Donating blood is a wonderful act that doesn’t take a lot of effort and can save a life. I (Emma) have been donating blood for ten years now, when my iron counts allows, and was thankfully able to donate last on September 23.
However, as with most aspects of my life, I’m looking to make my blood donation more eco-friendly and these are the steps I’ve taken over the past couple of sessions to improve the greenness of my blood recycling. (I know, it’s technically reuse, but blood recycling sounds better.)
(This is the closest thing Shades of Green has to a Halloween post in 2019. Don’t worry, we’re not going to talk about blood.)
Except this one… Spooky
Change locations
I used to donate with a friend at Fratton Park, which would mean she’d pick me up on her way home from work or I’d have to get down there via a lift or public transport. However, given that I tend to feel really faint (or actually faint) after giving blood, getting the bus home by myself is not an option, especially when the buses from there to my house are fairly lacklustre.
After my friend got pregnant and couldn’t donate, I switched to the Mountbatten Centre, which is close enough to walk to and I take one of my parents with me.
There are blood donation locations all over Portsmouth, so there should be one close enough to you to walk/get the bus from home or work. (Just take someone with you.)
Drink up
You’ve heard me and Tamara talk about water bottles for two years now and I’m going to encourage you to get one again. In my experience, you can fill up your water bottle with squash or water from the dispenser on the snack table before your donation and have the nurse refill it from the jug after donation. No need to use unrecyclable plastic cups.
If you like hot drinks after donating blood (you can only have them from your second donation onwards!), then take a pre-filled flask because the hot drink machines don’t look like they can accommodate a traditional or travel mug, only the disposable cups.
However, if you do want a hot drink and forget your thermos, you can always take the cup with you to be disposed of in the carton banks, at Gunwharf, or at Costa.
Chow down
It’s highly recommended that you have a snack before and after donating blood, preferably something that’s very sugary or very salty. With that in mind, why not take some sweet fruits, like an orange, with you to enjoy and avoid packaging?
If you’ve forgotten your snack, opt for one of those provided that comes in recyclable packaging. As spotted on an earlier donation, Portsmouth’s blood donation team will take crisp packets for recycling as long as you put them in the right box or you can opt for a chocolate bar or popcorn if you plan to take the packaging home to recycle.
Nurses don’t often have the time to sort out the bins for plastic bottles and other recycling that others have thrown in the bin by the pre or post-donation snack tables. While you’re waiting there, see if there’s anything in the bin that shouldn’t be and move it.
Full disclosure, my dad actually did this while I was complaining about feeling faint (weakling!) and not wanting to leave, so he should get the credit.
Recovery time
And finally, remember to compost the cotton pad that they stick over your arm. (importantly, not the plaster or the tape), rather than throwing it in the bin.
That’s it from me this month, but let me know in the comments if you have a blood donation coming up and if you have any more eco tips about it for me.
As there is currently no national standardized recycling system in the UK, access to recycling facilities varies widely depending on where you live. It’s basically a geographical luck-of-the-draw. Emma’s best friend lives in Bolton and whenever Emma visits, she’s amazed and rather jealous about what Bolton council will divert from the rubbish bin compared to Portsmouth city council. She literally lusts over Bolton’s kerbside recycling where food and drink cartons, foil and foil trays (to name but a few) are all collected, together with the usual suspects of tins, paper and card and plastic bottles.
Shades of Green Mantra Image by Tracey McCulloch
With countries such as China and Malaysia turning away the UK’s low-quality recycling, dumping our recycling waste on other countries is no longer such an easy option. So, though important, recycling must come after reusing, repairing, and reducing. With this in mind, donating to charity and repairing is included as a recycling option on our list.
For your convenience and our sanity, we’ve structured this list of items by which room in your house they’re most likely to be found. (We’ve included office as well for those of you looking to recycle at work.) We’ve also listed it according to the most convenient place for you to recycle items, i.e. if it can be recycled at home at the kerbside, we’ve stated that.
Prepare yourself, this is one epic post!
