Hi there!
Here is what is in your Recycle for Bracknell Forest winter edition.
- Latest incentive scheme news
- Top tips for recycling this Christmas
- Reduce your food waste this Christmas
- Leftover recipe - turkey pad thai
- Glass recycling - you can now mix up the colours
- Christmas and New Year collection changes
- Upcoming events
Latest incentive scheme news
Good causes
Friends of Birch Hill received £449 as one of the latest causes to benefit from the recycling incentive scheme’s good causes.
Friends of Birch Hill are currently fundraising to improve their sensory garden for the children and the money received will be a great help towards this project.
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The three good causes in the next round of funding to receive a share of the £1,000 pot, provided by the council and their waste collection contractor SUEZ, are:
Sandhurst Health Walks
The money would help them to continue to offer free walks for all, by contributing to their membership of Ramblers Wellbeing Walks who offer training and support.
1st Warfield Brownies
The donation will be used to get the equipment the Rainbows unit requires to give the girls an opportunity to build their skills.
The Green Champion
The money will be used to provide seeds for schools in Bracknell. The project is to encourage students to spend time planting and tending to the seeds at school to grow a passion for gardening.
These causes will be changing over on 31 January 2022.
Most of us recycle lots during and after Christmas but are we getting it right?
Cardboard
Card plays an important role in preventing damage to products, but did you know that a staggering 300,000 tonnes is used in UK households during the festive season? That's enough to wrap Big Ben almost 260,000 times!
Top tips:
- Flatten your cardboard to save space in your blue bin or drop your cardboard boxes off at the recycling centre.
- Remove all plastic stuffing including polystyrene or bubble wrap.
- Keep your cardboard dry in your blue bin and don't leave it outside when it rains.
Wrapping paper
Not all wrapping paper is recyclable. Try the scrunch test, if you can scrunch the paper and it doesn't spring back you can recycle it.
Top tip:
- Remove ribbons, bows and other adornments before recycling wrapping paper.
Mince pie trays
All foil trays can be recycled in your blue bin, including the ones holding your mince pies or used to roast your turkey.
Top tips:
- Rinse your aluminium trays to remove all bits of food.
- Scrunch your aluminium foil into a ball. The bigger the ball the better.
Bottles and jars
Please make sure to take all your glass bottles and jars to your nearest bottle bank. You can find your nearest site on the council's website.
Top tips:
Christmas lights and electrical items
Bring all broken and unwanted electrical items to the recycling centre. The recycling centre is open every day, except for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.
Christmas decorations
Tinsel and baubles are not recyclable but if you have some unwanted decorations or toys that are in a reusable condition, please bring them to the recycling centre and leave them at the reuse area.
If you are ever in doubt then you can check re3cyclopedia.
Did you know, over a third of us throw away more food at Christmas than any other time of the year?
You say bubble, I say squeak
Avoid binning the trimmings. Classic Christmas leftovers from mash to cooked winter veg are the basis of bubble and squeak. How about adding chopped cooked gammon or turkey, or something from the cheeseboard, as well as a spoonful or two of mayo. Make space in the pan then frying an egg in the middle of it will guarantee a seasonal twist. And all it takes is just 15 minutes.
Sprouts, sprouts and more sprouts
Why not try turning your leftover sprouts into a gratin? Start by making a white sauce with added fried onions, add some grated cheese, fry up some chopped bacon and add it in. Place your boiled sprouts in an ovenproof dish, pour over the sauce and top with breadcrumbs and bacon rashers. Cook the whole lot in preheated oven at 180 degrees for 25 minutes.
The big freeze
If the fridge is getting too full, there are alternatives. Anything freezable can be frozen right up to the 'use by' date. If you can cook in bulk then freeze, you'll be well on your way. Cooking once and eating twice is a great way to make your money go further. Don't forget to split into portions before freezing.
For more top tips, visit Love Food Hate Waste.
Turkey pad thai
The fresh Thai-style flavours in this dish really pop! This is a great dish to use up leftover turkey from Christmas day, but also a great way to use up leftover roast chicken through the year. We used carrots, sprouts and peppers, but you can experiment! Remove turkey and fish sauce to make a tasty veggie version.
Ingredients
- 200g flat rice noodles
- 250g leftover roast turkey meat, roughly chopped
- 3 tbsp ground nut or light vegetable oil
- 1 shallot or small onion, finely sliced
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 red chilli, finely chopped
- 1 pack of coriander including stalks, finely chopped
- A couple of handfuls of any thinly slices crunchy vegetables you may have in the fridge, e.g. carrots, brussels sprouts, broccoli, peppers, mange tout
- 3 spring onions, finely sliced lengthways
- 1 egg
- 100g beansprouts
- 60g roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
Sauce
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- juices of 2 limes
- 2-3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
Instructions
- Cook the noodles according to packet instructions and set aside.
- To make the sauce, stir the ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a wok on a high heat.
- Add the onion, garlic, chillies and spring onion and fry for a few seconds.
- Add the chopped vegetables and bean sprouts and stir fry for a few minutes.
- Add the leftover turkey and heat through for a couple of minutes.
- Crack the egg into the pan and mix quickly.
- Add the cooked noodles and the pad thai sauce.
- Toss the noodle mix with all the ingredients and sauce.
- Serve immediately with a sprinkling of chopped coriander, raw beansprouts, lime quarters and chopped peanuts.
To find more tasty leftover recipes, visit Love Food Hate Waste.
No need to separate your empties by colour
Re3 is changing the way it collects glass and jars at the bottle banks. From now on you can mix up all bottles and jars and put them in any banks at the glass recycling sites, without the need to separate your empties by colour.
This change is possible due to the introduction of colour sorting technology at the glass recycling facility, and we hope it will make glass recycling easier, quicker and more efficient, achieving the same results as when supplied with pre-sorted coloured glass.
This new system will also allow us to rationalise containers and optimise collection schedules, which can help to reduce costs, overflows and carbon footprint. To help you notice this change we will be gradually adding stickers to the bank collars at each site. Please visit the Re3 website for further information.
Garden waste
Please be aware there will be no garden waste collections over the festive season from 27 December 2021, they will resume as normal from 11 January 2022. Very few residents use the service over the festive season, so we will be able to use the extra space to collect all the extra recycling from the Christmas festivities.
Real Christmas trees will be collected as garden waste if cut up and put in your brown bin/council garden sack; please ensure the lid/sack is closed and all decorations and lights are removed. Any trees not in a closed brown bin/council garden sack, or sacks that have not been booked, will not be taken. Alternatively, you can book a bulk collection to have your tree removed from the kerbside as garden waste, but it must be cut up and contained within your brown bin or a BFC biodegradable garden waste sack.
You can also check your collection dates via our online collection day finder
Recycling day
When and where
Saturday, 19 March 2022 from 9:30am - 12:30pm
John Nike Stadium (athletics track) car park, Bracknell Leisure Centre, South Hill Road, RG12 7NN |
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For more information visit our website, or to see how your electricals are recycled watch this video. Don't forget to bring your e+ card with you!
Did you know
You can sign up to other Bracknell Forest Council newsletters, such as libraries and leisure, by creating a self service account, or logging into your account if you already have one. Just click on my account.
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