Rethink & Reuse Rethink & Reuse
Glass jar, folded linen cloth and a curled lemon peel on a matte worktop under cool afternoon light from the right

Rethink & Reuse · Website terms

Terms of Service

These terms set out the conditions for using the Rethink & Reuse website. Rethink & Reuse is an editorial resource for UK households. It is not a shop and does not sell products.

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What these terms cover

By using this site, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the site. The same document covers reading and sharing our guides, limits on copying our work, the accuracy of council and collection information, and the safety responsibility you carry when you try a project at home.

Nothing here replaces professional advice. Guides on zero waste living, reusable produce bags, beeswax wraps and repurposing old clothes describe what has worked for other households; your own council rules and equipment still decide what is right for you.

Who we are

An editorial resource for UK households working on zero waste living and simple upcycling projects. We publish guides, not goods.

What you can do

Read, quote short excerpts with a link back, and share our pages with neighbours, groups and community kitchens.

What you cannot do

Copy full guides and present them as your own, or rebuild this site's content as a competing resource without written permission.

Where to ask

Any question about these terms goes to the contact page, weekdays 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM.

Permission and limits

Use of the site

Read it, link to it, cook from it — just don't hand it in as your own work.

You may read, share and link to the content on this site for personal, non-commercial use. Printing a zero waste tips for beginners page for your own kitchen wall, or sending a link to a friend starting a zero waste starter kit, is exactly the kind of use we expect.

You may not copy content and present it as your own, or use it to build a competing resource. That covers lifting whole guides on how to reduce household waste, plastic free alternatives or composting food scraps at home and republishing them under another name.

Short excerpts are welcome when you link back to the original page. A sentence or two in a newsletter, a quoted list in a community group, or a reference in a school project is fine. Please name the site and link to the page you quoted.

Any other use requires our permission. Translating a guide, reproducing photographs, or reprinting our content in a paid course or workshop handout needs a written request first.

Start with the Zero Waste Starter Guide
Hands sorting kitchen scraps, glass and flattened card at a home sorting counter under cool light

Local sorting rules change — check your council before you rely on a guide.

Content and accuracy

We aim to keep guides accurate and up to date. Local rules, such as council recycling and food waste collection, vary across the UK and can change. Content is provided for general information and is not professional, legal or safety advice. You are responsible for checking details that apply to your situation.

Practical guides on a low waste home guide topic describe common approaches, not fixed standards. What your council collects kerbside, how it sorts soft plastics, and whether it accepts compostable liners differ from one borough to the next — and a collection schedule can change with little warning. Before you buy storage, subscribe to a collection or sign up for a local scheme, check the current guidance from your own council and your waste authority.

The same caution applies to numbers. Where a guide mentions a typical household's food waste or a rough weight of packaging, treat it as guidance for scale rather than a measurement of your home. Your results depend on your kitchen, your shopping and how your area handles collection.

Read the composting and food waste guide

Projects and good sense

Safety and DIY projects

Some guides describe upcycling and DIY projects. You are responsible for carrying out any project safely and for following product instructions. Do not attempt anything you are not confident doing. If a project involves electricity, heat, or structural work, use a qualified professional.

Craft and fabric

Needles, blades and lint

Repurposing old clothes into cleaning cloths, patchwork or bags is low risk when you keep sharp tools sheathed between cuts, work on a stable surface, and cut away from your body. Wash reused fabric before it goes near food, and never store textile offcuts close to a hob or heater.

Glass and heat

Jars, sanding and vessels

How to upcycle glass jars usually means removing a label and a residue of glue. Take that work outside or near an open window, wear gloves for the cut edges, and sand only wet to keep glass dust down. A jar that held anything other than food — a candle, a solvent, a cosmetic — should not be reused for food storage, however clean it looks.

Fixed to the wall

Shelves and hanging planters

Upcycled home decor DIY that fixes anything to a wall — a crate shelf, a hanging planter, a ladder rack — is a structural job once weight is involved. Use the right fixings for your wall type, and stop and call a qualified trade if you are unsure what is behind the plaster. Preserve change: keep packaging and product instructions for anything you refill or re-purpose.

If you are unsure whether a project is within your skill, treat it as a job for a professional. This site will not tell you a task is safe for you.

Text and images

Intellectual property

Quote us widely, credit us properly, and never republish the whole guide.

The text and editorial content on this site are owned by Rethink & Reuse unless stated otherwise. That includes the wording of every guide, the structure of each page, and the photographs and object images we commission for our articles.

You may quote short excerpts with a link back to the original page. A paragraph in a blog post, a line in a community newsletter, or a short quotation in a report is fine. Reproducing full guides without permission is not allowed.

Screenshots of a page count as reproduction. If you want to show a full guide to a group, link to it instead of copying it, or write to us for permission first — we are generally happy to say yes to schools and community groups.

If you believe your own work has been used on this site without credit, tell us through the contact page with the page address and we will look at it.

Links to other sites

This site may link to other websites, such as council pages or local groups. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices. Check their terms before relying on them.

We choose links because they are relevant to a guide — a council's recycling page, a tool library, a repair cafe — but a link is not an endorsement. Those sites may change their advice, move their pages, or update their own policies without telling us, and the version you see when you arrive is the one that applies.

Sustainable shopping tips Upcycling vs recycling

Limitation of liability

The site is provided as is. To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any loss arising from use of the site or reliance on its content. Nothing in these terms limits liability where it cannot be limited by law. If a guide suggests a swap and the result does not suit your home — a beeswax wrap that performs differently from the one you tried, a plastic free food storage box that cracks, a cleaning mix that fails on your surface — that outcome sits with you, not with the site.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms if our practices change or if the law requires it. The current version is always published on this page. Continued use of the site after changes means you accept the updated terms. If a change is significant — for example if we add a new way to get in touch or start offering a paid resource — we will note the revision date on this page so you can see when it last changed.

Contact

For any question about these terms, use the contact page on this site, write to 42 Bramley Road, London, N14 4HD, United Kingdom, email [email protected], or call +44 20 7946 0821. We answer Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM, and Saturday, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM.

Straight answers

Questions we get about using the site

Can I copy a guide onto my own website?

Not as a full repost. A short excerpt with a link back to the original page is fine. If you run a school or community group and want to share a whole guide, send a request through the contact page and we will usually say yes.

Is the site selling anything?

No. Rethink & Reuse is an editorial resource, not a shop. We do not sell products, we do not take orders, and we do not process payments on this site. Guides may name the kind of item that suits a task, but the choice of buyer and seller is yours.

Who is responsible if a DIY project goes wrong?

You are. We describe what has worked for other households; we cannot see your tools, your materials or your home. Anything involving electricity, heat or structural fixing needs a qualified professional, and product instructions always take priority over anything written here.

Why does a guide mention something my council doesn't collect?

Collection rules differ borough by borough and they change. We write for a general UK reader and flag where local variation matters. Check your own council's current guidance before you change how you sort or store anything at home.

Do the guides work for flats and rented homes?

Often, yes — many swaps on this site, from reusable produce bags to plastic free alternatives in the bathroom, need no outdoor space and no changes to the building. Anything that fixes to a wall or alters a fixture needs your landlord's agreement, and that conversation is yours to have.

How do I report a mistake or an out-of-date guide?

Send the page address and what looks wrong through the contact page. Corrections from readers are one of the main ways a guide on beeswax wraps usage and care or eco friendly kitchen cleaning improves over time.

More on how we run this site

The two companion policies sit next to these terms, and they answer most of what people ask us.

Read the privacy policy Read the cookie policy Back to the contact page