News
Give a little eggs-tra over Easter
11 April
Chocolate may not slim our waistlines but we can help slim our bins by recycling as much Easter egg packaging from cellophane and foil to cardboard, ribbons and plastic.
Every Easter more than £299m is spent on chocolate in the UK - equivalent to 139 million egg shells weighing 200 grammes. If all 139 million egg shells were encased in carton packaging they would use a staggering 9,391.8 sq miles of board.
Put egg-stra efforts into recycling your Easter goodies – here are some ideas for those who want a greener Easter:
We can start from basics too - buying Easter Eggs with minimal recyclable packaging and using a reusable bag to take home our purchases.
If you plan to recycle the packaging off your Easter goodies, detach the cardboard box from the foil and plastic packaging.
- You can recycle card at home, or if you live in Redbridge, all types of card are accepted at the recycling banks situated at the following locations:
• Tesco, High Road, Goodmayes
• Fullwell Cross Car Park, Fullwell Cross, Barkingside
• Tesco, Woodford Avenue, (Near Charlie Brown Roundabout)
• Chigwell Road RRC
- If you have a home composter you can tear the cardboard into pieces and pop it in there. Find out about composting and how to buy a compost bin here.
Tips to help make your Easter an environmental occasion:
• Compost the shells of your real Easter eggs when you finally eat them.
• When you are selecting packages of dye at the store to decorate your real egg, choose one which uses as little packaging as possible.
• Don't select a package which includes the containers for dyeing eggs. Try using yogurt containers.
• Even better, make your own Easter egg dye at home using food colouring and vinegar. Some food colouring packages have instructions for this on the back.
• Decorate hard-boiled eggs with crayons before dyeing them. The dye won't adhere to the wax, and it will leave pretty designs on the egg.
• Bend a spiral notebook wire into the shape of an Easter egg dipper and use it when dyeing the eggs.
• Try using the plastic packaging that Easter candy comes in (the ones shaped like bunnies) and use them as a mould for making your own chocolate.
For information on bank holiday collection dates for refuse and recycling click
here.