Recycling

[poliphilo]

Every time we go to the tip we find it better organised, with more staff on hand to advise on recycling. "Can we recycle pillows?" I ask.  No, not yet- so over the wall they go into the skip for irrecoverable dross. This time, for the first time, we've brought along a bag full of dead batteries. The man in the hard hat shows us where to stow them and is favourably impressed by our attention to detail. A notice pasted up the flank of a bin tells us that 50% of all the stuff people brought in last month was recycled. Hooray for us!

And now the tip is being expanded into the lot next door. The woman on the gate explained it to us. The concrete bunker thingies with the Cold War vibe to them will be where the skips get docked.  I can't wait to use them.

We've taken three car loads this week. Isn't it great when the act of throwing things away gets to feel like the performance of a noble civic duty!

Comments

[wokenbyart.livejournal.com]

It's good that there's more recycling and more being recycled, but I get fed up at how recycling sites will only (usually) accept certain types of plastics. There are so many plastics (for instance) that are recyclable but not enough places locally to take them to.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Plastics are the one thing we can't recycle, other than plastic bottles. But it is pleasing to feel that at least some stuff can be re-used and the glass, cans and bottles are clean waste, so more pleasant to handle.

There are complaints locally about the food waste though. We're supposed to put it in the brown bin with the garden waste and it's only collected fortnightly, so in this hot weather -- ew! -- stench and maggots. I'm actually composting most of our food waste and the small component that isn't compostable is going in the rubbish sack. I don't have garden waste to dispose of (because our neightbour claims it all for her landfill project!) and putting a few scraps of food waste in the bottom of a big wheelie bin is just too silly.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We've been given green bags to put the food waste in. I presume the bags are made of some recyclable plastic. You put the food in the bag and the bag in the food waste bin (which locks). Pretty good system I think.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

That sounds much more hygienic. I don't think our system has been thought through properly at all because the food waste is only collected fortnightly. As someone said in our local paper, what if you live in a flat? Where are you supposed to keep this waste? And if you miss a week because you're ill or away for a couple of days, the waste could be a month old. Ew!

However, they only changed the collections a few weeks ago, so perhaps they'll adjust things?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Our system is now quite complicated, but food waste is the one category of rubbish for which there's still a weekly collection.

[wokenbyart.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, it's getting bad with the fortnightly thing. They're still collecting weekly here, but it's only a matter of time. We compost a lot of stuff, and - for instance - stuff we can't compost like heavy garden waste, we can take to the local recycling place as they collect it there.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I reckon we just have to be patient. Our tip is going from being a hit-and-miss, amateurish affair to being very well-organised. I imagine the time will come when we'll be recycling almost everything- including those 57 varieties of plastic.

[wokenbyart.livejournal.com]

Hopefully, one day, they'll get the message and stop manufacturing plastic bottles and cartons and stuff in the first place. Do you remember returnable bottles, and getting money back for returning them? Surely that could be an incentive again.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

A plus on that plan is that the beverages used to taste a heck of a lot better in glass, too.

[wokenbyart.livejournal.com]

Yes, they did.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Returnable bottles aren't that long ago- or are they? Sometimes memory plays tricks.

[wokenbyart.livejournal.com]

Well, you're in a different part of the UK, so maybe they didn't stop there as early as they did where I used to live (London).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I remember taking Barr's lemonade bottles back to the corner shop within living memory. I guess that was when the kids were still kids- which, now I think of it, must be at least ten years ago.

[shullie.livejournal.com]

i felt pleased today.. our bin gets collected weekly on a Monday ( I know lucky still to have weekly collections), today was the first bin bag from the bin to go in there... and it could be less, we need to get a compost bin, as much of the rubbish in the bag is peelings and food stuff etc... Once we have done that I reckon that we will be down to perhaps half a rubbish bag a week if that.

we recycle all our paper, tins, glass & bottles and plastics so far.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We don't recycle plastics yet, but we do recycle tin foil.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

