Is your house a tip? Hire a skip!

It’s a common headache for households at this time of year. The Christmas tree is coming down, the mince pies are all gone, and the stockings stored away for another year, yet the house is looking more cluttered than ever. The New Year can often bring a fresh perspective and the chance for some positivity and goal setting, but if your home is crowded with too much “stuff” then it can be hard to get started.

In fact, it’s a well-known fact that humans work best in clear and organized settings. A home that is cluttered and messy can make it hard to focus on the task ahead, whether that’s managing the morning school rush or simply just relaxing to read a book. What’s more, an abundance of things in your home can also contribute to negative mental states like stress and anxiety. Not the best footing to start 2018.

So, what can you do? Well if you want to avoid the headache of a long and laborious clean up and several journeys to the local tip then the best place to start is by hiring a skip to the dirty work for you.

How do I order a skip?
With our new online booking system, it’s easier than ever to order your skip. Click here and order your skip with just a few clicks. Or alternatively give us a call on 0800 083 7807 to speak to one of our team.

What am I not allowed to put in a skip?
While skips are the number one most effective tool in clearing the clutter from your home, there are still a few items which don’t belong in there. The following items do not belong in a skip: liquids, oil, petrol, diesel, paint and paint cans, fluorescent tubes, gas bottles, gas canisters, asbestos, batteries, tyres, fridges, freezers, air conditioning units, hazardous or toxic materials and clinical or medical waste. For help disposing of these items please call our team for advice.

Do I need a permit?
If your skip is going on your driveway or your own private land, then you don’t need to worry about a permit or license. However, if you are short on space and wish to put it on a public road or pavement then you will indeed need one. Failing to do so could lead to the skip being removed early, or even monetary fines. Permits are typically issued by councils and can take a bit of time (3-7 days) to be issued, however we know the process well and can apply on your behalf.

Ready to book your skip and reclaim your home? Call us now on 0800 083 7807 or click here to order your skip online.

What impact does fly tipping and litter have on local wildlife?

Did you know that there are as many as 900,000 cases of fly-tipping in the UK each year and that the annual cost for cleaning it up accounts to almost £1billion? These figures from the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) are quite shocking; however, the negative impact goes beyond just the financial, as the impact on the environment and local wildlife is even more worrying.

As demonstrated in this blog from Countryfile Magazine, some of the nation’s greatest national parks including the Peak District, Dartmoor, Yorkshire Dales and Snowden have all been severely blighted by the dumping of unwanted waste. Incidents of fly-tipping among our national parks, nature parks, woodland areas and waterways is becoming increasingly common and it is having a devastating effect on wildlife.

Animals who use these areas as their homes can suffer direct health problems because of anti-social fly tipping. Take marine litter for example. Marine litter effects as many as 1 million birds and 100,000 marine mammals every year as they become entangled in litter or ingest it.

On land, animals can often become trapped in ropes, nets or plastic containers. They can injure themselves on sharp objects or find their food sources contaminated by hazardous chemicals or liquids. What’s more, money that could have been spent on improving and protecting wildlife reserves is often diverted towards the clean up of waste, or volunteers who donate their time end up collecting litter rather than spending their time on conservation efforts, restoring and improving wildlife habitats.

The legal side of fly-tipping
Fly-tipping is entirely against the law and poses a dangerous threat to both people and wildlife. If you see anyone disposing of waste in an illegal way then you should report their activity to the police and your local authority. Make a note of the amount of waste, the type of waste, how many people were there, and details of any vehicles used to transport it.

Here at LSPS recycling is of great importance to us and we help businesses and individuals across Leicestershire to reduce the amount of their waste that ends up at landfill sites. Our Waste Transfer Station is open to traders and has an extensive range of state of the art equipment.

To find out how about we can help with your waste disposal needs please contact us on 0800 083 7807, or visit our website for further information.

Reducing your food waste at Christmas

Did you know the average household in Britain wastes over £480 worth of food every year? This typically means excess food that you buy, store in your fridge and then never get around to eating before it goes ‘off’.

At Christmas many of us take this to the extreme as our eyes become bigger than our bellies and we stock up on all the party food and trimmings we can get our hands on. Here are a few tips to be more frugal at this time of year, but still have a good time.

1 – Write a list and stick to it!
It’s so easy to get carried away when we go shopping. Supermarkets pull out all the tricks at Christmas time and it’s hard to turn down some of the excellent deals that you run into as you push your trolley around. However, a few days down the line that extra food that you weren’t planning on buying could be scraped or chucked straight in the bin. Instead, you should plan out exactly what you are going to eat over the festive period, including meals, drinks and snacks. Write all down on a list and stick to it as you make your way down the aisles. If you want to take all of the temptation out of the shopping experience, then you could even order online.

