Wondering about recycling

[Doris_Pinks]

Roy, if we want extra rubbish to be collected then we pay!! :o  my bin in the summer was revolting, full of maggots, but the local flies as you can guess thought it was GREAT!!I felt sorry for the blokes that had to collect it cos it ponged big time!
Fly tipping round here is rampant too, you never know where you are going to find an old fridge! But thats cos in our councils wisdom they decided to build a housing estate on our old tip and wait 3 years till they built the new one! (no doubt on the "new estates" council tax!)
Must admit DG that I nip the odd bag of rubbish to me Mum's bin, we find with 4 adults in the house (well 2 adults 2 teenagers) a once every 2 week collection doesnt suit, and we recycle everything we can! Christmas is a nightmare!! And in our parish if it ain't in the bin (ie: a bag on the side)they won't collect it!  If your ash is mainly from grass and wood, think I am right in saying tis good for the garden! Coal on the other hand isn't! Now I am ramblin!

[Doris_Pinks]

[Mrs Ava]

We are quite lucky.  In our neighbourhood, once a month there is a bulk refuse collection, so long as you can take the bulk to the school car park.  I know it is only once a month, but it helps, and is good for the old peeps who don't drive.  (Our local tip is a good 10 minutes drive, in no traffic!)  Also, at 'peak' times of year, namely Easter and Christmas, the dustmen collect 'extra' rubbish so long as it is bagged, sealed and piled next to your full wheelie bin.  They do this for 2 collections, so we are able to get rid of all of the excesses of the season.  Wish the excess calorific poundage was as easy to shift!

[kenkew]

I live in Belgium now and re-cycling is the norm. Ha! Initially it was OK...It's turned out to be a load of brain washing.
We started out by being given a green bin into which we put all garden type and kitchen waste. We were also given black bags for general rubbish which were biodegradable and had the council logo printed on them. All other bags were not collected. Once a month the council picked up for free, all paper waste and once a month any large items such as fridges, TV's doors etc were piled up outside and also collected at no extra cost. This encouraged people to join in the re-cycling idea....
Then, slowly, over the years we have had a bit of a change!
The black bags we now have to buy from the local shop. These cost about £1 each. The green bin has been replaced with another green bin with a bar code printed on it. When it's emptied we are sent a bill for the weight of it's contents. Many people now have lockes fitted to their green bins to prevent other people using them!
Paper is still collected free but if there is so much as a tiny bit of anything among it, it's regected, even putting them in a plastic bag is a no-no.
The once free collection of bulky items is now chargeable, and it's not cheap.
All this cost is extra to what we have always paid in local taxation. Not a bad scam that, getting paid twice for the same job!
The road-side waste-bins have gone so we have no where to put 'street waste'. (No public loo's either!)
All of this has led to fly-tipping. My local wood is littered with rubbish. Up to last year I always took a bag with me when I walked my dog in the woods. Not now, it would mean I would have to pay to have it collected! It must cost more to remove all that rubbish than what they make in selling bags.
In down-town Antwerp there is dumped rubbish on many of the back streets. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so serious watching how people drop rubbish. I've seen lots of then put a bag down, pause to light a f*g and calmly walk away from what is just a bag of rubbish!
So, although the idea of re-cycling must be encouraged, the councils must also encourage us to join in and do it correctly without adding to local taxation.

[Roy Bham UK]

Having read Kens thread I can see why fly tipping is getting so popular, catching the odd fly tipper will not deter peeps and sneaking in the odd charges here and there will only flame even more peeps to copy the trend.
We have a regular weekly unknown fly tipper in our street, come Christmas it will be his/her anniversary for doing just that. That is how long I and others have been reporting them and the good old council collect without as much as groan. ;)

[Bionic Wellies]

I guess that one could organise a "neighbourhood flytip" where everyone in a street could dump their rubbish (on the common, say) then call the council who whould have to arrange for it to be collected (for free) and would not then be able to charge householders for rubbish collection - could even ask for a rebate because there woild be no rubbish to collect from houses.

I am joking folks (just in case) - but I can see a similar scenario being carried out across the country.

Another fine example of the difference between what politicians say and what they do!

[DolphinGarden]

What kenkew describes is probably what's going to happen in Dublin. Pay by weight. Could you delete it Ken, so they don't get the idea sooner than necessary!!!  The lock idea is good, but between taking it off before going to work and the bin collection is the crucial time for fe*kers to dump stuff in your bin.

And Doris_Pinks, I would put my stuff in my mother's bin, but not in a stranger's or welcome a stranger putting his/hers in mine.

Had to laugh last week, bought a new pair of football boots. Girl at desk said "if they don't suit, just bring them back, including the box".  Shudda given her the box there and then!!!!!! Must take a trip into town and return the box to see what they say.

My mrs. complains or slags me off for robbing skips of junk! I am raging that about a month ago I missed out on the chance of two washing machine insides, Roy's recommendation for containers....

[SpeedyMango]

The thing that amuses me the most is outside my nans house in Clapham, there are a series of bottle banks and she watched people religiously sorting the green from the brown from the clear....she then watches as the big lorry comes and dumps them all into the same skip in the back, mixing them all up again!

We spotted a similar thing happening at work - they provided us with special bins for vending machine cups, which we thought was very noble until we spotted the cleaners emptying said bins into the general waste on their rounds! Upon enquiry it turned out that the company had no cup recycling policy, just the bins! It didn't take long for pressure to be brought to get the cups recycled properly - not much of a chore considering the recycling company take them away for free!

[tim]

One thing the Council is good at disposing of is flip top plastic kithen bins. I know I shouldn't put them out, but I use them to separate out cut glass from picture framing.

