Be aware and take care when visiting a re3 recycling centre

LAST year, residents of Bracknell Forest, Reading and Wokingham Boroughs made over 550,000 visits to the re3 Recycling Centres at Longshot Lane, Bracknell and Island Road, Reading.

Most of these trips are quick and easy, allowing us to recycle materials that would otherwise go to waste.

But Recycling Centres are potentially hazardous.

FCC Environment, which operates two re3 Recycling Centres on behalf of Bracknell, Reading and Wokingham Councils, is keen to help residents stay safe on site by launching a new website and providing residents with information and advice while warning of some of the risks.

Sort before you visit

Pre-sorting your items at home can help you get in and out of your Recycling Centre quickly and efficiently.

Avoid slips, trips and falls: be aware of your footwear money-saving specials. They include 21% off pizza bundles at PizzaExpress. 20% off the entire Zizzi menu and free chips at ASK Italian. Offers subject to change or availability.

In summer’s warmer weather, you may be sporting flip flops or sandals and in winter you might be wearing muddy boots – but take care and make sure you are in more suitable footwear when visiting your Recycling Centre.

You just don’t know what may have fallen on the ground where you’re walking, or who might drop something heavy, so sensible shoes are a must and bare feet are definitely not allowed.

Follow the signs

On arrival, a member of staff will meet and greet you and guide you to the appropriate disposal bays. These are clearly laid out and signed to help you find them.

Keep kids and pets in vehicles

With cars, vans and trucks reversing and bulky items being moved around, it’s important that children of all ages (from toddlers to teens), as well as pets, stay in your vehicle for their own safety.

Children are often keen to be green and help out at the Recycling Centre – but sorting through your materials at home can help to keep them engaged with recycling, as well as safe.

FCC environment operations director Steve Longdon said: “We welcome hundreds of thousands of people to the sites that we run each year and most visits are without incident but we want to do even better and reduce accidents, slips and trips even further so I urge the public to look at the posters on-site, or just log onto https://staysafe. fccenvironment.co.uk/ for lots of hints and tips about how to have a safe visit.” re3 is a waste management partnership which is responsible for arranging the disposal of household waste collected across Bracknell Forest, Reading and Wokingham Boroughs working together with FCC Environment.

This includes recyclable waste and general waste collected at the kerbside, at the two Recycling Centres, glass banks and street cleaning.

IT’S well-known that exercise helps keep us healthy, yet around 34% of men and 42% of women don’t do enough physical activity.

Regular physical activity reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 35% and it is something we should all be aiming to achieve.

The key word is ‘regular’, while trying new activities which increase our physical activity levels temporarily are of benefit, we need to find ways to incorporate movement and regular physical activity into our daily routines.

Here are some tips that might help.

Make a commitment

Committing to a weekly exercise class (or multiple) can help you stay active when motivation drops. If attending a paid class isn’t an option, ask a few local friends or neighbours if they want to form an exercise group with you.

Set aside the same time each week to be active together, this could be something as simple as going for a walk or jog.

The main thing is the commitment, having a set time scheduled into your week makes it easier to hit your activity goals.

Identify opportunities

Day-to-day life usually presents opportunities for us to move more, but in today’s modern world we find lifts and escalators in most places with stairs, and it has become the norm to drive rather than walk.

Look at your weekly activities and determine ways you can be more active while going about your day-to-day duties.

This could be taking the stairs in a shopping centre or parking a little further away from work and walking the rest of the way.

Know how much n For more tips on how to stay healthy, sign up for our weekly healthy tips at www.heartresearch. org.uk/healthy-tips n To help keep your heart healthy, why not try out some of our Healthy Heart recipes from our website: https://heartresearch.org.uk/heartresearch-uk-recipes-2 n Or have a look through our Healthy Heart cookbook filled with recipes from top chefs, celebrities and food bloggers: https:// heartresearch.org.uk/heart-research-ukcookbook

Adults should aim to do 150 minutes of physical activity every week, which is 2030 minutes a day. Other activities such as cleaning and gardening can count towards our movement goals.

Don’t just think about sweating in a gym and let that put you off, reframe even the most mundane activities like hoovering and appreciate them for helping us to stay healthy.