Recycling and reducing your DIY waste

Many DIY retailers and brands are doing more than ever to help you keep your waste to a minimum and recycle as much as you can. Initiatives include:

• The On-Pack Recycling Label now features on over 18,000 products in B&Q helping you to understand what can be recycled;
• Crown Paints now offer a recycling take-back scheme for paint pots through all of its Crown Decorator Centre store;
• Homebase has changed some of the plastic packaging on packs of paint brushes to cardboard, making them easier to open and the packaging easier to recycle; and
  
• Argos and Silentnight Beds now offer a bed recycling scheme for customers who buy a new bed from Argos.

Bathroom renovations are a popular DIY task, and many bathroom products are made of ceramics, metals and plastics that can be recycled. Your local authority recycling centre may be able to help when it comes to recycling your bathroom renovation waste including:

• WCs
• baths and shower units
  
• sinks
• taps

If you are undertaking a bathroom renovation, or other DIY project, why not use our postcode locator to contact your local authority and find out what recycling options are available near you.

Looking for advice on water efficient bathroom suites?

If you are replacing your bathroom suite for a new one, you could look out for water efficient bathroom products and water saving devices; for example, dual flush toilets, taps with click technology, and flow restrictors.  Visit the Bathroom Manufacturers Association's (BMA) website for more advice on how to use water efficiently and product listings through the BMA’s Water Efficient Labelling Scheme.