Refuse collections

[Silver_Shiney]

From the Parking thread...

Local Authorities think they are above the law - mine has just recently introduced new recycling bins (not boxes) contrary to EU law and are failing to collect them.

Our council introduced green wheelie bins a few years ago. What you can put in them depends on whatever is politically correct at the time. We used to be able to put shredded paper, and cardboard. Then you couldn't. Then you could put the paper in, but cardboard has to be stacked up by the side. Now you can't put shredded paper in.

They recently announced that they will be scrapping the green bins, which are emptied once a fortnight. In their place will be a green bag, which we have to buy, and then pay to have emptied.

Different councils seem to have different ideas about what can be recycled. Can't they get this regularised on a national basis once and for all? And how about getting the workshy to do the sorting?

[davecttr]

Just don't bother, just bung it all in the same bin. It all end up as landfill in the Phillipines anyway!.

[david63]

One of the major factors in how things are recycled is the actual recycling plant. I was once told by someone who was in the recycling business that with a modern recycling plant you do not need to separate anything - the plant can handle it.

[Silver_Shiney]

Just don't bother, just bung it all in the same bin. It all end up as landfill in the Phillipines anyway!.

Unfortunately, we can't do that - someone recently put the "wrong thing" in the bin at the top and the binmen refused to empty the bin at all.

[davecttr]

Ah! We still use black plastic bags which can conceal all sorts of interesting stuff, mainly thousands of copies of the Horizon newsletter.

Stick the dodgy stuff in someone elses bin.

[Frank Manning]

They are very good in Poole; 3 bins. One black normal refuse, one blue recycleable glass, paper, plastics etc., and one green for which we pay £27.95 per annum for all green compostable waste. The green and blue are collected fortnightly, and the black weekly.

The trouble is that there is a wasteful industry of paper marketing rubbish, the postman shoves it through the letter box, and we carry it staright to the blue bin. Virgin Media take note!! Straight to the blue bin.

Our bin men are a friendly bunch too.

[Silver_Shiney]

You can register with the post office so that the postman doesn't deliver any leaflets. Contact optout@royalmail.com for the registration form. There's a similar thing from the Direct Marketing Association. You could try putting a notice on your door, but most people ignore it, although it is against the law for leaflets to be delivered if the householder has clearly stated that he does not want them. Yell (or whatever they're called these days), BT and Thomson should also allow you to state that you do not want their directories.

[The Tinker]

Shiney - i expect your neighbours have reported you for having too much rubbish - shredding all that scanning work and trying to avoid business rates

[Admiral of the Humber]

We now each have three wheelie bins in the East Riding of Yorkshire. I have a brown bin for garden waste, a blue bin for tins, bottles, paper and cardboard etc and a green bin for the non recyclable stuff. Each bin is emptied fortnightly. I can't vouch for where it all ends up but not being a miserable old cynic I would like to think it was being processed in a proper manner.

Regards
Rob aka AOTH

[Silver_Shiney]

Tinks, the documents being scanned at work are not being shredded and the bins I'm talking about come under a different council's jurisdiction

[Kendhni]

I can't vouch for where it all ends up but not being a miserable old cynic I would like to think it was being processed in a proper manner.

Only a small proportion
We barely pay lip service to environmental issues in this country ... the political parties are too scared that if they do what is required then a fickle lazy public will 'vote for the other lot'.

[The Tinker]

Tinks, the documents being scanned at work are not being shredded and the bins I'm talking about come under a different council's jurisdiction

Only joking SS - you paid extra to have a garden bin in Bristol for a few years now so expect South Glos are trying to make extra money from you all. Bristol used to let you put your cardboard in the garden bin but that soon changed.

[Admiral of the Humber]

I can't vouch for where it all ends up but not being a miserable old cynic I would like to think it was being processed in a proper manner.

Only a small proportion
We barely pay lip service to environmental issues in this country ... the political parties are too scared that if they do what is required then a fickle lazy public will 'vote for the other lot'.

