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Everything you buy has required energy – the sourcing of the raw materials, the manufacture and its transport. If you consume less, you help to conserve the earth’s natural resources.
- Buy items that last longer. Choose products which are good quality and so longer-lasting. This has both direct and indirect benefits - by showing manufacturers that you care about durability, they are more likely to make longer-lasting products in future.
- Avoid disposable items e.g. plastic cutlery and cups. Using washable nappies reduces the amount of disposables going to landfill. Find out more about using washable nappies by contacting the Real Nappy Campaign.
- Don’t buy overpackaged goods.
- visit the environmental charity Waste Watch at www.wasteonline.org.uk for information on where your waste ends up.
- Many councils are now running 'Zero Waste Weeks' - why not lobby your council for this to take place?
- Choose to shop in stores that provide refills.
- Take a packed lunch, rather than buying a sandwich wrapped in plastic.
- Use plastic containers rather than cling-film.
- Drink tap water rather than bottled water.
Bottled water costs 500 times more
than tap water, the equivalent of paying
£1,500 for a pint of beer or glass of wine.
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- Register for the Mailing Preference Service to reduce the amount of junk mail that you receive or Or write to FREEPOST 22, London W1E 7EZ.
- Visit your local library for a book, CD or DVD. Durham Clayport Library can be found at Millennium Place, opposite the Gala Theatre, or buy books second-hand (Oxfam on Elvet Bridge or Durham Market.
- Think of ways of re-using things that would otherwise end up in landfill. Plastic bottles can become bird feeders or containers for seedlings. Envelopes can be used again with a sticky label, use both sides of paper.
- Repair things rather than throwing them away.
- Visit the eSpares website for the biggest independent spare-parts site in the UK
- If you need to buy something, try buying it second-hand, there are several charity shops on North Road, Elvet Bridge, Pity Me and Langley Moor.
- Freecycle enables you to find things for free.
- Use the green box and bag scheme to recycle paper, cardboard, glass, tin and plastic.
- Visit municipal tip at Pity Me where you can recycle engine oil, batteries, green waste, clothes and more besides.
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