That's exactly how I feel! I have a 60 gal bin in my driveway that they collect every other week. It's all single-stream recycling, so paper, cardboard, all plastics are fair game. It's cut the amount of stuff I throw away by a huge amount.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Our system has become quite complicated. We have a grey bin for non-recyclable waste, a brown one for bottles and cans, a bag for paper and cardboard, a black caddy for metal foil and a green caddy for food waste.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Spain is so far ahead in alternative energy but sadly behind the times in recycling although they ARE improving slowly. While we're in the US during the summer (as we are now) I am amazed at how well organised recycling is here on the university campus where we live. MSU was a pioneer in "green living". It IS gratifying!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Recycling and waste collection are the responsibility of the local authorities- so the service here varies, wildly, from district to district. It gives me a little jolt of civic pride to think Oldham is doing so well.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Yay, recycling! It's good for the environment and it's good for us, too. Boston has a user-friendly recycling system. Most of us live in multi-apartment buildings far from the collection sites, so the city collects weekly. We put the stuff out on the curb in large CLEAR plastic bags to differentiate it from regular trash.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

How do the plastic bags hold up against scavenging animals?

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Recyclables are not subject to the attacks of animals, but the trash and garbage bags (black plastic) have been known to be torn open. When that happens, the collection crews do not clean up the mess that is left behind. The homeowners have to do that themselves. However, if the residents pay attention to the rules and do not put out the trash before early morning of the collection day, then there is very little in the way of animal problems. Most of the trashbag destroying animals (rats, skunks, raccoons) are nocturnal, and as far as dogs go, there are very well enforced leash laws. Many people use green plastic barrels on wheels in which they place the black plastic trash bags for easy, sanitary collection. If people choose to put out bags of trash and garbage before morning of the collection, then it serves them right that they have to clean up any mess left behind.
By the way, trash and garbage are collected three times a week in this very densely populated area, while recycling is picked up once a week on Fridays.

[silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com]

Here in Colchester we're doing quite well. They take the stuff we can't recycle every week, that is the standard black binbags with any potential smelly rotting stuff you can't compost.
They take everything else on a fortnightly basis, so one week we put out our solid plastic box with cans, foil, jars and bottles, plus our clear plastic binbags filled with paper and cardboard. The second week we put out garden waste in recyclable gardening bags, and our plastic, of which they take quite a few types now, in clear plastic bin bags. The point of the clear plastic binbags is to allow the binmen to check for people dumping the wrong stuff in the bags.

I haven't been to the 'dump' as we call it, for a long time, but friends who go tell me that it is very well organised and the staff are very helpful and informative.

The biggest problem we are facing here atm, is that our enthusiasm for recycling is ahead of companies with the ability to use the recycled goods. For instance, Colchester is stockpiling recycled plastics while they wait for a nearby factory to adapt its machinery to make use of the plastic we're providing.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We have a complicated fortnightly system too. General garbage and paper one week, glass, tins and foil the other- with food waste collected weekly. It defeats some people.

The bigger houses also get their garden waste collected.

[silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com]

To be perfectly honest, I don't understand why some people find it complicated. Maybe it is the way it is presented in aome areas. We get annual calendars for the fridge with the weeks clearly colour-coded. We are also given a comprehensive leaflet with info on what can go in which container, and what else is recyclable at the dump if it isn't collected on the doorstep.
The two complaints I tend to hear are 1. That the person doesn't have the space in their house to separate their rubbish for recycling, and 2. That they can't compost because they don't have a garden. Those Bokashi bins created for use in the kitchen have had something of a mixed reception from what I hear.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, quite. The council sent out leaflets which are easy enough to follow. They're extremely detailed- with instructions in English and Urdu, plus illustrations.

I don't get that first complaint at all. If one has the space to generate rubbish, one has the space to separate it.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Anglesey has a new system - glass, plastic, paper,cans, batteries, garden waste weekly, everything else fortnightly.
It's amazing how little there is of "everything else".

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

There are 103 apartments in my building. Maintenance collects our trash and garbage in green barrels located at the bottom of the trash chutes that are located on every level of the building. The trash and garbage are put into black collection bags and put out on the curb in green wheeled barrels three times a week for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday collection. On my street there are entire rows of apartment buildings, most of them with five or more apartments, so frequent trash collection is needed, even with a hefty recycling program. Like you, I and my neighbors have very little of "everything else", yet due to population density it still amounts to a considerable amount of stuff.
Perhaps the best solution to the trash problem is that we should buy more fresh foods - and in bulk, rather than in plastic containers etc. Oh, yes, and return to the use of glass returnable containers for milk and soda, etc.