No matter where you and your family stand on the great Brussels sprouts debate, it’s safe to say that a good Christmas dinner tends to leave a pile of leftover food, scraps and peelings. In fact, UK households waste more food over Christmas and new year than at any other time of the year.
But there are plenty of easy ways you can enjoy and indulge over Christmas without it having a detrimental impact on the environment.
You can use your green food waste bin to recycle any leftover food to avoid it going into landfill with regular household rubbish. Food waste that ends up in landfill breaks down and produces methane, a gas that contributes to global warming. However, recycled food scraps can be sent to a special processing plant where it is turned into electricity that is fed back into the national grid and used to power homes.
Recycling food waste is easy; all you need is a container in the kitchen to collect your scraps and your green food waste bin outside to throw it all in for your weekly collection.
Food such as vegetable peelings, cheese, bread, rice, pasta, fruits, vegetables, tea bags and coffee granules can all be recycled.
Councillor Bassam Mahfouz: “Nationally, we generate around roughly 30% more waste over Christmas – but the good news is that most of it can be recycled. You can make a real difference by ensuring that the extra food waste that piles up over the festive period is recycled properly, and this can be done by collecting your peelings and scraps in the kitchen and throwing them all in your green food waste bin outside, for your weekly collection.”
“In Ealing we’ve got a brilliant record on recycling – now the second best in London. If everyone across the borough does their bit this Christmas with food waste and recycling their extra Christmas packaging – we could make this a truly Green Christmas.”
Read about some handy tips on staying green this Christmas.
