LOCAL AUTHORITY ISSUES SPOOKTACULAR TIPS FOR A ‘REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE’ HALLOWEEN

With Halloween soon upon us, have you stopped to think about the landfill waste you might be creating? 

Across the UK, 4.5 million tonnes of good food is wasted every year. That’s enough to fill 38 million wheelie bins! With this in mind, the Isle of Wight Council has put together some top tips to help residents reduce, reuse and recycle sustainably this year.

Reduce

• Buy local — locally sourced seasonal produce cuts down on food waste and food miles. You can buy exactly the amount of food that you want and avoid food waste. It’s also less likely to come with polysterene packaging that can’t be recycled. Buying fresh means any meat or food that isn’t cooked can be frozen safely that day for another time.
• Costumes — use what you’ve already got. If your kids have an outfit from last year and it still fits, wear it again! Have a simple swap with friends with youngsters of a similar age. Support a local charity and buy secondhand. At this time of year, the charity shops are bulging with Halloween costumes.
• Use by/best before date — don’t throw away food that has passed its ‘best before’ date. This refers to quality; after this date, food will still be safe to eat. www.lovefoodhatewaste.com has more information on ‘best before’, ‘use by’ and ‘display until’ dates.

Re-use 

• Planning to make a pumpkin lantern for Halloween? You can make a warming pumpkin soup with the flesh scooped out. You can even freeze the flesh and use it at a later date. Keep the seeds to dry and roast – they are delicious! Go to www.lovefoodhatewaste.com  for the recipe or more ideas.

Recycle  

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• Costumes are usually made from fossil fuel fabrics. If they end up in landfill, they can take hundreds of years to decompose. The council collects unwanted clothing and textiles on your recycling week. It’s easy to use — place your clothes in a typical shopping bag/clear or white bag. Leave it to the side of your green bin or gull sack on recycling day. Textiles are sent to be re-used or turned into new products such as mattresses.
• Don’t put food waste in your general waste bin – it could end up in landfill. Once here, it will ferment and release methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Any food you can’t use up later can be added to your home compost bin or recycled in your food waste caddy.

Recover 

• Not sure which bin to put those sweets, crisps and chocolate wrappers in? Currently, they are not recyclable as part of the household waste collection service. Place wrappers in your black bin or gull sack and not your green bin or gull sack, they will be used to generate electricity in an energy from waste plant. Even better, why not have some spooktacular family fun and make your own treats to hand out — cutting down on your rubbish at the same time.

After Halloween, remove any candles or other decorations from used pumpkin lanterns. The pumpkins can be cut up and put in caddies.

Pumpkin flesh which has been scooped out can be used to make pumpkin soup or frozen to be used at a later date. All food waste collected in food caddies is turned into green electricity or compost!

If you don’t have an indoor or outdoor food caddy for food waste, you can order both for free at www.iwight.gov.uk/waste or contact the waste and recycling team on 01983 823777.