General Chat

I sometimes wonder if it is worth going to the trouble of carefully sorting my recycling. so many of the bins one sees by the kerbside have non recyclables (this council) in them. Will that earn that all my hard work now will have to go into general waste as it is contaminated.
Some people seem to think just because it is some form of plastic our council can recycle it. :-|

I think all councils have a problem with ignorance of what can be recycled. Ours regularly send out a newsletter saying what can be recycled but they too have had contaminated loads because things like nappies have been put in the recycling bin.

I wouldn't be without our wheelie bins.

We have 2 issued and collected alternately once a fortnight, - household waste and recycling.
We can recycle plastic bottles, tinfoil,tetra paks, tins, cans and glass all in one bin and have a separate box for waste card and paper.

We opt to pay for garden waste to be collected fortnightly too.

The big problem around here is seagulls. They are real scavengers and tear open bin bags, so the current collection system is much better.

My daughter lives in an area with steep steps and in places the pavements are quite narrow. The council collect that road early on bin days, so that by the time most people need the pavement space, the bins are empty and ready for householders to store them away again.

I wouldn't want to go back to bags.

A few years back, as secretary of a local club, I arranged a group visit to a Waste Management centre, where our local recycling waste is taken. It was a real eye opener.

The sheer scale of the operation took your breath away. The place was far bigger than I had thought it would be and during the two or three hours that we were there dust carts were coming in non-stop and dumping their loads. The rubbish moved around on a sort of huge conveyor belt system with sieves that took out tiny things like sweet papers. The noise was absolutely deafening and we were issued with hard hats and ear defenders with built in earphones so we could hear what the tour guide was telling us.

In addition the rubbish was also hand sorted by a number of young men and non-recyclable items thrown out. The workers were issued with helmets, overalls, ear defenders, goggles, masks for mouth and nose and gloves, but a lot of them didn't wear much of their equipment. I was surprised that they weren't told that they had to wear the safety equipment.

The workers were all, bar one, East European and apparently this was because the company found it impossible to recruit local British workers. On the rare occasion when they did manage to employ a British worker, they quit after, on average, half a day.

We all came away full of admiration for these chaps who seemed to be working hard and were a cheerful bunch in spite of their horrid working conditions.

Gwyn I forgot Tetra packs and tinfoil, yes that goes into the blue recycling bin as well.
We do take the low energy bulbs to the tip, we actually still have to take some garden waste to the tip at some times of the year as we can more than fill our garden bin in two weeks, so the bulbs go then. batteries sometimes go to the tip or Teso have a battery recycling bin.
Small electricals go to the tip if not working, if working are offered free on the neighbourhood website.

We have 4 wheelie bins but, are lucky that we have space and created an area at the side of the house to store them.
Somehow, we still manage to have a car load of rubbish/recyclables to take to the recycling centre on a monthly basis

My next door neighbour asked me recently if I washed and squashed recyclable plastics before putting them into the bin.??
When I said that I did, she asked me why I thought it necessary?

She had no idea that this waste was separated by hand

Oh GlasgowLass, rinsing of recyclables has caused me to have massive ridges in my tongue due to the number of times I have had to bite it since my son moved back home temporarily!! :-|

I rinse mine (as requested by local council) but son doesn't see the point. Now I say nothing, just retrieve and rinse when he is out lol.

Even before recycling I used to rinse cartons that had contained milk or cream to cut down on smell ;-)

At some point there we were asked not to crush so I don't bother with that .

have to admit to putting cat food tins in the general rubbish.
Washing them out would cost too much in water :-(

Swings and roundabouts - recycle or waste water (which I pay for by the pint)!

I do wash mine out but have often wondered if I'm using more resources than I'm saving

I would rinse out tins anyway even if not being recycled, hate the smell from some people's rubbish when the bins are out on collection day, obviously they don't rinse their stuff. I do put some of the tins in the dishwasher if I am running it, otherwise I rinse them after I have done washing up by hand, in the same water. I wear gloves to do it so the water can be very hot.

LOL!
I have those ridges on my tongue too

I only have daughters who each use tons of different hair products .
Shampoos, conditioners, hair masks etc,not to mention all the lotions and potions that also come in plastic containers
Today, I cleaned the shower room and retrieved 9 different plastic bottles from their bin

The youngest buys her shampoo in bulk and the tiny lids don't come off to rinse the remnants out.
(The lids are really disproportionate to the bottle size.)

I don't know why I do it but, I spend ages squeezing the bottle in a bowl of hot water, sucking clean water up through the nozzle shaking the bottle and rinsing them out before putting them in the recycle bin !

I may not rinse out the tins - but all rubbish in the 'general' bin is bagged/double bagged.
My bin's by my back door - I want neither smells nor flies :-0