How do people get things from local tips free?

I have often heard that you can get things from a local tip free from different people. Often the tip managers do not let you take things though. Is this always the case or is it a question of building a relationship with the tip maintenance people for gardening equipment , perspex etc

It would be interesting to know how the restrictions work. Is there a way round it or other places that would be better for this sort of thing. I use freecycle on line but it often does not have what I want. I must confess I have never been one for using the local tip as a source for things and so only use it for dumping. Sometimes at my tip you see certain things put to one side where it looks like they are genuinely free but even then there are know signs saying so.

Thanks .

 

Does help if you can get to know someone that works there. Generally speaking it depends on what it is you want to take. If it is an item or material they are able to sell for recycling then chances are the answer will be no. They rely on what they can recycle for thier bonus.

Just be friendly and ask politely.

One mans junk is another mans gold.

Chopper.

 

What about skips locally? You need to ask, but people are paying to have the skip taken away so if you take something there is more room for other material and that should save them something if they have more than one skip-full - the owners will probably be happy that the materials are being recycled

 

Thanks. I am in actual fact looking for flat perpex as it costs so much these days. May be someone has a few ideas they can share with me?

Thanks for your previous answers!

 

Long shot: Set up a search on eBay (you can create a search and then set it to email you matches daily). We have had a variety of Tiles and the like off eBay which were "left over" or "over-ordered" from a job. Not much use if you are in a hurry, as it will need luck for there to be some available "now", but I've certainly had success with things like that where my searches have been running for more than a year. Got a Thalia delabata for the pond a month ago, and that search had been running, without a single hit!, for nearly two years. Definitely couldn't have got a plant for a fiver locally ... in fact the local aquatic nursery has been sold out each time I visited over the last two years.

 

Yes I'd searched ebay. No used perspex on the search so far. Thanks for the info though and I hope your Thalia delabata is doing nicely in your pond !
If your type in 'RHS nursery finder' in google and click on drop down menu saying 'Speciality' aquatics is listed with all the RHS recommended nursery's with mail order. Also once you have selected the nursery you want it offers an option at the bottom of the nursery contact saying 'view list' for all named plants potentially available. I am sure you already know this being a keen gardener but if not I hope it useful one day to you. Thanks for the ebay idea.

David.

 

Interesting, I've not seen that RHS Nursery Finder ( http://apps.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/nurseryfinder.asp ) before. Thanks for that, definitely will be handy in the future :thumb:

As an exercise I had a look on all the Aquatic sites listed for my Thalia. About 50% of the nurseries had it, a couple were out of stock, price ranged from £5 to £12, and for the £5 site I did not get an comfortable feel that their website was based on real stock levels - i.e. that they definitely had any - but that's not to say they didn't ... anyways, if I had spent a fiver with them two years ago I'm sure it would have arrived by now! and probably would be 2-years-mature, so I could definitely have saved the wait.

Of the rest of the sites a couple didn't actually have an online shopping cart, one had a security certificate (i.e. SSL) which was from an organisation not trusted by my browser, so that made it hard to use their site. Another give me an error when I tried to add it to my basket .... and most of them looked, IMHO, to be a pretty motley crew and unless I knew / recognised their name I'd be shy about buying from them online I reckon. Definitely an opportunity for a "Central Plant Clearing House Buying Website" I reckon

Useful resource though, bookmarked for the future :thumb:

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread.

 

Royal horticultural society nurseries are placed on there list when they have checked them out. So they are approved for plants as to whether the websites are secure is another matter true to say. They will send a list to you so you could pay by check if thats something you were wanting. Just thought it a useful future thing for the people who read the threads and any one else. Generally they deal on the phone where you just tell them your card details and can get a feel for them as people. They cannot get on the site recommendation list without being reputable so its worth some thought for any one reading this thread so to speak.

I worked in a garden centre for a living after being qualified in horticulture with about 70% theory course work so the course teachers tell you this stuff. I then worked in retail for a living with plants. I have never learned much practically with growing plants until recently when i developed a back problem and had to leave work behind. I am finding that 50% of the education learnt is either wrong or serves very little purpose so am calling myself a beginner really when it comes to the 'real' green fingers and not selling or learning about them(previously). Hence any help from this forum is invaluable.

Thanks David.

 

Yes, sorry, didn't mean to be disparaging. I don't have a problem using my credit card online, if something goes wrong the credit card company takes the hit, not me, just I suppose I thought that many of the sites were (sweeping statement, and very broad brush average) considerably below what has become the norm for e-commerce sites. But having said that, the fact that they carry a recommendation from the RHS is indeed reassuring, and its plant quality that matters, not a slick website.

 

Thanks that's great seems on a par or a little more than ebay.

Cheers.

 

'Nah, elf 'n safety y'see luv' is what you'll get if you ask at my local tip. Another long shot, but if you've a local newsagent who is still prepared to put 'Sales and Wants' cards in their window that could be a place to try or, perhaps your area has a newspaper, something like 'FreeAds'?

 

I have two HD VCR's, one I paid £80 for at Tesco's the other was given to me by a member of the computer group I have been running for 22 years. He got it from his local tip, no controller but I got one online for £9.99. Both work perfectly. Pity he hadn't got it before I bought the one from Tesco.