers Marks & Spencer who put out special card collection bins in M&S stores from January 2 to January 31 2014.  Money generated through the card recycling scheme will fund the planting of new trees throughout the UK including in parts of Shropshire. 

If everyone in the UK recycles just one Christmas card at M&S this January, the Woodland Trust will be able to plant more than 60,000 trees across the UK. The UK is 10,000 trees richer thanks to the 10 million Christmas cards recycled last year. Lets see if we can help get another 10,000 planted again this coming year. 

Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business at M&S said, "This is a fantastic campaign which provides a really easy way for everyone to get involved in planting new woodland and preserving our important natural habitats by doing something as simple as dropping your old Christmas cards off at a M&S store."

Local MP Philip Dunne has been backing the scheme and taking his cards back to his local store in Shropshire.  

For more information on this scheme visit http://plana.marksandspencer.com/about/partnerships/woodland-trust

DON’T HAVE A ‘RUBBISH’ CHRISTMAS, GET COMPOSTING!

DON’T HAVE A ‘RUBBISH’ CHRISTMAS, GET COMPOSTING!

Christmas is almost upon us and as always it’s a great excuse to over indulge ourselves with great food, the joys of present giving and partying into the night!

However, the morning after can leave you with more than a headache when you look around you at the debris and waste that the festivities have created. Rather than overfill the dustbin and pile it up for the post Christmas collection, why not take the environmentally friendly option and compost it. On average over 30% of domestic waste is compostable and this percentage rises over the Christmas period.

Home composting reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill, so to encourage households to give it a go the councils of Shropshire are offering cut-price compost bins from only £16.98 (RRP £39) plus £5.49 delivery.  For more details call 0844 571 4444 or look online at www.shropshire.getcomposting.com   

CHRISTMAS  COMPOSTING TIPS

If you already compost your organic waste here are some great tips to help you keep a good thing going over the Christmas period. You’ll be surprised how many Christmas items can be composted.

*        Make your compost mixture more a-peel-ing! At Christmas we always eat much more and produce more food waste than at any other time of the year. Your compost bin will really appreciate the peelings from your tasty winter vegetables and festive fruits such as Satsuma’s and Clementine’s

*        Warm up your worms! Wood ash from open fires can be put into your compost bin; Let it cool right down first though, you don’t want to cook the worms and other little critters working hard to produce compost for your spring veg.

*        Give your mix a Christmas present! Plain wrapping paper (non metallic/glossy/plastic/waxy) and gift tags can be scrunched up and added to the mix, but if you do, make sure you add it gradually and mix with your fruit and veg peelings to get the right balance. Cardboard packaging from Christmas toys and gifts will add fibre and structure to your bin, as well as paper napkins, Christmas crackers, inners and party hats! (But again, be careful not to include anything metallic/glittery or made from plastic film).

*        Wish your Compost bin a Happy New Year! The remnants of your New Years Eve party will also be a welcome addition to your compost bin. Nut shells, wooden cocktail sticks, paper plates and some party food packaging. Natural corks can also be added but will take longer to break down.

*        Twelfth Night! When the festivities have drawn to a close for another year, if there is any room left in your compost bin you can add those natural home made decorations, the holly and the ivy, mistletoe, paper chains and other compostable decorations.

For more information visit www.getcomposting.com 

Dont be a Turkey - recycle your cooking oil this Christmas

This Christmas we are all going to produce alot more cooking oil and fat than usual.  Whether its the drippings off your beef joint, turkey fat or the olive oil from all those roast potatoes its really important to use every last drop.  The simplest way to keep your drains free of blockages and stop filling up your rubbish bin is to take your used cooking oil to your local household recycling centre this Christmas.

Shropshire Council and its recycling contractor Veolia have partnered with Living Fuels to transform the oil into much needed renewable energy.  The five household recycling centres in Shropshire have been fitted with tanks to collect cooking oil, which is then taken to a recycling facility where it is transformed into an environmentally friendly liquid biofuel which is fed into generators to create both heat and power.

You can recycle over 30 different types of material at your local household recycling centre and now cooking oil is just one more thing that you can recycle.  Its really easy to recycle your used cooking oil this Christmas, once it's cool just pour it into a sealed container and bring it to your local Household Recycling Centre.  This is the greenest way to deal with your waste cooking oil, its reducing your carbon footprint and helping keep the lights on too!

To find your nearest recycling site visit http://new.shropshire.gov.uk/recycling-and-rubbish

Compostable caddy liners to help Shropshire recycle more food waste

Shropshire Council is reminding residents in north and south Shropshire that special compostable liners are available to help them recycle their food waste.   

The liners are made from corn starch and are officially tested to be compostable so you can use them to bag up your kitchen waste and then add it to your green garden waste collection bin. The idea is to help residents to recycle more because using kitchen caddies and liners makes it clean and easy to collect up food waste in the kitchen.  

   

All the food waste and garden waste that they collect mixed together in these areas is taken to a specialist composting facility to be made into bags of compost - the type you buy from the garden center.  The liners can be purchased from the following council reception points -

• Ellesmere Library 
• Cheshire Street, Market Drayton
• Edinburgh House, Wem
• Whitchurch Heritage Centre
• Corve Street, Ludlow
• Church Stretton Library
• Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre, Craven Arms
• Cleobury Country Centre, Cleobury Mortimer
• Enterprise House, Bishop’s Castle.

Alternatively if you prefer to have them delivered liners can also be purchased over the phone, on 0844 472 1871, or online using the new www.shropshire.caddyliners.com web-based service.