Tip: Please ensure items are clean and free of food residue on them. Give items quick rinse and let air dry before recycling.
Terracycle Tip: Public drop-off locations for Terracycle recycling schemes do change and some schemes are time-limited, so check the maps we have included or the Terracycle website for updated locations and information.
The Updated Ultimate Guide to Recycling in Portsmouth
Greetings cards and gift wrapping paper (no glitter or embellishments or foils or plastics)
Telephone directories and Yellow Pages
Small Electrical and Electronic Items (WEEE)
If in working order, donate to charity, and if broken, attempt to repair it at the Repair Café Portsmouth.
If definitely dead as a dodo, recycle at the kerbside. (Leave in a standard-sized supermarket carrier bag on top of your green wheelie bin/ box.)
Broken Sat Navs, Games Consoles, Laptops, Tablets, Cameras, including video cameras, Mobile Phones, and Portable Music Devices can also be donated to Portsmouth Green Party who through Recycling for Good Causes recycle these unwanted items and raise funds.
Living Room: Leave The House
Batteries
Where: Collection Points are located inside the store of most large supermarkets, including Lidl, Tesco, Currys PC World, and Sainsbury’s. (Take a look in your supermarket next time you shop)
What:
All household batteries including ‘button’ batteries from watches.
Battery packs from laptops, mobile phones, power tools and remote control units.
or contact a scrap metal dealer, like this one. (Emma did no research apart from Googling ‘Free Scrap Metal Collection Portsmouth UK’)
Furniture
Donate, give away, or sell.
If not fit for use, try offering on Freecycle or Trash Nothing because some clever crafty people can turn your broken chest of drawers into a child’s toy storage.
Pizza boxes (any parts with food waste or lots of grease should be composted)
Corrugated cardboard
Plastic bottles (No lids), such as:
Home cleaning product bottles like Cleaner and detergent bottles
Drinks bottles
Milk bottles
See where you can recycle the plastic bottle lids further down this list.
Drink Cans and Food tins (please wash), such as:
Drink cans e.g. fizzy drinks cans, beer cans
Food tins e.g. baked beans, fish, soup tins
Pet food tins e.g. dog and cat food tins
Metal sweet and biscuit tins
Food Waste Trial
Portsmouth City Council is launching a food waste kerbside collection trial starting this September 2019 for 6 months. Click here to see if you are one of the lucky households participating.
Yes to all uneaten food and plate scrapings, plastic-free tea bags, shredded paper, coffee grounds, vegetable peelings, eggshells and cut flowers.
No to liquids or packaging of any kind. That includes industrial ‘compostable’ packaging such as Vegware.
Tip: If your road is not part of the food waste trial, see ShareWaste further down this list.
Kitchen: LEAVE THE HOUSE
Recycling Banks/ Supermarkets
Glass Bottles and Jars (including metal lids)
Where: Recycle at Glass Recycling Banks located across the city. Find your nearest one here
What:
Glass bottles of any colour e.g. wine and beer bottles
Food jars e.g. jam jars, baby food jars
Non-food bottles, e.g. perfume, aftershave, face creams
Tip: Did you know you can leave the metal jar lids and the screwcap lids on!
Rigid Mixed Plastics
Where: Rigid Mixed Plastic Recycling Banks at Sainsbury’s Farlington and Sainsbury’s Commercial Road. Sainsbury’s Superstores are the only stores we’ve spotted these mixed plastic recycling banks.
What:
Margarine and ice cream tubs
Confectionary tubs
Rigid plastic food packets
Yoghurt pots
Plastic lids (see below for alternatives to Sainsbury’s)
What: Small plastic bottle tops made from any plastic compound such as Lush bottle caps, milk, soft drinks, sports cap drinks, fabric softener caps.
Where+ What: Take milk bottle lids only to Coffee No. 1 in Southsea
[April 22, 2021
SAD DANCE UPDATE: Unfortunately, St Mary’s Church no longer take foils for recycling. Instead, you can take your foils to the Household Waste Recycling Centre, in Port Solent (aka the tip).]