So - new crew yesterday. Had 2 out there. Saw they hadn't been replaced, so rushed out (at a fast walk) shouting 'don't crush them'. Managed to dig one out of the muck but the other was too deep under. No Christmas bonus this year! = Tim

[Andy H]

amazing reading all the comments, I recycle what I can.
I cleared the garden a bit and took trailer(small)to the tip to dispose of rather than fly tipping!
I use the trailer for the dirty stuff and save journeys,the car was a taxi so had to keep clean, hence the trailer!
Told I couldn`t bring trailer into tip.
Complained to council about it and said if \I can`t bring trailer into tip then I would fly tip :o or dump at the tip gates and run like buggery!
They said can take trailer of any size I like but not for sheds and rubble of kitchen or bathroom reovations?

Funny that cos I need to renovate kitchen or garden or bathroom once in 20 yrs and cant take stuff anywhere unless MILES away and pay by weight( or fly tip for free)

so went again and bloke at tip said no, I said YES, ask your boss,ask the council etc and bugger off and let me do the right thing,didn`t try stop me as said would leave out on main road if had to but not taking home ;D

What a planet we live on! always on about environment and wont let us comply!

Bus stops traffic for priority,stops 20 cars at Gatwick with 30 odd people in it, bus has 7 on it. 20 cars have to excellerate again using much more fuel than the bus ???

I just recycled 10 beds from a hotel that were destined for the landfill! Call me a pikey but I couldn`t bear to see the wood go to waste,many staples and blisters later but I have saved all the wood from these and used it as a compo heap!

[westsussexlottie]

We have a new twin bin recycling service. We have 2 black bins and one red recycling bin. We also have a green cone food digester, and an 800L compost bin.
Also a tip skip comes once a fortnight to the town car park for "big stuff". The guys at this skip are very helpful and take green waste as well.

Yet other people seem to not bother at all. OK its a pain to separate everything when you are busy - but what is the cost if we don't?!

Flytipping of old cement sacks?? is common around here.

[wardy]

I agree with what's being said here.  Why don't we get 10 p for taking a bottle back like in the old days?  That was the only pocket money I got!  So it was in my interests to take back as many as possible.  We import so much food - all in plastic containers, eg green beans from Zimbabwe or somewhere, plastic junky toys from China etc.  Why import all this stuff in the first place?  I know it might be about choice but what does it do for the planet to fly stuff right round the world when we could produce it here, green beans being an example!  When I got  to the supermarket for any veg, eg ginger I don't put it in a bag.  That's a small thing but it's a start and if everyone else did it ......  Any small placcy bags I do get become pooper scoopers.  I divide my used carrier bags up and take them to our local small shops who are always glad of them.  Any plastic fruit boxes become plant pots etc.  I'm trying not to put anything in the bin that can be re-used.  Pity everyone else doesn't do so but it shouldn't be an option.  I've even got my OH at it now and I noticed those plastic triangular sandwich things he's using to keep nails in  :)

[wardy]

I just posted a great big rant and managed to lose it.  Grrrrrr.  I used the back button instead of post.  Why oh why do I keep doing that  ;D  Cos I'm a berk.
I'm doing my best to save the planet and can't bear to chuck stuff in bin if it can be re-used.  It's like a challenge  :)  I've noticed a reduction in the amount of stuff going in the dustbin but an ever increasing pile of stuff in the shed and at the allotment  ;D

[Svea]

i am going off buying inthe supermarkets, because so much is pre-wrapped in plastic when it doesnt need to be. i am now shopping at small shops that use paper bags and cardboard for packaging, and the market for fruit and veg - then i can bring my own bags along (fabric)

i also use 'bags for life' when shopping - still plastic but at least it gets reused 100 times before they break.

as was said: first - reduce, then - reuse, then - recycle. it's the last option of the three, not the first! people forget this far too quickly.

svea

[legless]

i'd really like the 2 bin fortnightly collection thing, it works well for friends in different council areas and i thinkl it has to encourage people to think about what they are throwing away.

[Gadfium]

We too have the new super-dooper two bin, alternate week collection. NOT.  >:(

It only started mid-autumn. What a health hazard...

Flies, maggots & putrifying refuse standing for up to two weeks in a nice enclosed warmish environment. Gawd knows how bad the stench is going to get once it sits in mid-summer.

In the wildlife hospital, come summer you always got the swans and other birds coming in with botulism - rubbish tip feeding in the heat. Can't see a lot of difference between that and fly/rodent/bird access to two-week old heaving refuse. Could be a big rise in tummy bugs - and worse - come the warmer weather!

A few years ago, our local council, in its standard abject stupidity, decided to save money by closing several of the local tips. They said we didn't need them. Result - fly tipping all over the countryside. Cost them more to clean the mess up, than they were trying to save. Spouted usual drivel for years, then re-opened them all. Rules up to the eyeballs, of course. It is a rubbish tip.... BUT.... (a) + (b) + (c) + ad nauseum apply, and if you can't prove you are all the things you should be, then bugger off, and take your rubbish with you. Fortunately a modicum of common sense now seems to be applied at the gate... could be something to do with the massive piles of cr*p that miraculously appeared each and every night, just outside the tip gates.

Now they are announcing a new, extra-super-dooper rubbish opportunity, for you, the consciencious householder ( ???) ... just pay us another £26.00 a year and we'll be kind enough to give you a little green bin into which you may put a tiny amount of garden waste, and we'll take it away for you AND woe betide if you try to circumvent the system and put any green bin stuff in either your blue or black bin. I just love all the politically correct bull dottles, that as plain english translate into nasty blackmail threats. Makes you want to bop the genius responsible for this ludicrousness right on the nose, then give him a brain transplant so  he can see beyond the (now squashed) nose on his face.

Grrrrrrrr!!