2 – Be realistic
It’s easy to get carried away with portion sizes, but how many of us end up over indulging and then bashfully searching Google for the cheapest gym membership you can find come New Years Day? What’s more, according to consumer goods giant Unilever, as many as 4.2 million Christmas dinners are thrown away in the UK every year – food that we thought we wanted but we became too full to eat! The average Brit spends around £112 on food alone at Christmas, but ask yourself, do you really need that much food?

3 – Make the most of your freezer
If you do decide to go for the 2-4-1 bargains and offers and you unsurprisingly end up with more food than you are likely going to eat, then make the most of your freezer. Free up space in the run up to Christmas and leave yourself room to freeze any unwanted food for later on. Leftover deserts, breads, cheeses, vegetables and some meats are all fine to freeze.

4 - Use your leftovers
What would Christmas be without leftovers? Your leftovers can keep you going for ages if you’re creative. Vegetables and meats can be used in sandwiches, soups, omelettes, fajitas, curries and much more.

Here at LSPS we take recycling very seriously. To find out how about we can help with your waste disposal needs please contact us on 0800 083 7807, or visit our website for further information.

What to do with unwanted presents?

We’ve all been there – nervously unwrapping a Christmas gift, knowing that your nan has yet again bought you a garish jumper or a bottle of your least favourite spirit. It’s not too difficult to force a smile and a thank you, but once all the festivities are over what exactly do you do with your unwanted gifts and presents? Here are a few ideas.

1 – Swap your presents
Just because you don’t like a present doesn’t mean that someone else won’t. Maybe your sister-in-law is feeling the same way about her third-successive ‘Selfie-Stick’ as you are about your Michael Buble album. Ask around the table to see if anyone fancies swapping – but try to be sly, you don’t want to upset anyone!

2 – Auction them off
Research from eBay suggests that every year we open around 115 million ‘undesirable’ gifts which equates to around £2.2billion. They also say that they see a huge rise in the number of listings in the days and weeks surrounding Christmas. Some items will of course make more money than others, and some items you won’t be able to get rid of no matter how hard you try. However, for the vast majority of unwanted gifts you should be able to list them easily and get a nice portion of pocket money to buy something else you actually want.

3 – Exchange
If you’re really lucky then you might find the receipt tucked away inside the gift wrapping. This is the perfect scenario really. Let’s say you receive a really tacky piece of jewellery, you can avoid upsetting the gifter by enthusing about the gift when you get it, only to return it to the shops in a few weeks. Just keep your fingers crossed that your relative doesn’t ask why you aren’t wearing it next Christmas!

4 – Pay it forward
One selfless option which will do a great deal of good is to consider gifting your unwanted goods to charity. Christmas is supposed to be the season of good will, and there is always someone in more need than you, and someone who hasn’t had anything to open on Christmas morning. Search online or in the paper for schemes operating in your area and get some karma points in return.

5 – Recycle, recycle, recycle!
Some presents you just can’t give away – and not for positive reasons. If you’re left with a particularly horrible bottle of whiskey, then you shouldn’t drink it just for the sake of it. If despite all your best efforts you can’t find a new home for it then pour it down the drain and recycle the bottle. Always be careful to open the item and filter out any recyclable packaging that could be used again and will avoid adding more waste to landfill sites.

Here at LSPS we take recycling very seriously. To find out how about we can help with your waste disposal needs please contact us on 0800 083 7807, or visit our website for further information.

How to declare WAR on junk: a room by room guide

As discussed in our recent blog there are plenty of reasons for clearing the clutter from your home. From making money on old video games and electrical items to providing a warm coat for someone without a home, there are plenty of reasons to have a good clear out.

However, it can be difficult to know where to start. Here we will provide a few key tips for tidying each room of the home.

Sheds and garages
‘Out of sight, out of mind’. We often have grand ambitions for our sheds and garages, perhaps hoping to turn them into home-cinemas, gyms, offices or workshops. However, more often than not, these rooms end up as abandoned outposts where step ladders, plant pots and long forgotten toys go to die. The best way to tackle your shed and garage is to do it in the summer when the weather is good. This way you can make the most of your garden or driveway and begin sorting through all your discarded objects. Remember, it’s okay to use sheds and garages as storage space but only keep what you think you’ll use in the future.

Living room
After the kitchen, the living room is the second most important room in most people’s homes. This is where we relax, where we read and where we do our homework. As these are quite social rooms, our living rooms don’t always tend to be the worst offender for junk, but that isn’t always so. Electrical items are usually the biggest offenders here so have a root through your cupboards and chuck out any long unused VHS tapes, DVD’s and that coffee table that’s seen better days.

