The theme for this year's Food Waste Action Week 2024 is ‘Choose What You'll Use’. It aims to highlight the benefits of buying loose fruit and vegetables and inspiring people to do this wherever they can.

Buying loose items reduces food waste. According to WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) research has shown that if all apples, bananas and potatoes were sold loose, enabling people to buy only what they need, we could save 60,000 tonnes of food waste! 

This one simple change can help us all reduce both food AND plastic waste – all whilst giving you more freedom to choose the right food for you. That’s what we call a win-win!

To support Food Waste Action Week we are giving away a copy of the Zero Waste cookbook.

The cookbook includes full-colour photography and contains over 100 simple and creative recipes that make delicious use of the food that usually goes to waste. It includes chapters on fruit, vegetables, bread, dairy, meat and fish.

This book covers everything you need to know about how to make the most out of your weekly shop.

Shepherd’s pie is a traditional British dish which dates back to the late 18th century. It was originally made as a means of using leftover roasted meat, particularly lamb or mutton, combined with vegetables and topped with mashed potatoes to fill the dish and create a hearty and satisfying meal.

Shepherd's pie was a great way for people living in the countryside to make sure they were not wasting valuable food and is still a great way to use up leftovers today.

We have a delicious recipe for shepherd's pie in our Love Your Leftovers cookbook, which is free to download.  

Don't forget that aerosol cans can be recycled once they are empty. This is great news because it takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminium than to make it from raw materials.

However, please don't squash or pierce your empty aerosol cans before putting them in your recycling bin. 

If you’re not sure whether something can be recycled you can use our free Recycling Checker to find out. It’s available on our website or via the MyNotts app, which is free to download.

Thanks for helping us to recycle Nottinghamshire!

With the Easter holidays just around the corner, are you looking for a fun way to educate your young ones about recycling and the environment? Why not take a look at our free activity sheets? There you will meet the Waste Warriors who will lead you through a set of challenges based on what happens to the things you put in your bins at home, together with a variety of other creative reuse and story-based activities.

You may even learn a few things yourself!

When putting your plastic bottles, tins, cans, aerosols, card, paper, yoghurt pots and margarine tubs in your recycling bin please remember to make sure they are clean, loose and not in any type of plastic bag. 

Bin liners and carrier bags can prevent items from being sorted and recycled at the Materials Recovery Facility in Mansfield (MRF).

The MRF is where all local household recycling is sorted ready to be transported to recycling companies. The materials are sorted by different machines which require items to be separated from each other.

With lighter evenings on the way, our 12 recycling centres are extending their opening times at the beginning of April by two hours.

The recycling centres will be open from 8am to 8pm every day of the week until the end of September.

Weekends are usually busier at our recycling centres, so we’d recommend making use of the longer opening times and visiting in the mornings or evenings when they tend to be quieter.