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Handy tips to help reduce more waste at home

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Try and use any leftovers to create new meals or finish them off as part of your packed lunch the next day.

Take your used clothes to a textile bank or local charity shop.
Old clothes/shoes/curtains/handbags etc. can be donated to charity shops or jumble sales. Remember to tie shoes together.
Buy second-hand clothes - you can often pick up unusual period pieces! Buying items from charity shops will put your money to a good cause.
Choose items you are likely to wear a long time - a dedicated follower of fashion can also be a green one if items are chosen carefully.
Look for recycled content in the garments you buy. This should be on the label, although there is currently no conventional marking scheme and companies do not always advertise the recycled content.
Buy cloth wipers instead of disposable paper products as the product can be used repeatedly.

Cut down on your paper waste by sharing magazine and journal subscriptions with friends or neighbours.
Join a toy library and borrow children's toys rather than buying them. Visit www.natll.uk to find out more.
Rent or borrow items you don't use very often - e.g. party decorations and crockery. Some supermarkets hire out glasses for parties, saving on disposable cups

Sign up free of charge to the Mailing Preference Service to removes your details from up to 95% of direct mail. Visit www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/
Put a 'No Junk Mail' sticker onto your letterbox. This will help to stop the local junk mail that you tend to get in towns and cities, for example flyers and leaflets
Tick the edited register option when completing the annual electoral register form. This will keep your details out of the publicly available register.
Register for the Postal Preference Service questionnaire by calling 020 8334 8070. This service, set up in association with Royal Mail, informs participating advertisers of your postal preference. It therefore allows you to receive more of the mail you want and less of what you don't. Always tick the little boxes at the bottom of order forms, surveys and application forms that stops your name and address being sold to other companies
Tell your insurance, credit card, banking and mortgage companies that you do not want to receive information about other services and ask them not to pass your details onto other companies.

Save any bubble wrap or padded envelopes and reuse when you next send a parcel.
Reuse old envelopes for taking messages or stick labels over them and use them again.

Donate unwanted computer and audiovisual equipment to community groups or schools, using a local materials exchange service www.eastex.org.uk
Take old clothes and books to charity shops, or have a car boot sale

Cut out pictures from old Christmas cards to make gift tags
Use unusual paper to wrap presents rather than buying new wrapping paper.
Look online for hundreds of craft ideas using discarded materials found around the home. Just type in 'recycled craft ideas' into a search engine.

Norfolk freecycle - provides a way for people with unwanted items to get in touch with others locally who can make use of them. Everything is offered for free!
Rag and Bone - the modern, economical and effortless way to give a new home to unwanted, but still usable, large household items. Everything listed here is free-of-charge when you collect it. Join in with the "new rag-and-bone way" for recycling large or bulky items that have plenty of useful life left in them, but are no longer needed and too good to simply throw away. Give a new home to unwanted, but still useable, large household items.
Love food hate waste - tips and hints to reduce food waste and save money
Mail Preference Service - remove your details from 95% of direct mail in the UK
Recycle Now - Information on recycling and waste reduction at home

Each UK household produces over 1 tonne of rubbish annually, amounting to about 31 million tonnes for the UK each year