Foils
Where: Drop it at St Mary’s Church, Fratton 9am-12pm, Monday to Friday.
What:
Clean household foil and aluminium trays
Takeaway containers
Barbeque tray
Tip: Try the scrunch test - if you scrunch it up into a ball and it stays that way (like tin foil does), then it’s probably recyclable aluminium. If it bounces back open it isn't and needs to go in the rubbish bin.
Sign up for Sharewaste, which links people with organic waste like veg peelings and no compost with people with home composters! Tamara has two compost bins and is very proud of her system and many ‘regulars’ who donate their fruit and veg peelings.
What: This depends on the person who accepts your stuff for compost but to give you any idea – Tamara accepts:
Raw, uncooked fruit and veg peelings (remove stickers from fruit etc)
Uncooked eggshells (please crush)
Used tea leaves and used coffee grounds. ( just the contents of the teabags as most teabag casings are made of plastic – unless states plastic-free/ biodegradable tea bags )
Nespresso and Dolce Gusto brands can be sent back for recycling. Check for drop-off locations.
Tip: Did you know that Portsmouth Foodbank welcomes donations of toiletries, Tupperware, tin openers etc for people in need - not just food.
Terracycle Drop Off Locations (Kitchen)
Ella’s Kitchen Baby Food Pouches and Snack Wrappers
Where: About four Terracycle public drop-off locations in Portsmouth and Eco Freaks Emporium in Gosport. See map for details. Alternatively, youcan sign up as a private collector and post the items for free.
What:
Ella’s Kitchen brand of baby food pouches
Ella’s Kitchen brand baby food pouch caps (remember these can also go into Sainsbury’s Mixed Plastics Recycling or be taken to Lush)
Where: There are a handful of Terracycle Crisp Packet public drop-off locations both in the north and south of Portsmouth as well as Eco Freaks Emporium, Gosport. Zoom in on the map for details.
What:
Crisp packets
Crisp multipack outer packaging
Tips: Flatten the crisp packets and do not fold them into triangles. And try Two Farmers Crisps which come in home compostable bags! #notanad
Chocolate and sweets multipack outer plastic packaging
Plastic chocolate block wrappers
Tip: Breakfast, granola and energy bar wrappers are not accepted. See here for more details on what is/isn't accepted.
Home Cleaning Products Packaging
Where: Several locations in North Portsmouth. See map for details.
What: all brands and sizes of –
Plastic bottle caps and plastic trigger heads for home cleaning products
Flexible wipe packaging (used for home cleaning products)
Pumps and caps for home cleaning products
And for the truly dedicated, here are some kitchen items that do not currently have drop-off locations in Portsmouth but can be taken further afield to Fareham, Gosport Denmead etc.
What: Gillette is running a recycling scheme until June 2020 via Terracycle for all brands of razors, blades and disposable razors and their packaging.
Plastic Air Fresheners
Where: A few locations north of Portsmouth. See map for details.
What: all brands and sizes of-
Plastic air fresheners and air freshener cartridges
Plastic air freshener packaging
BEDROOM
Extract of bedroom items that can be recycled
BEDROOM: Recycle Kerbside
Aerosols, such as
Deodorant aerosol containers
No lids
Tip: Take the plastic aerosol lids to Sainsbury's mixed plastic banks.
Metal Tins, such as
Shoe polish tins
Deodorant tins
Bedroom: Leave The House
Out and ABout (BEDROOM)
Glass
Where: Glass Recycling Banks can be found across the city. To find your nearest one, go to Portsmouth’s City Council Recycling Locator here.
What:
Glass jars and bottles such as body cream and face cream jars. Remember, you can leave the metal lids on.
Jewellery
What + Where: Donate jewellery including costume jewellery, odd earings, broken pieces, and watches to Portsmouth Green Party. Of course, other organisations and charities also collect for these types of recycling schemes.
Tips: Recycle aerosols kerbside minus the lid, the aerosol lid can go to Sainsbury's Mixed Plastics Recycling Banks, the glass tubs and jars to the Glass Recycling Banks all around town.
