Home decoration – recycled!

Make the best use of resources with our ideas for decorating

Spring is here and across the country home improvement is in full swing.

You may not know it yet, but there are some fantastic new products made of recycled materials available, and plenty of ways you can make recycling a part of your plans.

Paint

Whether you’re painting inside or out, choose a solvent-free paint – they’re kinder on the environment and come in a wide range of colours. Try www.ecospaints.co.uk or www.rendona.co.uk

It’s estimated that 82m litres of paint end up unused, forgotten about or thrown away so always try to use up leftover paint. If you’re saving paint for another bout of decorating, cover the tin with clingfilm, replace the lid, and store it upside down – this prevents the paint drying out.

You can get hold of recycled paint, and take in your leftover paint, at paint recycling centres – find your nearest one here www.recyclenow.com/where_to_recycle

You can also help other recyclers by taking your leftover paint to a Community RePaint centre – see www.communityrepaint.org.uk for details.

Aerosols

Aerosols such as paint canisters can be recycled – either in your kerbside collection or at your local recycling bank. Just make sure the canister is completely empty first, and remove the lid plus any loose or easily removable parts.

Cardboard

Redecorating at home often goes hand in hand with buying new pieces of furniture. Flat-packed furniture is now hugely popular, but it often comes packaged in large amounts of cardboard.

Some local authorities collect cardboard from the kerbside – otherwise you can take it to your local recycling bank. The same piece of cardboard can be recycled up to five times!

Find your nearest recycling bank at www.recyclenow.com/where_to_recycle

Plasterboard

In the UK we throw away an estimated one million tonnes of plasterboard every year. But there’s no need, as local trials are underway to collect waste plasterboard and recycle it – into new plasterboard, an ingredient in cement, and even into low-energy building blocks!

Check here to see if your region is participating in the trial: www.recyclenow.com/what_more_can_i_do/can_it_be_recycled/plasterboard.html

Flooring

New types of flooring made from recycled materials are becoming more widely available. For example, recycled cork and rubber flooring is available from www.expanko.com. But if you’re really set on a wooden floor, first try your local reclamation centre for solid wood boards that you can reuse. They may even last longer than the laminate equivalent!

Although carpet can’t be recycled, if it’s in good condition old carpet can be sold in the classifieds section of your local paper, or groups such as CROFT (Chelmsford Recycling Furniture Project & Task Force) will accept it – call them on 01245 494 223.

Bricks and rubble

>With more substantial home decoration work, you may end up with spare bricks and rubble. Don’t worry though – if you can’t use them, someone else will. Good quality bricks and other building materials can be sold, for example through your local paper, or donated. You can also take bricks and rubble to civic amenity sites to be re-used.

New kitchen

The kitchen is often one of the first rooms to get a makeover. So if you’re planning to redecorate yours, take a look at some of the new products made from recycled materials.

For example, you can buy a work surface material made with chunks of recycled bottle bank glass and specially formulated solvent free resins. See more at: www.eightinch.co.uk. And keep your eyes open for items that could be re-used in your kitchen!

Textiles

Finally, if you’re hanging some new curtains or re-covering furniture, remember you can recycle textiles at recycling banks as long as they’re made from man-made fibres.