Share with Tetra Pak your top tips for creative and original environmentally - friendly things in the home: you could win a £250 voucher! NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

We have been asked by the team at Tetra Pak, (the world's leading supplier of food processing and packaging systems) to find out your top tips for reducing the impact your home and life has on the environment. They would love to hear the creative things you do to recycle and reduce the amount of waste your family produce.

Tetra Pak says, "you may know that our company was founded upon the principle that 'a package should save more than it costs'. Our cartons are found on shop shelves and in kitchen cupboards all over the country. They hold everyday items we all depend on, from fruit juice and milk to chopped tomatoes.

"As well as this, our cartons offer a number of environmental benefits; not only are they made primarily from wood - which is a renewable resource - they are also widely recyclable across the UK. With over 90% of UK local authorities now offering a carton recycling service, and 57% of local authorities helping people to recycle their cartons from home, recycling Tetra Pak cartons has never been more straightforward.

“In addition, the special layers in our cartons mean that they protect the goodness of contents inside for longer, reducing waste without any need for added preservatives. They also don't need to be kept in the fridge until opened, meaning they can be stored in your cupboards for added convenience".

You may also know that Tetra Pak has launched a new interactive recycling map to help you find out more about carton recycling in your area.

Find out more: www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk/locator.asp

To help promote the recycling of its own cartons - Tetra Pak would now love to hear about your most creative and inventive tips and tricks for being 'green' at home.

Maybe you learnt an amazing tip from Mumsnet, or came up with your very own way of, for example, reducing food waste in your home? What’s the most creative way you've found to recycle your household waste? What family activities have you done to make recycling fun for your children? What would you recommend to other families to make recycling even easier? What everyday household objects were you surprised to find that you could recycle?

Whatever it is, please share it on this thread – add your comment and you’ll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £250 voucher for John Lewis/Waitrose.

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

[Maiyakat]

Lots of boxes, foil and cartons get recycled in craft activities. It would be easier to recycle if my recycling container didn't keep going awol on bin day!

[BlackeyedSusan]

the children shower instead of bath. I turn off the shower between getting them wet and rinsing them.

we had cavity wall insulation as a block of flats and this has meant that we do not have the heating on much at all.

I do not use a dryer and dry washing inside. because I can not be bothered to walk down two flights of stairs with it all neighbours use the drying rooms.

everything that can gets recycled. some to school for craft the rest to the recycling bag.

careful use of food in the fridge to reduce waste. things still occasionally go wrong. use the good bits of fruit and veggies instead of throwing the whole packet away. making mushy strawberry milkshake. (mum leant on the bag of strawberries)

I am trying to use pots and containers for luches instead of plastic sandwich bags. not doing so well with this.

the children use old fruitshoot bottles in their lunch boxes. they leak less than other bottles as well.

I am using the children's old coats as scraps for art work and various craft products. they are beyond repair/outgrown/not suitable for the charity shop. I buy clothes from the charity shop, though this is also due to finances.

wash on cold wash.

only heat the amount of water in the kettel I need.

turn things off at the socket

eat less meat and more vegatables.

[ahhar]

I used food containers to grow things. They can be used as plant pots and seed trays. what can be better.

[MrChow]

I keep every glass jar we have, I love the different shapes and sizes. I use them as pencil pots with garden twine curled into bows. I've painted them in Annie Sloan colors and used them as make up brush holders, used them as tea light holders, hung them with tea lights in from branches in the summer. So many things! Love empty glass jars

[lolancurly]

We have three lovely chickens who enjoy all manner of food waste and give eggs in return, which sounds like a fair exchange. We also have a compost bin for things that the chooks won't or can't eat. Meal planning is certainly a good way of reducing waste, so making a roast chicken do 3 meals by making soup, risotto, stock etc with leftovers. Empty food tins, like Golden Syrup get a few drainage holes tapped in the bottom, filled with potting compost and herb or cress seeds sewn in them. The iconic tin is pleasing on the eye and lovely to see it sitting on the window ledge full of something yummy to eat. Sometimes, it's simply about education and experience and knowing how to use left overs so that they don't sit in the fridge for weeks growing mould.

[katwoman28]

We collect all recyclables and anything clean and interesting shaped gets kept for craft projects or donated to nursery for the same.
My kids love making junk models and, as we are recovering from a stomach bug, have been in our pjs doing this this morning!

[themummyonthebus]

I shop to a list and freeze any veg that starts going off before it can be used to reduce our food waste.

[Uzma01]

I take sturdier shopping bags/canvas bags with me when shopping.

I recycle a lot so the recycle bin is usually full every fortnight - I keep a bag for things to be recycled in the kitchen & periodically put the contents into the large recycling bin.

Any leftover bread (crusts) and rice gets put out for the birds.

My DC use some card/paper & envelopes to draw on before being recycled.

[Uzma01]

Glass jam jars are washed and kept until I'm ready to make a large batch of chilli sauce - most of which is kept for hubby or given as gifts.

