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1.Choose goods with minimal packaging, and which are packaged in a material that can be recycled or returned in your area.
2.Try to reduce the need to throw away plastics. For example, take a reusable shopping bag to the supermarket or corner shop, or re-use the bags you were given last time. Don't accept a bag if you don't need one. When they are beyond reuse, plastic carrier bags can be put into collection banks at some Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury's supermarkets.Rather than throwing them away, give plastic toys or containers to children's scrap stores or playgroups for reuse. Further details can be found here
3.Use plastic containers and bags again or make them into something else. For example use yoghurt pots to grow seedlings, use the top part of drinks bottles as cloches for plants and offer clean plastic carrier bags to charity shops.
4.Buy products that are refillable.
5.Think of ways of reducing the need for packaging. Don't add extra packaging yourself - a melon, a grapefruit or a bunch of bananas already has natural packaging - does it need to go in a plastic bag as well as your shopping bag, and does that already efficiently packaged dairy product or piece of meat really need another wrapper?
6.Ask your local authority recycling officers which materials are currently collected or may be collected in the future.
7.Look for products, e.g. bin liners and refuse sacks, made from recycled plastic, now available in many supermarkets. Also look out for products packaged in at least partially recycled material. For example, Shell Oil's 1 litre and 4 litre Helix oil packs now contain a proportion of recycled plastic, collected from domestic and industrial waste.
8.If it does not already run one, suggest to your local authority that it considers starting a plastics recycling scheme. The development of market opportunities has meant that at the moment demand is outstripping supply of plastic bottles, so new initiatives are needed to feed the process and ensure its success.
9.Encourage your local authority to buy products, such as street furniture, made from recycled plastic rather than wood.
10.When you put plastic bottles in plastic bottle recycling machines, or even in your bin, ALWAYS REMOVE THE BOTTLE TOPS. This also enables them to be crushed more easily so they occupy less space. Reference:http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Plastics.htm
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