A NEW campaign to raise awareness of the importance of food recycling launches today led by Derry city and Strabane District Council.
The clear message is that Recycling Starts at Home and this latest campaign aims to drive home that just a few simple steps will ensure that local families can maximise the opportunities to recycle.
People are being encouraged to dispose of all uneaten food in their brown food caddy bins so it can be turned into compost and put to good use in local parks, cemeteries and even roundabouts.
Stressing the importance of the campaign, Council’s Waste Services Manager Nicola McCool said: “More and more people in Derry and Strabane are using their food caddies to recycle food but we can all do more.
“With just a little extra effort we can all improve our recycling habits, helping to reduce our waste costs which ensures that more money is available to channel into other services.
“Council is hoping to motivate families to all play a role in improving recycling at home by just making small changes that will make a huge difference.
“Every bit of food waste we recycle is turned into compost which is used in all Council green areas. This reduces the release of destructive greenhouse gases into the atmosphere making our skies cleaner and it’s also half the price of sending food to landfill.
“By encouraging everyone in the family to get involved in recycling we can create a cleaner, greener more sustainable place to live.”
Last year over 6000 tonnes of food and garden waste were recycled, which is a 16% increase from the previous year.
Making an effort to recycle items like uneaten bread, egg shells, fish or meat bones and peelings from fruit and vegetables can really help our environment.
Simple steps like keeping the food caddy in the kitchen, convenient for scraping uneaten food from plates and dishes can make a big difference.
People are also reminded that they can reduce the amount of waste that they are producing by planning meals ahead and buying fewer goods in bulk.
Freezing and storing food also reduces waste as food that may be dumped can be eaten at a later time.
You can view the latest advertising campaign at <https://youtu.be/kzRTBwXwGW8” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>a href=”https://youtu.be/kzRTBwXwGW8″ rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>https://youtu.be/kzRTBwXwGW8
To find out more about recycling guidelines and some useful tips and advice go to www.derrystrabane.com/recycling
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