Why Don't We Burn Our Own Rubbish Anymore?

[Quenched]

I cant speak for everyone, but as a family of three, two adults and a child, our one wheelie bin of general waste which is now collected fortnightly instead of weekly, but we typically have at least one black bag too many as we can't physically put anymore in the wheelie bin. 

 

Then I remembered my parents and their parents before them always had a bonfire at least once a week in their garden and didn't have any rubbish to put out for collection. 

 

The only thing that got collected was things that couldn't be burnt like tins and jars, bottles. 

 

But actually our local shop gave you 2 pence with every bottle returned, why are shops not doing that anymore?

 

So basically we were in Aldi the other day and they were selling metal incinerators, they look a bit like a tin bin with holes in it, so we bought one and lets just say we no longer have general waste to go out at all.

 

The only thing we have left for collection is bottles and tins. 

 

So we help the waste collection men as we have zero general waste to go out like my parents used to do. 

 

Why can't as a nation we all do this? 

[New Judge]

“I'm merely returning to an age when our generations before us actually delt with their own waste and whatever could burn was indeed burnt.”

“If we had bin men when I was a child I certainly don't remember them, or parents putting rubbish out for them.”

You either lived in a very strange place or you’re over 100 years old.

The UK has had organised refuse collections at least since WW2 and probably long before that. There were collections when my parents had rubbish to throw out and when their parents had rubbish to throw out. Nobody burned their rubbish as a matter of course because (a) there was no need to and (b) many people had nowhere to do it.

“We are now basically doing the Councils job for them,…”

Yes, it’s a terrible hardship.

I am asked to sort my rubbish into three types. I have a black box for paper and cardboard, collected every two weeks. I have a green box for all other recyclables (glass, tins, plastic, etc.), collected every two weeks. I put what’s left into a black rubbish sack, collected every two weeks (usually not much more than a quarter filled). I also have a bin for waste food, but I never use it because I never have any waste food. I use the bin to keep potting compost in my greenhouse. Both my boxes sit outside my back door and I don’t even have to step outside to get rid of stuff. The black bag stuff gets put into empty bags (crisp bags, cereal bags, etc.) and goes to the shed when I’m in that direction. I really don’ know how I manage.

“My parents did exactly the same thing, and burnt pretty much everything on the open coal or log fire.”

But few people have open fires now and even if they did, there is no need to burn everything in it that you need to get rid of or no longer want.

Burning rubbish is a bad idea. Burning plastic (as you seem to be advocating) is a particularly bad idea. It produces many toxins, some of them carcinogenic, and I certainly would not enjoy living next door to you when you burn piles of the seemingly vast amounts of rubbish you appear to accumulate.

[Quenched]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think we need to adapt a new outlook on this, and do more recycling. 

 

We just get frustrated as our porch has become a mini recycling plant. 

 

We have found it difficult to adapt from having weekly general waste collections, to that being fortnightly, so its obviously going to be double the amount of waste. 

 

Our Council put a strict rule out last year that only one wheelie bin for general waste will be permitted. So it was always going to be difficult to adjust to that. 

 

Even before that, before we we're encouraged to recycle, we averaged 4 or 5 black bags of rubbish a week, but it was never an issue as they just collected any amounts of bags, no questions asked. 

 

So to be fair to us we have found it difficult to adjust. 

[netherfield]

Congratulations on turning this in to an Abbeylee90 length post.

[netherfield]

Congratulations on turning this in to an Abbeylee90 length post.

[Quenched]

netherfield, 

It wasn't intentional. 

 

But if we look at how times have changed since the invention of plastic, and our over the top hectic lives these days, I think waste in general has quadrupled. 

 

And somehow we have had to adapt to force this huge amount of waste through the current bottle neck of how we are expected to get rid of it. 

[bednobs]

Aww, U came back to say the same thing for a seventh time. Proud of you xxx

[gingejbee]

It beggars belief that two adults and a child have so much rubbish.

[barry1010]

There was plenty of plastic around when you were a lad, Quenched. 

[William51]

Because the world has been hijacked by the green despots and now we cannot do what is sensible.

[Quenched]

barry1010, 

Parents always cooked, or I should say Mum cooked. I dont think ready meals existed when we were kids. 

[Quenched]

barry1010, 

 

To be honest I don't remember plastic Coke bottles, or fizzy pop brands in any plastic bottle. It was always in tins, or glass bottles. 

 

So based on that plastic use has increased in the last 40 or so years. 

 

I was actually looking at an old family get together photo recently, and it must have been taken roughly 45 years ago, and the drinks on the table were in glass bottles or tins.  In fact Coca Cola still produce those miniature glass bottles just like the one in our photo from 45 years ago, but they normally sell them in packs of 4, but they are expensive and not cost affective from the customers point of view.  But that just highlights its cheaper to produce drinks or anything in plastic, so cost has played a massive part in our use of plastic.

 

Can you imagine everything going back to glass bottles, it would hit the soft drink market hard. 

[Quenched]

Rubbish is the main source of the news tonight at Birmingham. 

Rubbish piled high in the streets in just one week of a strike. 

 

Where is their recycling?

 

I rest my case!! 

[ToraToraTora]

that's not a comparable situation. You're a fool.

[Canary42]

I'm amazed at how much waste you produce, I usually only need half the fortnightly collection service offered.

Food waste goes into my wormery, providing valuable compost for my vegetable patch (and gives me an opportunity for an unusual response to "what pets:other" in marketing surveys 🤣).

I certainly remember bin collections when I was a child (1940s).

[New Judge]

"Where is their recycling?"

It's in the street along with the rest of the rubbish. The dusmen and women collect that as well.