A council recycling team has highlighted the most commonly found items it wants people to stop putting in their black rubbish bags, and says some of them need not have been thrown away in the first place.
One of the most common recyclable materials still found in black bags is food, according to Swansea Council, and it's called the problem "avoidable".
The food waste is often being discovered in its original packaging, meaning both food and other recyclable materials all end up buried in landfill. You can read more stories about Swansea here.
READ MORE: Why you can probably keep milk longer than you think - and why you should
Bread tops the list of most commonly wasted foods across the UK, with almost 900,000 tonnes thrown away every year. It is followed by potatoes in second at around 800,000 tonnes and then milk in third, with around 490 million pints wasted.
The council's recycling team has said that if people must throw food away, to remove it from its packaging first so you can recycle both items separately.
And it has offered the following tips on how to avoid food waste in future...
- Firstly, remember 'best before’ refers to quality. After this date, it might not be at its best, but it will still be safe to eat. Use your senses to make a judgement.
- Secondly, storage is key. Keep your bread fresher for longer by keeping it in the original packaging and storing in a cool, dark and dry place, like a bread bin or cupboard. Likewise, fresh spuds also like a cool, dark, airy place but not the fridge. The ideal fridge temperature to keep milk – and everything else – fresher for a lot longer is between 0-5 °C.
- If you’re not going to use up these items in time, to stop them from wasting you can freeze bread and milk at any time in it’s original packaging to defrost in future.
- Boil and mash any leftover spuds and freeze it in portions in separate freezer bags or reusable containers to defrost at your convenience.
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