Clothingand Accessories
What:
Clothing
Shoes
Bags
Household Linens
Belts
Hats, scarves
Repair:
Try repairing it at the monthly Repair Café Portsmouth at Buckland United Reformed Church.
Donate:
New toGood Condition?
*Prioritise* donating to charity shops and shelters if items are in good, reuseable condition.
In Good to Bad Condition?
Textile Recycling Banks
Where: There are many across the city, check here for your nearest one.
What: Any materials (clothes, shoes & bags and household linen) no matter how old or worn (Please ensure items are clean and place them in a bag).
Not Fit for Use?
Where: Charity Shops and Textile Recycling Banks
What: Rags, materials and textiles not fit for use – including old towels, bedding, clothes, etc
Tip: Put in a separate bag and label it rags, so staff don’t waste time going through it.
Swap for Rewards:
Where: Most M&S stores, including M&S Outlets, and at Oxfam stores offer a ‘Shwop Drop’ box, usually by the tills. Nearest M&S Outlet is in Gunwharf and Oxfam Shop is in Southsea.
What: They accept any item of clothing (even if it’s damaged) from any retailer, including shoes, handbags, jewellery, belts, hats, scarves and bras. You can also Shwop soft furnishings (bed linen, towels, cushions, curtains, throws, aprons, tablecloths and napkins)
Where: +What: H&M accept unwanted clothes by any brand, in any condition, at any of their stores. Nearest H&M is in Commercial Road, Portsmouth.
Others reward schemes exist. Google is your friend.
Bras
As well as the options above, you can also donate your preloved bras to specific bra-focused organisations and charities that redistribute and recycle them.
Tamara particularly likes Against Breast Cancer and Bravissimo, having used both in the past. Freepost your bras to Bravissimo to this address: FREEPOST RLYT-YCYR-YGUH, Bravissimo, 1st Floor, Imperial Court, Holly Walk, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 4YB.
Towels, Bedding, and Other Large Soft Materials
If it’s not good enough to be sold in a charity shop, but too good for rags, donate to your local animal shelter.
Mattresses
Donate to charity shops or homeless shelters, if in good condition and fit for use.
If not able to reuse, you could take some time stripping it down into individual parts, giving the material to rag bags and the metal to scrap metal collectors.
Or you can take it to the tip.
Sex Toys
Electric ones, i.e. vibrators, can be recycled with Love Honey. (Read more about socially conscious sex here.)
Tip: As electric/battery-operated sex toys are electrical items, they can be recycled kerbside. Leave in a standard-sized supermarket carrier bag on top of your green wheelie bin/ box.
Terracycle Drop Off Locations (Bedroom)
Personal Care Items
Where: Several public drop-off locations in Portsmouth depending on your address, as well at Eco Freaks Emporium, Gosport. See map for details.
Tip: Remember, shredded paper cannot go in the kerbside recycling but it can go in a home composter as well as the new kerbside food waste collection trial.
Packaging from Packages
Where: Join Packshare and donate your packaging materials to small businesses. The closest location accepting materials (at the time of writing) is on Hayling Island.
What:
Cardboard boxes
Bubble wrap
Air pockets
Packing peanuts
Jiffy bags
Poster tubes
Brown paper
Tissue paper
Vinyl mailer 7″ and 12″
Corrugated cardboard
Shredded cardboard
Plastic bags
Garage / Shed
Extract of garage and shed items that can be recycled
gARAGE AND shed: Leave The House
Energy-efficient Light Bulbs:
Robert Dyas and Curry’s PC World stores should accept them for recycling. There is a Robert Dyas on Palmerston Road, Southsea and a Curry’s PC World at Ocean Retail Park, Copnor.
Bicycles
Community Cycle Hub will refurbish donated bikes or recycle them. They have three locations – two in Portsmouth and one in Gosport.
A friend of Shades of Green, Emma, alerted us that plastic plant pots can be recycled at B&Q. Let us know if you try!
