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Looking ahead to a greener new year

Our Green Christmas series has come to its final episode! In addition having learned about and put into practice ways to reduce carbon emissions during Christmas, we hope that everyone will take a step further in the new year and “reduce waste at the source”. This is because no matter how perfect of a recycling programme we have, there’s a limit to how much can be improved. Take a look at some of the more popular misconceptions below and see if you recognise any you can change!

Misconception Fact Ways to improve
Paper coffee cups can be recycled
  • To make them waterproof, paper coffee cups are fused with polyethylene (PE), which makes it difficult to recycle them
  • In addition to the cup, one takeaway coffee also has a sleeve, lid and stirrer – which is just more waste!
  • Bring your own takeaway cup. Many coffee shops have incentives for those that do
  • When eating in, use a porcelain cup and metal silverware
Paper bags are less polluting than plastic bags
  • The process of manufacturing paper bags creates 50 times more waste water than plastic bags
  • The process of manufacturing plastic bags uses four times fewer resources and nine times fewer resources during recycling than paper bags
  • CO2 emissions: plastic grocery bag 10g vs. paper bag for clothes 80g
  • Bring your own bag
  • Re-use your bag many times
  • Properly separate waste to make it more cost efficient to recycle it
Non-woven bags are environmentally friendly
  • The raw materials used in making non-woven bags are plastic, and equivalent to manufacturing more than 10 plastic carrier bags
  • Non-plastic accessories that adorn these bags make the cost of recycling them too high
  • It must be used more than 30 times before it can be considered environmentally friendly

Therefore, getting in the habit of using only what you need; re-using what you have; and recycling what you no longer need are very important! Let’s listen to two professionals who will wrap up our Green Christmas series with their thoughts on environmental protection.

 

More tips on Recycling
Other Environmental Protection-related Tips