Recyling

[richw]

my local council provide an excellent and simple recycling system and is well used. Looking up my street recycling equates to about 60%

 

[pinguini]

In my opinion if the council has recycling targets to meet it should do the work and take away a single bin and sort out the stuff at its depot - that is what should be mandatory.

A lot of councils provide a single mixed-use recycling bin. The problem with this approach is a lot of the recyclables become contaminated and consequently unrecyclable - paper can become 'dirty' through bits of beverage left inside cans or glass bottles etc and other forms of contamination. Sorting recycling by type significantly reduces this contamination, even if it is slightly less convenient. Around 20% of all recyclable objects placed in a recycling bin ends up in landfill through being too 'dirty' to recycle and sorting recyclables helps to mitigate this.

 

[richw]

My council have provided us with 4 containers, a paper bag, a metal bag, a glass box, and a plastic bag. The Glass box also says we can put textiles in that container.

 

[Butts]

Perhaps The Councils should reward people who correctly recycle their rubbish by penalising those who don't.

A problem touched upon briefly is the inconsistency around the Country on the items that can actually be recycled and into what.

A Nationwide Standardised Policy would simplify things and lead to higher compliance in my view.

 

[SS4]

Perhaps The Councils should reward people who correctly recycle their rubbish by penalising those who don't.

A problem touched upon briefly is the inconsistency around the Country on the items that can actually be recycled and into what.

A Nationwide Standardised Policy would simplify things and lead to higher compliance in my view.

Perhaps but, as Cameron loves to tell us, there is no money for it. Unless it directly benefits the Conservative Party of course

 

[transmanche]

Perhaps The Councils should reward people who correctly recycle their rubbish by penalising those who don't.

A few years ago some councils introduced bins with microchips, in allowing them to weigh each bin. Meaning they could charge residents different amounts, depending on how much of their waster went into landfill. But then there was a hysterical tabloid campaign against "wheelie-bin spies"... :roll:

 

[DarloRich]

Milton Keynes Council provide us with the following:

1 x Green wheelie bin for garden waste ( used as and when but not often)
1x blue box for glass ( used all the time by us)
1x tiny green bin for food waste - never used.
1x small thick plastic sack for batteries - in the shed used for something else!
1x thick sack for paper - in the shed used for something else!
1x roll bin bags - v useful but they seem to have stopped this.
1x roll pink plastic sacks for general recycling. Used loads ( you simply ask for more at no cost when you run out!)

I put everything plastic in the pink sack, regardless of any instructions, paper, card, tin, foil,textiles, shoes.

We get through several sacks per week and about 1 bin bags we try to recycle everything else.

The council dont provide us with wheelie bins and so will take however many bags you pile at the kerb, but i like to try and get most in the pink sack. The same wagon picks up waste and recycling once a week.

it is a pretty good system

 

[youngboy]

We have two bins, Red for landfill collected weekly but only a half size bin and a grey bin for recycling which is collected fortnightly.
My mate works for one of the biggest recycling companies in europe and he laughs at our 'recycling' because when the wagons reach the plant he works at they receive both landfill and recycling wagons at the same time, both are emptied into one system and then 'ALL' the waste is sorted by hand on conveyors.
He says there's no need to recycle if it's going to his plant,the machine can even tell which colour of glass is on the line and blows it to the correct collection point. :roll:

 

[Butts]

Milton Keynes Council provide us with the following:

1 x Green wheelie bin for garden waste ( used as and when but not often)
1x blue box for glass ( used all the time by us)
1x tiny green bin for food waste - never used.
1x small thick plastic sack for batteries - in the shed used for something else!
1x thick sack for paper - in the shed used for something else!
1x roll bin bags - v useful but they seem to have stopped this.
1x roll pink plastic sacks for general recycling. Used loads ( you simply ask for more at no cost when you run out!)

I put everything plastic in the pink sack, regardless of any instructions, paper, card, tin, foil,textiles, shoes.

We get through several sacks per week and about 1 bin bags we try to recycle everything else.

The council dont provide us with wheelie bins and so will take however many bags you pile at the kerb, but i like to try and get most in the pink sack. The same wagon picks up waste and recycling once a week.

it is a pretty good system

Eeek...with that lot what happens if you live in a flat ....you could get around the "bedroom tax" by saying it's your recycling room

 

[142094]

A lot of councils provide a single mixed-use recycling bin. The problem with this approach is a lot of the recyclables become contaminated and consequently unrecyclable - paper can become 'dirty' through bits of beverage left inside cans or glass bottles etc and other forms of contamination. Sorting recycling by type significantly reduces this contamination, even if it is slightly less convenient. Around 20% of all recyclable objects placed in a recycling bin ends up in landfill through being too 'dirty' to recycle and sorting recyclables helps to mitigate this.

