My to favourite recyling mantras are:
Wash and Squash – clean your recycling and flatten it to fit more in.
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Don’t use so much, reuse it if you do, then recycle it after it comes to the end of its useful life.
I don’t buy a lot of stuff, and try to buy second hand where possible. I give stuff away to friends, on Freecycle or to charity shops.
At home we recycle garden waste, glass, paper, cardboard, metal and plastics that are numbered 1–5, but not 6 which is polystyrene ie Styrofoam. These are picked up from the house once a fortnight and general waste once a fortnight on alternate weeks – a big wheelie bin goes out once a week. We have a couple of plastic crates that we put the stuff into before taking it outside.
We also compost veg peelings and tea bags etc. These go into a crockpot in the kitchen with a compostable bag lining it, before I make the journey out the back garden to the large compost bins. About once a year my husband spreads the lovely new soil over the garden.
The council also compost all the garden waste and sells it back to us at a cheap price.
I’m not sure how much good this is doing long term as it feels like me recycling a newspaper is a drop in the ocean of huge industries belching out toxins, and chopping down forests but I do think that less going into landfill is got to be a good thing and I am trying to keep the Earth beautiful.