Further afield in Havant, you can take all shapes, sizes and colours of plastic plant post and trays to Dobbies Garden Centre. Give them a quick wash first and ensure it is plastic and not polystyrene.
Compostable Garden Waste
Where: As mentioned in the Kitchen section, Sharewaste links those with organic waste and no compost with neighbours with home composters.
What: This depends on the Sharewaste neighbour but they might accept –
Dry leaves,
Wood ashes
Withered flowers
Wood shavings
Grass clippings
Where: The Garden Waste Club, a paid kerbside collection is available in Portsmouth through Biffa.
What:
Leaves, grass cuttings, hedge and tree cuttings etc
Any woody material under 10cm (4 inches) in diameter
No vegetable peelings, animal waste such as droppings etc or animal bedding
Holiday Inflatables
Where: Isle of Wight based Wyatt & Jack turn inflatables, destined for the bin, into cool bags. Post smaller items and they refund your postage. They can collect large items from you using a courier service. See here for address details.
What: punctured and beyond repair –
Punctured paddling pools,
Bouncy castles,
Inflatable unicorns etc.
Water wings/ armbands
Beach balls
Old windbreaks
Trampolines
Rubber dinghies
All sorts of other beach paraphernalia, inflatables and water toys
Air beds
Well, that was a major read. Congrats if you made it to the end. Let us know any questions you have in the comments below or via ">email.
We’re especially interested to hear from people who want to share other recycling locations, other products to be recycled, and if you’re a local business able to take any products (i.e. paint, wood, etc) for reuse.
Following our Green Wins, join Emma and me as we bare our souls and reveal our Eco ‘Oopsies’. But as eco-shame is never the aim of our game, we also set our positive intentions with personal enviro challenges for the next 365 days of Shades of Green.
So, first, the waggy-ish finger – What Eco ‘Oopsies’ have Emma and I (Tamara) made in the last year in our attempts to live green?
Chauffeur Hire: I have been persuaded to share a taxi late at night, rather than get the bus, which I feel guilty about. (Tamara says: You are SHARING a taxi. That is fine. I absolve you.)
Flying McFly Face: Two of my holidays in 2019 have involved air-travel and I cannot pretend that I feel good about it. Before my holidays, Tamara and I discussed offsetting the carbon, which Tamara feels is greenwash. I can’t prove that the companies would have planted a tree with the £10, so I donated it to Portsmouth Green Party instead.
Single-Use Trees and Leaves: I do routinely forget to tell restaurants that I don’t want paper napkins, so I end up taking my unused napkin home and using it for emergency toilet paper if I haven’t washed my cloths. Otherwise, restaurants will just throw them in the bin because they don’t know what you’ve done to them.
Strike a Pose, Vogue: I bought three *new* items of clothing that were definitely not made from sustainable materials. I wish my swimsuit had been made from recycled materials and that the other items had been bought second-hand.
Tamara’s Eco Oopsies
Cat vs Food: My stupid cat has stupid ongoing urinary problems. She is now on stupid urinary food for life and though I have sourced it in a can and not in a stupid plastic pouch, it is not ethical meat. Gutted. Farewell to Yarrah‘s organic, grain free and MSC wet cat food!
Who Needs Teeth?: I am pleased to report that I have sourced zero waste toothpaste and floss. I have been using Toothtabs (with fluoride!) for a while now and am very happy with them. I’ve been buying them online and was so chuffed to buy them locally from Refill and Replenish – a fab mobile plastic-free shop run by the lovely Laura and Alice.
Think of the Fishes: Since Emma’s post last year on eco-ing the festival experience, researching and buying eco sunscreen has been on my list. I have not yet sorted that but I am using up one from last year’s Turkey holiday in September
Fish are Friends, not Food: But my biggest oopsie is that I’ve been eating illicit fish here and there, mostly eating (delicious) sashimi at Sakura Southsea – and it’s not even ethical or MSC fish. It is a massive fail. And I dare to still consider myself a vegetarian. It is a complete identity crisis. Who even am I?