Why should it be only up to the "political parties" to care for the environment, surely that responsibility rests with us all!? My neighbours and I have been given the opportunity to do our little bit and judging by the huge number of bins out on Monday and Tuesday mornings most off us are playing along. Any positive, no matter how small, is still a positive so if just a small portion of our waste is recycled then that is still a good thing.

This is not about politicians being too scared, this is about people who can be bothered and people who can't be bothered. I am one of the former and thankfully in my neighborhood I am not alone.

[Jacknian]

I am more than happy with our bin collection and recycling in our area - Huntingdon . We have 3 wheelie bins, black for anything that can't be recycled, blue for plastic, glass, tetra packs, cans, paper , cardboard, yoghurt pots etc. we don't have to separate anything , that is done at the recycling plant, they just ask that we wash out any food from the cans etc. Then we have a green bin for garden waste, food waste , and we can also put paper in there if we want but not shredded. We get a collection one week of the blue and green bin and then the next week it's the black bin. It works really well and our bin men are very good and take any large pieces of cardboard if it's stacked by the side of the bin , and don't worry about the lid being up of the blue bins , which I've heard some areas are fussy about. I don't see why if our area can do it, ( and apparently we are the second best area in the country for recycling ) why can't everyone ?

[Kendhni]

I can't vouch for where it all ends up but not being a miserable old cynic I would like to think it was being processed in a proper manner.

Only a small proportion
We barely pay lip service to environmental issues in this country ... the political parties are too scared that if they do what is required then a fickle lazy public will 'vote for the other lot'.

Why should it be only up to the "political parties" to care for the environment, surely that responsibility rests with us all!? My neighbours and I have been given the opportunity to do our little bit and judging by the huge number of bins out on Monday and Tuesday mornings most off us are playing along. Any positive, no matter how small, is still a positive so if just a small portion of our waste is recycled then that is still a good thing.

This is not about politicians being too scared, this is about people who can be bothered and people who can't be bothered. I am one of the former and thankfully in my neighborhood I am not alone.

Sadly this shows one of the great naive-ities about environmental issues .. you are correct that responsibility does lie with us all but without government intervention even less than the 'lip service' we currently pay would be done .. everything we do now is only being done (by the majority) because the government has told us to. The concept of 'any positive, no matter how small' pretty much sums up the population of this countries attitude towards environmental issues ... the absolute minimum, just as long as we don't have to pay more and it requires virtually no effort with no impact to peoples day-to-day routine, then it is doable ... but as soon as it becomes an inconvenience or starts costing (visible) money then forget it. What we do in this country is akin to using a bandaid to close up the rib cage after heart surgery !

Leaving out recycling bins is NOT environmentally friendly, it is actually a result of poor environmental management (but can be just about classified as better than doing nothing) ... in this country we have been brain washed into patting ourselves on the backs for this pathetic effort.

The message is REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE ... it is presented in that order for a reason ... recycling is a bad side effect of not reusing which is itself a bad side effect of not reducing. The real message should be REDUCE, REDUCE, REDUCE ... until that gets through to everyone, and some government has the balls to take it up, then real environmental responsibility will remain am unachievable dream .. until then we should hang our heads in shame with what we are doing to this planet, and the state we will leave it in for the next generation.

[david63]

Much of the recycling would not be necessary if manufacturers/supermarkets did not insist on so much packaging on everything that you buy

[Admiral of the Humber]

I can't vouch for where it all ends up but not being a miserable old cynic I would like to think it was being processed in a proper manner.

Only a small proportion
We barely pay lip service to environmental issues in this country ... the political parties are too scared that if they do what is required then a fickle lazy public will 'vote for the other lot'.

Why should it be only up to the "political parties" to care for the environment, surely that responsibility rests with us all!? My neighbours and I have been given the opportunity to do our little bit and judging by the huge number of bins out on Monday and Tuesday mornings most off us are playing along. Any positive, no matter how small, is still a positive so if just a small portion of our waste is recycled then that is still a good thing.

