What is waste?
Waste is simply material that someone no longer wants or needs. One person’s waste may be useful to another. In England and Wales approximately 400 million tonnes of waste is produced every year. To ensure household waste is suitable for use in making new products it needs sorting. Sorting enables us to produces a clean, usable `streams` of raw materials, e.g. paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, tin cans, compost and wood.
A useful principle in dealing with our waste is the waste hierarchy. This is part of the UK Government's Waste Strategy, and also the council's Integrated Waste Strategy. The waste hierarchy lists the ways to deal with waste, with the best method at the top, and the worst at the bottom so 'reduce' is better than 'reuse'.
Rubbish dumped in landfill sites is a waste of natural resources and energy and can be a source of pollution. The number of suitable new landfill sites is diminishing and the existing sites are filling up. To tackle these problems Leeds city council is working towards finding alternatives to landfill which you can read about on our waste strategy page. Currently over 63% of our waste ends up in landfill and this is not the most environmentally friendly way.
Whatever waste you put in your black bin will end up in landfill – please think about reducing, reusing and recycling your waste before you put it in your bin.
Virtual tour of the landfill in Leeds
How you can help
Reduce
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Home composting is a great way to reduce waste - and it creates a useful material that you normally pay to buy. Garden and food waste make up a third of the contents of most dustbins.
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Try to buy items that have less packaging, such as loose fruit or veg.
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Take your own bags to the shops - and not just supermarkets. Carry a spare carrier bag with you and you won't need to take one from a shop.
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Reuse
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Buy products packaged in re-usable, refillable or recyclable containers.
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Highly concentrated products, such as washing powder/liquid, use less packaging and often give greater value for money.
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Give away stuff to charity shops or friends and families.
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Sell unwanted items at a car boot sale or online.
Recycle
There are lots of ways you can recycle in Leeds. You can use your green bin or bag, use bring banks or Household waste sorting sites. It is also important to buy recycled products to increase the market for these items.
Recycling has been around for a long time. The Chinese were recycling as long as 2,000 years ago and so were the Romans. Many household items have `second life` uses, e.g. glass jars, newspapers and tin cans. Virtual tour of materials recycling facility (MRF)