Co-mingling as it is known isn't ideal, as the processors pay a low price as you say due to the quality, but it vastly reduces the costs of pre-sorting as you don't have to employ people to do it.

I've noticed that at the supermarkets that I use, the former skips where you placed one recyclate (i.e. cans, the three types of coloured glass, paper etc.) have been replaced by two or three mixed use bins.

One of the best ideas would be to bring back the returnable bottle.

 

[High Dyke]

Co-mingling as it is known isn't ideal, as the processors pay a low price as you say due to the quality, but it vastly reduces the costs of pre-sorting as you don't have to employ people to do it.

I've noticed that at the supermarkets that I use, the former skips where you placed one recyclate (i.e. cans, the three types of coloured glass, paper etc.) have been replaced by two or three mixed use bins.

One of the best ideas would be to bring back the returnable bottle.

I think that is one of the reasons cited by my local council...the amount of contaminated recycleable waste they are collecting in the 'silver' bin.

I was in Iceland recently - the country not the shop - A deposit scheme is employed as an inducement to recycle drinks bottles and cans, so it’s not unusual to see collections being made for return to one of the recycling centres.

 

[33056]

Maybe Worth putting a deposit on glass/plastic bottles. Say 25p or 50p

This is the case in Germany, with the Pfand system - supermarkets have machines for collecting bottles, automatically sorting for recycling (the bottles are marked with a barcode indicating their deposit and which bin the machine needs to put them into). The machine then issues a voucher for money off the shop or cash from the till.

Wish we would do this in the UK as well, seems to have spawned a bit of a "cottage industry" in Germany as it is not unusual to see people armed with large bags rummaging around in bins who could not be described as tramps either. Just don't get in a queue behind one of them when they go to "cash in" their haul!

PS Can we have a "plastic bag tax" for England please?

 

[jon0844]

I am sure we will get a bag tax at some point. Seems to be working fine in Wales (no riots that I am aware of over the levy).

We have three bins; general, bottles/plastic (and a tray for paper) and one for cardboard/food. Inside, we have smaller bins (three separate bins, from Argos I believe) for metal/plastic/bottoms, card/paper and general - plus a caddy for food (which provides entertainment at times for how furry things get).

Never had any problems, and to think that the council should do the sorting is a nice idea - but it would cost a fortune. I am not sure what the population is within our council area, but instead of each household doing the work in small measures, you now have a team of people sorting EVERYTHING that arrives in one big contaminated mess. Yes, that's definitely going to be cheap!

Sorry, but the extra cost would be ridiculous. And nobody would want or agree to pay - as at the point the council tax was about to be increased by £50 a head (or whatever) someone would say 'hey, why can't we just sort it out ourselves?'!!

 

[SS4]

Speaking of recycling it's been raining paper around here today (or charred paper) after a fire at a (recycled) paper mill . I'm guessing the wind carried it

 

[nanagrampy]

I've recently been looking up how to recycle different items and I thought I'd share the list with you:

hygeine, including nappies, waste: http://www.nappies2go.com/
used cooking oil: http://www.livingfuels.co.uk/search
CDs/DVDs/VHS/Audio cassettes: http://www.ems-europe.co.uk/services/domestic-tape-disc/
paint, enough for reuse: http://www.communityrepaint.org.uk/paint-to-donate/
spectacles: http://www.visionaidoverseas.org/recycle/opticians
printer cartridges and mobile phones: various different companies, just search online
inhalers: https://pharmacyfinder.completethecycle.eu/index.html
bras: http://www.againstbreastcancer.org.uk/cms/file/1727/ or http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/local-shops
polystyrene: http://www.polystyrenerecyclinguk.co.uk/home
corks: cut up and grind into mulch for the garden
tennis balls: http://www.labelpeople.co.uk/balls/html/links.html
Brita water filters: http://www.brita.co.uk/brita/en-GB/cms/dealerfinder/dealerfinder.grid
broken jewellery: various charities, just search online
plastic items: http://www.polyprint.co.uk/pages/recycling.php
plastic pots: http://www.ashortwalk.com/custom_map/ or http://www.which.co.uk/news/2011/02/how-to-recycle-plastic-plant-pots-244508/

Of course there's also Freecycle and Freegle to donate items to others who need/want them.

I hope this helps someone.