Do you recycle enough ?

[whiffey]

Prompted by the BBC News and the lovely Natasha, I wondered how everybody is getting on with this.

I have taken it so seriously that I have gone from 2-3 stuffed black bags on rubbish day to one small closely packed carrier bag and 2 full recycle boxes.

I look closely at all waste I generate. A lot of mine is crushable aluminium cans, shame on me, but it's surprising how little is not recyclable

[nickmo]

Here's a thought - councils are encouraging people to be responsible with the environment. Recycle and save the earth. Well, that's a good thing.

And how do they encourage it? Win a car! (CO2 anyone? Clog up the roads Sir? Blame Exeter or Caephilly C.C. for this example)

or a holiday! - (I repeat, CO 2 anyone? 1 passenger on a flight to the US emits the same CO2 as 12000 miles motoring. Jolly good idea, Sunderland, well done indeed.....)

Brilliant!!!!!! Bunch of .......... who came up with that concept - eco friendly cars or otherwise, why not promote some more responsible things that relate to the whole point of the prize draw in the first place???

I'm not saying I have an answer that would get a response to the scheme, but how blind is it to say 'recycle cos its good for the earth' and then give away CO2 as a prize........

[~posy~]

we have a new recycling scheme in our area, which on the whole is a good thing. the only problems i have is that the recycling men do not take plastic or cardboard, and we are only allowed to put out 4 black bags of rubbish a fortnight. we are a family of four and i find 4 bags a fortnight impossible!! but they will not take any extra rubbish, and at christmas you are only allowed one extra bag!!

[~posy~]

just to add a bit more on sorry! where we lived before the recycling was volountary but they took everything that could possibly be recycled. here it is compulsory but they only accept a few things!! sorry rant over now!! xXc

[shaneystar2]

Don't talk to me about bl��dy recycling !
I do my utmost to recycle ..we have a composter for all our garden refuse and household peelings,used tea bags and so on.
I take my bottles to the bank and am generally a good citizen.
However I am incensed that the dustman missed my grey wheelie today in spite of it being on my drive in full view.Wheeled down our long gravel drive last night Mr S.
I was telephoned about an hour ago by some jobsworth from the council who accused me of lying and that I had put the bin out late. B cheek !
I was spoken to like a schoolgirlby some jumped up old crab and called a liar.
Needless to say they got short shrift and a very abrupt Email to follow up.
The point is, we all do our duty and recycle but our council tax seems to go towards harebrained schemes in our town.So much so that they are having to borrow two and a quarter million from somewhere to complete the regeneration of our seafront because they have wasted the money on fripperies.
At the moment I feel like depositing the ruddy bin on the Town Hall steps!
While we all recycle and try to use less electricity and water the Government wastes our taxes on their pointless wars and interference into peoples lives.
Sorry ..but I had to have a rant.Feel better now!

[Im a BusyBee]

we tried initially to be good and recycle then the council moved the goal posts, then they moved again, then as hard as we try our rubbish was inspected and refused by them twice. luckily we live in the country and we now burn our rubbish and just put ashes out every other week. the green bins are unused. Just a further point - we have a friend that works in the refuse tip and he says very often (due to lack of space) the rubbish all gets mixed together anyway!! I think if they can afford mobile inspectors that money should be spent on people working at tip sorting the rubbish.

[shaneystar2]

I quite agree busybee..when this fortnightly wheelie bin palaver was introduced in our area they became really fussy about what we were allowed to put in the green bins. No envelopes or shredded paper for example .They started handing out red cards to people who flouted these rules ! And there was talk of fines if one did not obey !The dustmen go through our green bins and if they take a dislike to what we have put in there ,they chuck it on the drive .
The problem is a lot of councils want you to recycle but don't have the plant in place to deal with it .It's a bit like the cart before the horse.
We have dubbed our local dustmen ,who were perfectly amenable before the advent of the wheelies,the Wheelie Bin Gestapo ! They have become power crazy.

[mimififi]

when my sister lived in switzerland, she had to put out paper for recyling. In order for it to get collected from the road side, it had to be cut/folded in to 12" squares and tied with string (not twine) in bundles of no more than 12" high. A perfect cube in other words. If not, it would not be collected. Also, it also had to have a label on it saying from which apartment it came as did all the other rubbish bags. the labels were purchased from the post office and so refuse collection was thus pre-paid. no label, no collection.

I have 5 kids and so there are seven of us here and I put out a full recylcle wheelie ever fortnight, I take bottles to the bank, compost green waste and put out half a wheelie bin ever week on non-recylable waste which will probably go down once babes it out of her eco-friendly bio degradeable nappies. We also have the option of a brown wheelie for garden waste.

I love to recyle, but have to say that to think of the waste depots mixing them all up anyway makes my blood boil. I also think that this government likes to make us feel guilty for not recyling enough, yet how much damage are they doing with their flying/bombing etc and also their lack of input into the public transport system to try and make us use our car less?

