Recycling...why do I bother?

We have a green wheelie for garden, kitchen and cooked food waste. A grey bin for non recyclable waste, and a black box for other recyclables, as long as they are segregated in carriers.

 

Once upon a time (about 15 years ago or more) we had a single bin for everything. It was emptied once a week and the bin men came up our drive to collect it. Then the service 'improved' and we were issued with black sacks to line the bin which we had to leave at the kerbside for collection. Now we've got three bins which we have to wheel out on the appropriate dates. I'm utterly and completely in favour of 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' but it really annoys me that we don't have any facilities for kerbside glass and cardboard recycling so have to make a 20 mile round trip to do so and even if we do fit in our recycling, carbon emitting trip, with a visit to the supermarket, I was somewhat gutted to discover that any cardboard we take for recycling (we compost most of it) is driven to England and then shipped to CHINA!!!

WOO - I've got every sympathy with your plight regarding the poor bin men being told it's too risky to carry your bins. Just before I retired our new school caretaker declared that he couldn't safely wheel our school rubbish bins down the sloping playground to the kerb. Despite his predecessors managing it for years without incident our LA Health and Safety did a risk assessement and decided there was a chance he might slip (and the LA get sued) It was OK for me to do it though!

Just be careful carrying the sacks WOO. You might 'accidently' trip on the upraised edge of a paving slab or wet leaf or slip on the frost on an unsalted pavement. I can just imagine the headline in your local paper - "Council Sued for £30,000 by Pensioner Compelled to Abandon Career in Photograpy Due to Injury to Shutter Finger":yho:

 

I can see why you're called Wiseoldowl.....:D

 

The councill here collect from the kerb and recycle everything barr plastic and cardboard. It is needles plastic waste that botheres me most.

As an example, I bought some work gloves the otherday, they came wrapped in a polythene bag and with a plastic clip holding them together........ Why????

 

We have 3 wheelie bins: the green one is for garden waste and cardboard and is only used from April to November; the blue is for recycling and we just dump it all in together and that includes paper, glass, certain plastics, cans, cardboard and deodorant cans: and the black one is for everything else. The green and the blue are collected every 2 weeks and due to xmas the blue bin won't be collected for a month but we were given 2 big clear bags to put the extra in. The black is colected every week normally but as its xmas its 2 weeks but we can have extra black bags.

Poole is really hot on the recycling and I think they have their own recycling place here instead of transporting it elsewhere. They have also installed new bins in the parks and streets which are double ones with recycling one side and normal the other side. The colours match our home bins too. They've got a new lorry which empties them and keeps the recycling separate to the normal.

 

Our refuse collections are about to change.
We had a leaflet before Christmas telling us of the changes.
I have noticed today the next road as already had their new bin.
So I bet we will be next
The brown bin is for garden rubbish but not soil or thick branches or big roots.
Emptied every other week from February to November.
The old green bin that was for general house old that was emptied every week will now be the recycle bin and will be emptied every other week.
I'm not sure what we have to put in it .
A new smaller grey bin will be the general house old waste emptied every week
The old plastic green box that was for recycling cans paper and glass is ? I dont no

I have no idea which bin goes out which week or what I have to put in where neither does anyone else . :cnfs:

 

My motto is this: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It is fairly self explanatory. Top priority should be to reduce waste in the first place. For example by buying loose fruit and veg instead of shiny packaged stuff and don't bag it seperately, even if it annoys the checkout staff.

Obviously we can eliminate waste altogether, so that takes us onto 'Reuse'. I have collected all the plastic pots that mushrooms and the likes come in, and they will be my plant pots this year, as I have done in previous years. Before chucking anything, I see if I can think of a good use for it (I'm a bit of a hoarder).

Recycle is obvious again. Whatever is left after 'reducing' and 'reuse', I see if it can be recycled

I'm not as good at it as I would like to be, it takes time to change old habits, but I keep working on it.

 

Have followed this thread with interest, as we are keen, almost obsessive, recyclers in our household. We have 2 blue boxes which are collected once a fortnight, and a polyproylene bag for plastic bottles and tins.

We remove paper labels from our tins and recycle them, washing out the tins first. Newspaper is made into briquettes with one of those 'Innovations' gadgets, and feeds our logburner/chimenea. And plastic containers are used as seed trays etc. wherever possible.

I am concerned about the amount of recycling which is sent overseas for processing; even our s**** metal here in Cornwall goes by ship from Truro to China - surely that can't be cost-effective!!

I think it is incumbent on us all to continue our recycling, despite these rumours and scandals we hear about. Sooner or later those living at No. 33 will realise that their way of dealing with their refuse is just not acceptable, and that their Council Tax is higher than those around them. Carrot not stick, as has been mentioned before.

In time, recycling will become second nature to us all, and we will all participate as a matter of course. Smoking is now universally frowned upon, unlike 30 years ago; drink driving is similarly disapproved of, and in time not recycling will be considered anti-social too.

There, that's got that off my chest!!

Andy

P.S. love the way that s**** metal has been 'safeguarded' for the more sensitive of you!!

 

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I wonder whether there was more recycling done 50 years ago (when I worked for Cambridge Corporation (as a decorator). The Bin Men collected the bins from the back yards, all waste together in one bin. When they got to the yard it was tipped out and sorted. Various things could be recycled and the bin men shared the proceeds. They made a welcome bonus by selling the recyclable waste.

 

You've just reminded me of something my dad once pointed out to me, which I reckon is very true. We all think recycling is a new idea, but in years gone by when people had to make do with a lot less of just about everything, recycling of a much more practical nature was just the norm. Clothes being mended and passed down to a freind or family member that was just growing into them, containers of all shapes and sizes used for storing stuff, and I suspect we've all seen sheds made out of thrown away doors and teh likes on allotment plots.

 

There's been some discussion recently, wondering if the current money worries and general recession will see a return to the "make do and mend" mentality. Personally, I'm not sure - there is a whole generation out there that would rather die than wear hand me downs. Coupled with cheap fashion, sometimes the same price as what you can buy in charity shops, why would you bother recycling when you can get a t shirt or jumper that can be worn for a season then disposed of?

One thing we need to see less of is packaging. I understand supermarkets need to keep spoilage to a minimum, but wrapping apples in shrink wrap?? And don't get me started on buying bananas in plastic bags, or worse, putting onions in a plastic bag to buy them!! Anything that comes in its own skin doesn't need plastic to "protect" it!