Derry City Council

Recycling Tips

Here are some helpful hints on how you can be a better environmental citizen:

Use the Civic Amenity Sites and various Bottle Banks to recycle your household waste.
Store carrier bags and reuse them again or return them to your local supermarket for recycling. Alternatively, you can use your own bag for shopping or invest in a bag for life.
Use low energy bulbs, which last longer and use less energy.
Use environmentally friendly products for household use, such as, cleaning products, paints and varnishes.
Use both sides of a sheet of paper and use scrap paper to make notebooks.
Share newspapers, magazines, books etc with friends. You can recycle paper, books and cardboard
Use reusable or cotton nappies instead of disposable ones as they make 4% of our waste and are sent to landfill where they can take up to 500 years to decompose.
Buy rechargeable/reusable items, which use mains electricity instead of disposable ones, such as, batteries, which can be used over and over and recycled when you've exhausted them.
Buy in bulk or concentrated items to reduce packaging waste. It will save you money and is good for the environment too.
Buy recycled and recyclable products wherever possible. Look out for the recycle symbol.
Donate unwanted items such as, old furniture, computer equipment etc as it may be of use to someone else, like charities, community groups etc.
Reuse jars, bottles, plastic containers, cardboard boxes etc for storage.
Compost your kitchen and garden waste. You can take the garden waste to the Community Recycling Centre or you can compost at home.
Avoid using disposable items such as, paper & plastic cups, razors etc. Use a durable mug at school or work rather than disposable ones.
Purchase refillable pens and pencils.
Recycle and Reuse white spirits - After you wash your brush out with white spirits let the liquid settle and the paint will fall to the bottom of the jar the white spirits will float to the top. This liquid can be poured into a seperate jar for reuse.

REDUCE: Reduce the waste you produce - buy bulk items etc.

REUSE: Reuse products more than once, such as, reuse your shopping bag every time you go out shopping and reuse plastic containers and glass jars etc for storage. Think before you throw an item if it can be re-used for any other purpose or is of use to anyone else, it can be donated to a charity etc.

RECYCLE: Recycle the waste you produce. You can recycle the majority of the contents of your bin by using one of the many schemes operated by Council and other organisations i.e. kerbside recycling, home composting, civic amenity sites and charity shops etc.