With the end of tenancies fast approaching, a special website has been set up to give you advice on how to help Leave Leeds Tidy at www.leaveleedstidy.com. Here are a few helpful tips on how you can do your bit to help reduce the impact of changeover around Leeds.

1.     Start packing early! Avoid a mad rush as you are moving out by thinking about packing and clearing your house earlier. Stop lots of unnecessary rubbish being left behind and going to landfill, and get your full deposit back.

2.     Get rid of bulky waste. If you have a sofa or fridge lurking at the bottom of your garden, and it doesn't have a home to go to, call Leeds City Council for a Bulky Waste Removal on 0113 222 4406. Remember to do this early to avoid items like this being left all over Leeds.

3.     Use your green bin. Put all clean tins and cans, non-confidential paper, magazines, card, aerosol cans, plastic bottles and bags in your green bin. Visit www.leaveleedstidy.com/bincollectionday to check when your bin is collected.

4.     Take a trip to the bottle bank. Get all your housemates together and take all the glass at the bottom of the garden down to your nearest bottle bank. These are marked on the Changeover Map and their addresses can be found on www.leaveleedstidy.com/services.

5.     Use the drop off point. Bring all of your dead batteries, old printer cartridges and mobile phones, clean tetrapak juice cartons and all the plastic bags you have been saving up all year, to the drop off point at Leeds University Union, Leeds Met Students’ Union or Leeds Trinity from Monday 10th May and we will recycle them properly for you.

6.     Shred confidential paperwork. Identity theft is a real problem that can be made worse during changeover when hundreds of people leave letters and other paperwork containing confidential information in their overflowing bins. Identity thieves find information by looking through all of the rubbish left behind every summer; stop it from happening this year by bringing anything containing your name, address or bank details to Leeds University Union reception or to Leeds Met Students' Union on the first floor by the photocopier, to use a shredder from Monday 10th May.

7.     Take out and bring your black bin in. Remember to put your bin out for collection and bring it back in after it has been emptied. If you leave it out you may be fined £75, it makes the streets look messy and increases the chances of someone going through your bin. Remember to use the right bin, paint your number on it and leave a note for your neighbours.

If you are leaving Leeds before bin day then contact the Changeover Wardens http://www.leaveleedstidy.com/services.htm#changeoverwardens to register your bin and they will put it out to be collected and put it back in.

8.     Donate to Green Streets. Green Streets, a student-led volunteering project, aims to reduce to amount of reusable items going to landfill. If you live in a collection zone, you will receive some red collection bags through your letterbox with information on when collections will be taking place. Visit www.leaveleedstidy.com/greenstreets for more information on the project, what you can leave for collection, when the collections are, and what you can do to help!