Slim down your bin in new year (From Penarth Times)

Slim down your bin in new year

VALE residents are being urged to make a New Year's resolution to slim their bin by taking up the Vale of Glamorgan Council's recycling challenge.

Three Vale families have already signed up for the "What's In Your Bin?" recycling challenge and will be spending the next ten weeks trying to keep their rubbish to a minimum.

The three households - who produce more than 30 black sacks of rubbish each week between them - will be getting plenty of help from the council's waste management department.

Penarth couple Jemima Sylvester, 21, and James Garnon, 23, are among the households taking part, and they have been getting lots of advice on recycling, avoiding unnecessary packing when shopping, and home composting.

The family who reduces their rubbish the most during the ten weeks of the challenge will win vouchers worth 50.

The council decided to organise the challenge to help demonstrate how, with a little bit of effort, we can all reduce the amount of rubbish we throw away.

In just one week, Jemima and James reduced their black bags from five to two by recycling their paper, glass and cans using the council's free kerbside collection service.

They have also started composting and have been given some tips on waste minimisation.

Jemima said: "It's easy to separate the recycling from the everyday rubbish - just as easy as throwing everything in the bin.

"It's also very satisfying to know we have made a positive step in doing our part for the environment.

"I can't believe what a difference using the kerbside recycling service has made already and I'm sure we'll reduce even more by composting and avoiding over packaged goods when shopping."

Cllr Geoff Cox, the Vale of Glamorgan Council's Cabinet Member for visible services, said: "As our challenge families are finding, with a little bit of effort we can all make a big difference to the amount of rubbish we produce and throw away.

"The New Year is a great time to start something new and I hope many of our residents will join in the challenge and do their best to keep their bins slim in 2005."