This is not about politicians being too scared, this is about people who can be bothered and people who can't be bothered. I am one of the former and thankfully in my neighborhood I am not alone.

Sadly this shows one of the great naive-ities about environmental issues .. you are correct that responsibility does lie with us all but without government intervention even less than the 'lip service' we currently pay would be done .. everything we do now is only being done (by the majority) because the government has told us to. The concept of 'any positive, no matter how small' pretty much sums up the population of this countries attitude towards environmental issues ... the absolute minimum, just as long as we don't have to pay more and it requires virtually no effort with no impact to peoples day-to-day routine, then it is doable ... but as soon as it becomes an inconvenience or starts costing (visible) money then forget it. What we do in this country is akin to using a bandaid to close up the rib cage after heart surgery !

Leaving out recycling bins is NOT environmentally friendly, it is actually a result of poor environmental management (but can be just about classified as better than doing nothing) ... in this country we have been brain washed into patting ourselves on the backs for this pathetic effort.

The message is REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE ... it is presented in that order for a reason ... recycling is a bad side effect of not reusing which is itself a bad side effect of not reducing. The real message should be REDUCE, REDUCE, REDUCE ... until that gets through to everyone, and some government has the balls to take it up, then real environmental responsibility will remain am unachievable dream .. until then we should hang our heads in shame with what we are doing to this planet, and the state we will leave it in for the next generation.

Well I shall take a little bit of responsibility for my little bit of Planet Earth and will continue to recycle recycle recycle because well all is said and done I still believe that that is better than doing NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING.

[Dark Knight]

perhaps it would help if cynics KNEW something about how a recycling plant works
my company deals with many plastics re0cyclers and the recovery rate is around 85 % and rising
most of which goes back to the processors, to make further plastic products, such as wheelie bins, plastic bags and black bin liners

[Admiral of the Humber]

perhaps it would help if cynics KNEW something about how a recycling plant works
my company deals with many plastics re0cyclers and the recovery rate is around 85 % and rising
most of which goes back to the processors, to make further plastic products, such as wheelie bins, plastic bags and black bin liners

...and surely better than just sticking it a hole in the ground??!!

[Dark Knight]

AOTH
Of course, goes without saying
also most of the recycled bags, refuse sacks and agricultural film is made bio-degradeable, and is compostable, so not only does it reduce land fill but also contributes to the growing cycle and the agricultural industry

a little knowledge eh

[Silver_Shiney]

perhaps it would help if cynics KNEW something about how a recycling plant works
my company deals with many plastics re0cyclers and the recovery rate is around 85 % and rising
most of which goes back to the processors, to make further plastic products, such as wheelie bins, plastic bags and black bin liners

Why is it then that our recyclers will only take certain types of plastic? We can only put milk/drink bottles in our green box. Yoghurt cartons and other plastic containers are a no-no.

Similarly, metal is metal is metal. Magnets can sort out the ferrous material, yet we can't put screw-top caps in.

Someone needs to get a grip and standardise what can and cannot be put in the recycling bins.

We recycle as much as we can but our council does not make it easy with ever-changing rules.

[Dark Knight]

SS
different plastics are processed differently, and cannot be mixed, also they are sorted and separated in different ways
for example milk bottles are made from Poly-ethylene, which floats, so they use flotation plants to separate that type of plastic from say PP or PVC which contain minerals, thee minerals make them heavier than water, so this aids the sorting
the milk bottle polymers are then used to make a whole array of other products and , oddly enough more milk bottles
some plastics can be recycled many times, some only once or twice, so it is important that ploymers are not mixed
screw tops contain not only metal but plastics to form the seals and also contain other additives which are harder to reclaim

[Silver_Shiney]

Ah, now I understand. Thank you.

[david63]

The one thing that I worry about is recycled toilet rolls

[Dark Knight]

Smurfy
you have been using it for years and you never knew