We learn from our mistakes and we are not about eco-shaming, so Emma – please lift us back up – what will you be focusing on for the next 365 days of Shades of Green?
365 Green Challenges
Emma’s Green Challenges for Shades of Green 365
A lot of the green progress I’ve made is a case of thinking more about what I need and do not need. That’s cut down on packaging, as well as the creation of new items. I want to continue this thoughtful thinking next year.
I’m taking a stand against presents. Over the next year, I’m going to be telling all of my friends and relatives that I’m not going to be buying them birthday or Christmas presents, nor do I wish to receive them. (Actually, I’m just linking them to this post.) I will be making exceptions for my niece and nephews, but in order to ensure they get something that they’ll cherish, I’ve asked their parents what they want.
I will continue to cut down on:
packaging, even stuff that can be recycled, by buying naked products
animal byproducts, by eating vegan meals more often
food waste, by optimising my use of Olio, the Trash Cafe, etc
Terracycle and stretchy plastics in the Carrier Bag recycling banks – this is an ongoing de-merit. I have started taking stuff to carrier bag recycling but I still haven’t looked into it properly so always feel guilty in case I am contaminating it. I do take my crisp packets to a Terracycle collector in Southsea and keep my pens for Milton Cross School (but haven’t actually taken them) but again haven’t really done the research.
Water-saving is a challenge indeed as hopefully, I will be moving this autumn (hence the new mortgage green win in our previous post) and my new-fingers-crossed-home has a water meter. This is something I haven’t experienced since living in Tobago when we would bathe using a bucket. I am going to become a water-saving bully, I know it! I am taking inspiration from Emma’s post on ‘How to Eco-Hack Your Bathroom’ and her tips as her household are water-saving champs!
I have signed up to be #flightfree2020. I have warned my friends and family who reside abroad and am mentally preparing myself from now! Did you know that there is a new Sweedish word for the feeling of shame experienced when flying – flygskam. 2020 shall be flygskam free for me!
And so concludeth our anniversary introspection! Emma and I will report back on our green challenges in approx a years time in August-ish 2020 Till then, here’s to another 365 days of living in various Shades of Green!
And what of you Dear Reader, what are your green oopsies and challenges? – tell us in the Comments Section.
A not-so-secret secret is my love for the humble potato crisp and my hate of the unrecyclable packaging they come in. While my health and the environment beg ‘Please, no more’, my treacherous tastebuds say ‘Hell, yeah!’.
I (Tamara) have been fearlessly investigating crisp snack substitutes and am pleased to report back to you, my fellow crisp-lover.
Popcorn
Thanks to Wild Thyme offering both packaging-free popcorn and nutritional yeast, I have discovered a love of cheesy vegan(ish) popcorn. When I have a snack attack, my popcorn can be ready in 3 minutes flat! I can’t claim vegan status as I have a bad habit of smothering the popcorn in buttery deliciousness. The Dutchman has expressed a love for sweeter popcorn flavours – cinnamon and maple syrup have been a hit. The only downside is my microwave seems to not approve of my popcorn discovery and keeps shutting down mid-pop. It’s a-poppin’ mystery!
Though a bit more effort than homemade popcorn, roasting chickpeas in the oven is equally delicious and healthy – especially as, unlike my popcorn, I don’t smother them in butter! Because I am a lazy gal, I use canned chickpeas however I do have grand plans to eventually cook up some dried packaging-free chickpeas in my slow cooker. Click here for my g0-to oven-roasted chickpea recipe.
Crisps in Compostable Packaging
I have Emma to thank for this momentous discovery – crisps in compostable packaging. I thought it was but a distant dream but no, my dream is a reality! Hertfordshire based company, Two Farmers offer crisps in…wait for it….100% home compostable bags. I AM SO FRICKIN’ EXCITED!!!!!! (Yes, I am afraid both capitals and exclamation marks are necessary to convey my delight.) I am awaiting my first order and shall report back shortly!
Till then, dear reader, what do you snack on? Do you have any recipes to recommend? Let us know in the Comments section below.