Kitchen
The kitchen is the beating heart of the home and where we spend much of our time. A good restaurant chef knows that to create a good meal everything must be in its rightful place and your kitchen should be no different. Often the best way to keep your kitchen clutter-free is to organise it well. This means taking a minimal approach with just the basic amount of furniture and appliances that you need, allowing you space to do your thing.

Bedroom
It’s proven that clutter inhibits a good night’s sleep, so the bedroom is certainly one room which needs to be tackled in your war on junk. To improve your sleep, you need to have a real dedicated sort out. Begin by sorting your clothes into piles, take a view of clothes that you regularly wear, never wear or are broken and get rid!

Bathroom
No-one wants a dirty bathroom, but they can be hard to keep clean. To keep things in order you should try and get in the habit of picking up after you and throwing away any empty products such as toothpaste and shampoo. Easier said then done, so it might be worth doing it in one great swoop once a month.

Final thoughts
Doing a full audit of all our belongings can be a difficult thing to do. It’s not unusual to form emotional bonds with the things that you own, however you shouldn’t be afraid to chuck them away. After all, the benefits of having a clean and tidy household with space to breathe cannot be overestimated!

If you’re planning your own mass clear-out then we can help. To book a skip, please contact us on 0800 083 7807, or visit our website for further information.

3 reasons you should clear the clutter from your home

Is your home beginning to resemble a landfill site? Whether it’s shoes and clothes, kids’ toys, ornaments, furniture or other odds and ends, it’s easy for the clutter to build up and get out of hand. However, while spending our weekends and evenings cleaning up might be the last thing on our to-do-list, it can have some hidden benefits.

1 – Turn a profit
They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and there’s only one way to find out of it’s true. Root through your belongings and you might be surprised at the value of what you find. Write down a list of all the items that you are considering throwing away and then get to work. Long gone are the days when you had to suffer the cold, early morning starts of car boot sales; now you can now easily sell all your unwanted goods on the internet. Thanks to websites like eBay and Pre-Loved, as well as so-called ‘selling groups’ on Facebook, it’s quite easy to offload your wares to the people in your neighbourhood.

2 – Finding forgotten treasures
The second reason that you should be pulling on the marigolds is that you never know what you might find. It’s easy to lose track of what we purchase over the years and behind sofas and underneath beds there is a whole world of phone chargers, cables, clothes, toys and other forgotten objects. Who knows what you might find, and it may even save you some money down the line.

3 – Helping others
Another good reason to clear the clutter is to help others. Whether it’s people in your local community or friends and family in need of some help, there is always someone that could benefit from your unwanted belongings. Some of your items can easily be gifted off through recycling bins, taken to charity shops or given away on ‘Freecycle’ groups on Facebook.

Final thoughts
While the internet and charity shops can provide a good outlet for some of your unwanted items, there are plenty of items which we just can’t seem to give away. Electrical goods, missing cables, clothes and toys beyond repair or awkwardly shaped pieces of furniture. If that’s the case, then the best option for you is to consider a skip.

Here at LSPS, all the waste that we collect is taken to our own waste transfer station so that it can be processed ready for recycling or energy generation. To find out more or to book your skip, please contact us on 0800 083 7807, or visit our website for further information.

UK reaches milestone of half a million tonnes of plastic recycling

A recently published ‘Household Plastics Collection Survey’ by Recoup of local authorities across the UK has revealed a 2.7% increase in plastics recycling across the nation which has brought the total amount of recycling to over half a million tonnes.

The latest figures from the charity show that 512,475 tonnes of plastic were collected for recycling in 2016. Upon analysis the figures show that 340,000 tonnes of recycling accounted for was categorised as plastic bottles and a further 170,000 tonnes consisted of other plastics like pots, tubs and trays.

While these figures seem impressive, Recoup has been quick to add that the figures show an increase of less than 1% in collection of plastic bottles from households. There have also been just seven new kerbside collection schemes launched in the past year by local authorities. When looking at some of the reasons behind this, Recoup reported that 51% of Local Authorities in the UK received budget cuts for waste and recycling collections or to their communications departments who seek to get the word out about good waste recycling habits.

The report goes on to stress the importance of consistency in recycling standards among Local Authorities so that a consistent message can be given out to households over what they can and cannot recycle – helping to increase the number of people recycling and reduce the amount of contaminated waste. Click here to read the survey: http://www.recoup.org/p/229/uk-household-plastics-collection-survey-2017.

Do you think recycling rules are clear enough? Tweet us at @LSPSltd and let us know.

Here at LSPS, recycling is of great importance to us and we help businesses and individuals all across Leicestershire to reduce the amount of their waste that ends up at landfill sites. Our Waste Transfer Station is open to traders and has an extensive range of state of the art equipment.

To find out how about we can help with your waste disposal needs please contact us on 0800 083 7807, or visit our website for further information.