Valentine’s Day is fast approaching on February 14, and whilst the most romantic day of the year is traditionally about showing love to partners it’s also a great opportunity to give some extra care to the planet as well.
So if you want to show some love to your environment, Recycle Now has put together some useful tips to get you recycling as part of your romancing. Here are four ways you can get involved…
Perfume and aftershave bottles
One of the most popular Valentine’s gifts is fragrances. If you receive a bottle of perfume or aftershave for Valentine’s Day, remember that you can recycle the bottle when it’s empty so that it can be turned into a new bottle or jar.
In Wrexham we collect glass at the kerbside as part of our weekly recycling service, so don’t forget to drop your used bottles in your recycling box.
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Flowers
Who doesn’t love a fresh bunch of flowers from a loved one? If you’re the one buying, try to pick a bunch with sustainable wrapping – plenty of florists are opting for more sustainable paper wrapping these days, which is great!
Unfortunately, lots of gorgeous Valentine’s blooms still come wrapped in plastic cellophane though, which we don’t collect at the kerbside. If you have any plastic wrapping there are a number of shops around Wrexham that will recycle it for you. Take a look at Recycle Now’s recycling locator – just type in ‘plastic bags and wrapping’, then enter your postcode to find your nearest places.
Once your flowers are past their best you can either recycle them as part of the garden waste collection service (if you’re subscribed), you can recycle them at one of the recycling centres in Wrexham, or you can add them to your compost heap if you have one.
Or if you’re feeling creative you could always dry them and use them for a meaningful home decoration, or dry just the petals for use as confetti or in a craft project.
Cards and gifts
Roses are red, violets are blue…something, something…you know the gist.
When buying cards and wrapping paper it’s always a good idea to pick ones that are recyclable, because unfortunately not all of them are.
The shiny foil paper is non-recyclable. Paper with glitter is also non-recyclable.
Most other shiny wrapping papers are laminated, making them non-recyclable too. You also need to look out if the paper has any plastic add-ons and avoid these.
The good news is all other types of wrapping papers and cards should be fine to recycle. If you stay away from foils, glitters, laminated paper and any plastic add-ons, you should be able to recycle your wrapping paper and cards when you’ve finished with them.
But to be honest, if you have the time, why not make your own card for your loved one? It can be much more thoughtful and personal to give someone a handmade card. Use your creativity to find different items around the home to decorate it with. You don’t always need to spend money on things to show you care.
Food
Planning a romantic dinner at home? With restaurants so busy on Valentine’s Day, a cosy night in can be a great alternative.
If you choose to home cook a meal for your loved one, don’t forget to recycle any food waste that comes up along the way – bones, eggshells, potato peelings etc. If you need a quick reminder of the different things that can go in your food caddy take a look at this.
Or if you want to minimise the time you spend in the kitchen, a takeaway is another great choice for Valentine’s Day. If you’re opting for a pizza, the cardboard box it came in can be recycled. Remember to make sure it’s clear of leftover crusts before it goes in the recycling bin, and rinse out any plastic pots of garlic dip and recycle those too.
If your takeaway of choice is an Indian or Chinese, the plastic tubs and pots these meals usually come in can be great for storing leftovers or any bits and bobs you have lying around the house. But if you already have enough storage boxes they can be rinsed out and easily recycled at the kerbside.
If you’re going for a ‘make your own takeaway’ – such as a supermarket Valentine’s meal deal – there will be a few different bits to recycle. Cardboard sleeves and other packaging is straightforward to recycle, but be sure to remove any cellophane plastic ‘windows’ from the box and recycle that separately. Plastic and foil trays just need rinsing out before going in the recycling, as do beer cans and wine bottles.
Recycling craft event coming up!
Those were a few ideas to show how you can love your environment as part of Valentine’s Day, but don’t forget, recycling is a year round thing.
Our Waste Strategy Team are holding a drop-in event during half term at the food court in Tŷ Pawb on Thursday, February 27, 11am – 2pm. You’re welcome bring the family along to learn how you can recycle unwanted items such as books into creative crafts.
Themes will include St. David’s Day, spring time, World Book Day and loving your environment. Please come along and see us if you can.
For more tips on recycling you can visit the Recycle Now page, and for information to help you get the most out of the recycling service in Wrexham take a look at our website.
Cllr Terry Evans, Lead Member for Environment, said: “Please take advantage of the weekly recycling service we offer in Wrexham. We want to do everything we can to support people to get better at recycling, but we need them to come on board with us and take the initiative to recycle as much as they can. Unfortunately, we know there is still a lot of recyclable materials and food waste going into the general rubbish bins and we need to do better.”
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Coffee pod recycling introduced at Wrexham recycling centres – Wrexham Council News
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