When we come into ownership of a home, all of a sudden our responsibilities grow. These responsibilities are a small cost for the value and worth of owning our own property, of course, but they do require additional planning in order to get them right. For instance, while it can be tiring to have a landlord looking over your shoulder, it’s true to say that they are responsible for planning out your maintenance requests and are under legal obligation to make sure they take care of that. This is not the case when owning our own home as most of our day to day maintenance needs rest on our shoulders. This also goes for essential waste management, which can come in various forms. In this guide, we’ll discuss the average habits required to be a considerate, eco-friendly homeowner, so that you can understand your responsibilities.

Consider Your Council Advice

Your council may have waste schemes that arrange for the pickup of certain belongings – such as old sofas that will then be sent to landfill. However, this may not be the most responsible means of disposing of old furniture, and as a responsible homeowner, you should make every effort to try to send furniture to a new home via a charity shop or upcycler. While you may choose alternate options to council pickup, it’s good to view your council website to see what options are on offer. Some items that can’t be so easily given to another home, such as microwaves and fridges, take time to learn more about how to get rid of your microwave and fridge, as particular seperate processes may be needed for these items due to some of the elements contained within their workings.

Upcycling/Recycling

Upcycling or recycling particular appliances and goods can be a great first step to take. It will enable you to find a potential new home for your appliance or belonging, or may help you make new use of it. For instance, it’s not uncommon for people to take old doors they might have and have them turned into a coffee table by a local carpenter. This adds a fun piece of history to your home and gives your furnishings a story to tell. Alternatively, if you don’t have a new use for things yourself, send them to a charity shop – many will come and collect your furniture for free; saving you a great deal of pain and council red-tape. With recycling clothes, there’s never an excuse for these to go to landfill. Send them to a charity shop, to a charity for vulnerable foreign countries, or as fabric swatches to a local crafter.

Debris Management

When renovating or extending your home, you’re sure to experience a great deal of waste. This debris needs to be removed in order to render the home safe to access. Hiring a proper waste management service with static or roll-off dumpsters can be an essential investment, as can bringing a few wheelbarrows to the area in order to safely rid your home of the debris that piles up. Make sure you know where your nearest dumpster rental service is and have this info to hand.
Don’t be afraid to ask for waste management services to take a more direct approach should they need to, or liaise with your general contractors to ensure these provisions are used properly. Any scrap metal can be sold on for re-use, for example.

Similarly, garden waste such as branches, sticks, grass, weeds all need put in a garden waste bin and collected seperately to your normal rubbish. You often need to pay extra for pickups of this bin, but it’s important you do so.

Recycling

It goes without saying now, I think, that we should all be recycing and trying to ensure that as little rubbish goes to landfill as possible. Make sure you seperate out your cans, plastics, food etc, and follow your local council advice on how to get rid of these, by putting the right bins out on the right days. It’s not rocket science and it doesn’t take long, so we should all be doing our bin and not just dumping everything into a general waste bin. Make sure you use more zero-waste and eco-friendly products and containers so that most of your rubbish can be recycled.

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