[mimififi]

and to moan further: I live only about 20 minutes cyle ride into town. i go into town nearly everyday because my 12 year old likes to work in the library and also tesco is on the way and i go there once-twice a week. However, I would more than happy to walk/cycle this journey, even with all my littlies and would be more than happy for my daughter to cycle to the library alone. However, what I am not happy for her to do is to take her life in her hands on the worst duel carriage way I've ever seen and the most lethal mini roundabout I've ever seen. |the cycle path goes right up to the bridge and then stops. You then have to dismount, cross the duel carriage way which is only 200 yards from the mini roundabout without any zebra/pelican crossing of any type. Then try and cycle or push bicycle over rough, unfinished ground and roung the corner of the mini roundabout which is grassy/uneven ground also until the cycle path starts again whcih you have to cross another major road to join? Why does the cycle path stop and start? where do they think people are gonna go when they get to the end? and to top it all, the bridge is on a near blind bend. incredible.

If they really cared about the environment they would make it easy for us to travel without cars which must be the single biggest addition to our Co2 emmissions, not ruddy waste and air travel....
Grrrr.

[shaneystar2]

Well said Mimi ..hope your ploughmen have given you some peace lately !
The powers that be just make life more difficult day by day IMHO.We now have the added misery of changes to the postal system.They close down all the little Post Offices,allow the big three supermarkets to become ever more powerful,our local shops and markets are disappearing at an alarming rate and yet we are castigated for putting an envelope into our green bins.
Trying to go anywhere by public transport is a nightmare.Book in advance ..my eye...! It is so complicated you give up at the first attempt.They want to penalise the motorist even more yet can't get a decent affordable public transport system in place.Where I live public transport is abysmal so you have to use a car.I am too old and arthritic these days to cycle or walk far distances..All our little rural train lines are long gone.
I don't mind doing my bit for the good of the planet but when you see the amount of taxpayers money which is wasted it makes you wonder why you bother in the first place.

[Jules001]

we have had green boxes for bottles, cans and newspapers for ages and I fill two of these to put out fortnightly. We also have a brown wheelie bin which is now collected weekly for garden and food waste and a green wheelie bin for non recyclable waste which is collected fortnightly. Sorting the rubbish each week definitely takes longer, but I don't mind as I feel that I am doing my 'bit' and try to walk wherever possible and not take the car, but feel that my efforts are in vain when the local newspaper says that due to the success of recycling in the area, the Council are exceeding the quota of recyclable waste and so a lot of ends up in landfill anyway. We are now being policed as to which households are not using their brown bins and I was told yesterday that the dustmen are now not allowed to put their hands inside the carrier bags which I use inside the green boxes to sort the different twaste to help them at the roadside

[Hamish]

Ditto to most of the above. Just moved to an area with the fourtnightly scheem, though brilliant, fewer trips to the recycling dep and piles of stuff everyware. I now have piles of rubbish sat in the sun for 2 weeks, flies everyware with two young kids. I'm begging to thing its more of a heath hazard. they take about 10% in recycling, but 50% less in other stuff. No food waste - even veg- in the compost bin! no cardboard collection unless it is pristine (no corrigated, no waxed - ie most cardboard).

Feel better now thanks, I thought it was just me adjusting to the new system.

[tictactoe]

We purchased a Green Johanna (council scheme) in the Spring last year. Normally cost �85 but special at �20.

It has proved invaluable. It takes all kitchen waste, not just veg/fruit peelings but cooked and uncooked foodstuffs, even pizza and gravy or soup. Raw and cooked meat is included in this as well as all dairy produce. Hair and feather as well as paper (handy way to discard shredded documents) and cardboard. 1/3 of the compost bin has to be garden waste. Worms of all sizes have entered through the tiny holes in the base, and do their bit to help!

Our local council sent out reply cards a few months back, asking opinion on the future collections (choice of 4 types), hoping that we would choose the cheapest option which meant: household rubbish once a fortnight and recyling once a fortnight - Yuk !! I selected for once a week house, and once a fortnight recyling.

Fell out with the recycling when we moved here 2 years ago. The collector would arrive before the refuse men and tip up the box (silly sized thing - small) and separate the plastic bottles/paper/cans into different recepticles. Most of the paper (whether news/mags or other) would end up on the drive, road or pavement - so shoddy in their attitude and manner. Never dream of picking it up. Phoned the company (hired by council) to complain. Spoke to the manager, who was most concerned. Apparently they had had a pep talk to smarten up their act! Otherwise people would not put recycle material out (lots and lots of complaints). Received a leaflet from said council stating they now would collect cardboard with the recycling as long as it was broken/cut up. Did just that, put in the bin with other bits and bobs, and placed at end of drive, adjacent to pavement. Along comes ignoramus, picks up bin, takes out bottles and newspapers, tips bin over (with small bits of cardboard) into his sack.

cont./