[michelleblane]

I keep chickens, ducks, guinea fowl and geese, so vegetable peelings and stalebread/cake (not much here though) go to them, as do any left overs. (Dog and cat get any meat scraps). I keep all boxes! Pretty ones that have contained chocolates or toiletries etc are used for storing cards, writing paper, documents. Any good strong boxes and padded envelopes are stored for when I need to post parcels. (I sell on ebay and Amazon). Plastic milk bottles and soft drink bottles are cut and become small plant pots or cloches for seeds. Egg boxes I use for my own eggs and friends and family who get my eggs always return the boxes for next time. Biscuit tins and sweet tins become cake tins or storage for toys.

[GetKnitted]

My waste reduction tipis not buying any more books until I've read the ones I've got, take old/ unwanted books to the charity shop for recycling and only buy second hand if at all possible!

[MrsO27]

Enjoying reading this thread!
My top tip for cutting food waste has been to spend more time planning meals so therefore only buying what I need. Saved us a fortune too.

[ScrambledEggAndToast]

I take all my old loo rolls into the school nursery, they are always needing them for art supply. Bonus as it tidies the place up for me and helps them out I use water from the bath to water the garden. I also have a water butt which I can gather rainwater in and also use on the garden. I rarely use my tumble drier, I line dry where possible and hang clothes in the airing cupboard or spare room. I freeze left over food to avoid wastage and also regularly defrost the freezer to ensure it is working efficiently. I have changed to energy efficient light bulbs in every room as well.

[Cherryjellybean]

I reuse cards, buttons ribbon etc to make gift tags, or to make new cards and crafts.
We have reused household things to do crafts with my toddler, like an old kitchen roll tube got turned into a rain stick one day.
We freeze left overs.

[kelandab]

We are collecting up all our tins of different shapes & sizes, which we are going to 'decopatch' a collage of magazine cuttings onto the sides to make a massive desk tidy the length of the kids desk to store all their stationary.

We also use old yogurt pots to plant seeds in.

[nerysw]

We've used old 2 litre pop bottle and Pringles tins filled with a handful of pepper corns to make some great shakers.

[muskratlove]

Old plastic bottles can be stacked together to make an eco greenhouse!

[elvy106]

We've managed to make a huge difference by simply becoming more organised in every room. In the kitchen food is stocked in good order, we use tupperware boxes to refrigerate spare food items and always check what ingredients are in the fridge before opening another. When we cook 'proper' meals, we cook two extra and freeze so that on evenings when the children are out we can 'forage' them lol. In the bathroom, instead of loads of seperate shower gels, shampoos and conditioners, we work to order and have cut out surplus and clutter.

[urterriblemuriel]

I don't think that ours can be classed as creative however I am really pleased that as a family of three, our wheels bin is only about 2/3 full on collection every fortnight...I'm sure that's loads more than others, but from what I see in my neighbourhood that is quite good going.

We...
Have a compost heap for all raw vegetable waste, dead flowers, grass cuttings, tea bags, eggs etc
use coffee left overs to help ward off slugs from our plants
Normal stuff recycled (tins, cardboard, milk containers)
Tetra packs, all plastic bags and glass to supermarket recycling
Clothes donated to charity
Foil, batteries etc to recycle bit at the local tip

Eerrr, that's all I can think of at mo!

[hakunafrittata]

I'm not the most creative of people, but I always reuse containers. I got a Lidl antipasto platter a month ago and have been using it as a mini nibble platter since. Like-wise with their glass creme brulee jars, they're good for homemade cold individual deserts, such as cheesecakes or trifle. I have also been using old SMA tins to store my make-up brushes in. I also love the plastic tubs that Chinese food comes in- I use them to store portions of veggies in cold water that I know I am going to use over the next couple of days whilst the rest is frozen.

[Moogdroog]

I recycle everything I can, but I've started gardening since we moved house and I've been amazed how much I can reuse - milk cartons for cloches, plastic mushroom trays for starting off seedlings.
Regarding food waste, we're pretty good as we try not to overbuy (reduced budget) - any fruit or veg goes into the compost and things like the ends of bread go out for the birds.
Of course, we're always making things in our house too - we have a bag of making stuff and I regularly raid the recycling bags for stuff to be creative with.

[Pinter]

We cook as much as possible at the same time to make good use of the cooker energy. And switch off early & use the residual heat

Use the Eco setting on the dishwasher & washing machine

Dry outside

Use as little detergent as possible. Play around with the amounts to make sure

Use white vinegar as a fabric softener & to clean the shower curtain & all the windows & mirrors

Get refills for the hand wash

[sarahj68]

As well as re-using plastic shopping bags for the next shop, my mum works in a charity shop that have decided to stop producing their own bags to reduce costs, so I now give any spare to them for their customers purchases.

[hareinthemoon]

A hot composter can take lots of things that other composters can't.

I am jealous of the greenhouse and the chickens!

Drying outside really is preferable.

Old cartons and tins are good for starting off seedlings on the windowsills (and keeping seeds like basil and coriander going - they'd just be decimated by slugs in our garden so they live on the windowsill.