Smart Shopping

Why smart Shop

Smart shopping is easy. It doesn't take any longer, and it will save you money. Every week supermarkets across the Anglia region hand out over 3 million plastic shopping bags. They end up adding to the huge pile of rubbish clogging up landfill sites. Take these simple steps to become a smart shopper and reduce the amount of waste we throw away.

Step 1 USE LESS Reduce unnecessary packaging.

Step 2 REUSE Conserve resources and energy.

Step 3 BUY RECYCLED Increase demand for reclaimed materials.

Use less

Up to a quarter of the rubbish we throw away is packaging. Some packaging is necessary to protect goods. Packaging costs and pushes up the price of goods. By choosing less packaged goods you can save money as well as reducing your rubbish.

• Loose fruit and vegetables are often cheaper than pre-packaged and they create less rubbish.
• Refills are available for things like fabric conditioner, washing powders and some beauty products.
• They are cheaper and allow you to re-use the original container.
• Buying larger or economy sizes can save money and create less packaging in the long run.
• Choose Longer Life, Energy-Efficient and Rechargeable Products, the purchase price may be more but they work out cheaper in the long run.

Reuse

Each plastic carrier bag you throw away will take around 500 years to rot away in a landfill site. If you re-use your carrier bags each time you visit a shop or supermarket it will dramatically cut the number of bags that have to be buried in the ground.

• Remember to take bags with you when you do the 'weekly' shop. Say No to Unwanted Bags (SNUB)
• If you are visiting more than one shop, do you need to take a new bag from each?
• Strong re-usable bags are also on sale in most supermarkets.

Buy recycled

Paper, plastic and other products can all be made from recycled materials, without the price going up or the quality going down. If we buy more recycled goods we’ll encourage manufacturers to demand more recycled materials to make them from. This will help reduce the amount of rubbish that gets buried in landfill sites. We can help this process by:

• choosing recycled products such as tissues, toilet rolls, kitchen towels, writing paper, pens, rulers and plant pots.
• looking out for the recycling symbol and the Buy Recycled logo.
• Buy a funky coaster made from old mobile phones from Suffolk County Council for just £3 each - email for more information suffolk.recycling@suffolk.gov.uk
• Visit the Recyclenow shopping page for a wide range of products for the house and garden which are made from recycled materials.