Make 2010 the year you go green!

Bournemouth Council is encouraging residents to take up a more positive challenge this New Year and reduce, reuse and recycle.

By making a few simple changes to your lifestyles you can make a big difference in helping to protect our environment, you may even save money too! So whether it's vowing to use your car less, recycle more or cut down on packaging - make sure your New Year's resolution counts.

Buy locally made and grown products. They usually require less packaging and eliminate the environmental costs of long-distance transport. Compost vegetable scraps and garden trimmings, the compost will improve your garden soil while reducing waste in your bin.

Perhaps find someone to car-share with on your daily commute or use your car less and try walking or use public transport. It's amazing what impact it can have, recycling just one plastic bottle can save the same amount of energy needed to power a 60watt light bulb for 6 hours. Every year the average British family throws away 6 trees worth of paper.