Guest Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 I sometimes thing the councils have us doing all their work for them. When I lived in Basildon it was all in one bag, bung the cardboard out in a heap, bottles in the green box, garden waste in garden bags. All this was collected every week. In chelmsford its paper in one bag, plastic in another, cans, bottles, foil etc in the green box, wheely bins for garden waste. But the collections are awful. one week its garden and the next week recycling but only ONCE A MONTH for cardboard. So basically they have sneakily got us down to fortnightly collections. I used my new garden cart today to get it down the drive The black bag and a bit are our non recylcing. Oh and that greenhouse glass isn't recycled either it just goes in the wheely bin with the pathetic little black bags (and a dead pigeon I found in the garden). The wheely bin is nearly empty but that trolley was totally filled with recycling - the cardboard was taking up most of the room as behind the trolley box were the cube boxes. There was 1 bottle in the green box and 2 plastic bottles in the plastics bag. But there was loads of cardboard and paper. Fortunately I have a big kitchen and storage in the car port to keep all this stuff but the council are really letting me down here. I shouldn't have to use all this space storing my waste. Oh and as for uneccesary waste guess what this is from? Yep it was wrapped around my SOLID PLASTIC WEATHERPROOF water butt. The lid was clipped on (and nearly impossible to get off!) and all the bits were INSIDE. That plastic was just a total waste although I may have a use for it in the garden as it is VERY heavy duty stuff. But why don't they THINK? Oh and for all those of you who think I'm lazy using the trolley for the rubbish, it would have been about 4 trips otherwise and this is my drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 All very frustrating. I put my black bin out about once a fortnight or three weeks as I am an avid recycler....however this creates more work for me as I have to take cartons, glass, tins, and plastic to the recycling site every week. We have blue bins for paper and thin card, not massive boxes etc., which are emptied every month. Big cardboard can be taken to B&Q as they have an extra bit in their recycling area, but it is about 5 miles away so the trip itself causes pollution. Years ago everything was taken by the bin men. It just shows how our consumerism and the amount of packaging have increased, as the average family could get all their rubbish into an old fashioned galvanised dustbin, which was empited weekly, when I was a child. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theherd123 Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 I know where you are coming from Pengy! OH put out our green bin last night and do you think they collected it today? Not a chance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Don't even get me started on them not collecting. We are always getting missed with the cardboard, because there are just 3 houses they just miss us totally. To their credit they usually collect the next day after I ring and complain but last month they left it till Monday - at least it wasn't windy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken Licken Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 They drive me mad. I can only recycle paper, tin and glass in my green box, card can go in the green bin, but plastic waste is not allowed. Yet in the neighbouring district council they have a recycling wheelie where almost everything goes in. So much plastic is not recycled because there is no profit in it. It all seems wrong to me. My black bin was emptied today it had half a sack of rubbish and a whole sack of plastic most of which is recyclable if only the facilities existed....Don't start me, it makes me so mad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Our plastics is useless, they only want plastic bottles, not packaging but I bung it in anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
One Man Banned Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Our council are pretty useless too I think We have one green bin that they supplied to put paper (but not shredded ) HDPE2 Milk bottles only (even if any other bottle is HDPE2 they won't take it) and cans and bottles. Two weeks ago a shiny green wheelie bin was delivered to use for green waste only, instead of the sacks they gave us (for Elf & Safety reasons) We have a really good facility at the Tip tho so I bought some tubs from Ikea and sort our own cardboard in one, plastic bottles in another and foil, lightbulbs batteries and everything else in another. Last week we noticed that the Tip has a facility to recycle the juice cartons (that we used to put in with cardboard so we'll need another tub for those now. My mum lives in Newport, and she can throw pretty much everything in her recycling. At least we still get everything except the garden waste taken weekly.......not much point for us. The black bin is put out every 2-3 weeks and we compost all the garden waste A xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 I have 5 compost bins, 4 are ful and a shredder to help with my composting and still I can fill at least 2 garden wheely bins a fortnight. Often I fill 3, at the moment the fourth one has COMPOST in! I currently have 2 of the garden bins full to the point where I cant cram another thing in and I've had to make 2 trips to the tip with garden waste this week. Garden waste isnt' going until next week so I've one half full bin left to fill up. At the moment I'm not composting my grass cuttings as they are more leaves than grass - If I mow again I will have filled the last bin and ended up with some over. Very frustrating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helen&Lee Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 We have plastic bags from our council still Purple for paper (not card) and textiles, Clear for plastic bottles, tinfoil and tins. Black for the general rubbish. Weekly collections for the black with the other two alternated. The council in their infinate wisdom cheap skated on the bin bags when they last issued rolls of them - they are as thin as those used for pedal bin liners - hopeless To make it worse our local tip - a loose term as it's 8 miles away is a basic one AND only open on a Thursday 10 - 4pm and Saturday 10 - 4pm We work 6 days a week...... We have no street lighting, the nearest bus will stop 1 mile down our lane, I think the library bus comes to the village hall every two weeks, no grit lorries when we need them, the rubbish collection is the one service the council really provides for us directly yet they do that badly *takes another sip of coffee and gets off the soapbox* Helen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhapsody Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 I really think there should be some kind of universal standard that every council has to adhere to by law, its crazy to have all these systems so different. I dont begrudge recycling, it makes me take responsibility for the stuff I buy, if something is wildly overpackaged and I can live without it I dont buy it! My pet peeve is plastic food trays- IMHO it is bonkers that in this country we dont have the facilities to recycle plastic food trays because of the plastic they are made form, I hope we move to the German system of returning the trays to the supermarket on your next visit I remember having a converstion with my MIL who recycles absolutely diddly squat about landfill, I pointed out that the unused 10 acre field next to her house would make a lovely site............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 Nice Rhapsody. The Tesco near my folks has a great recycling centre (reading between my mother's garbled description) you can recycle anything there - you swipe your clubcard and get points for everything you dump, then put it all in the relevant pop-holes. Anyone else have this at their store? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 And guess what THEY MISSED US FOR CARDBOARD AGAIN TODAY! I phoned up the council who are always SO helpful and pointed out that they miss us more often than they remember us. I now have a pile of cardboard by my entrance getting soggy until they come back, maybe tomorrow and maybe Monday. I really wonder why I bother sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 I really think there should be some kind of universal standard that every council has to adhere to by law, its crazy to have all these systems so different. I totally agree. It is madness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatsCube Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 I still dont understand how our syslem works. We have a bin for all our rubbish, and a green box which is for . . well your guess is as good as mine! Its gets collected every fortnight and you can put in it one type of recycling item, so you can fill it with paper or plastic or glass etc, so you choose what one item you want to recycle each fortnight. Plus you cant put any contiminates in to the point where they wont take it if you have carboard tied up with string. So basically your open box of junk mail, newspapers etc has to blow all down the street in the wind when you put your box out for collection! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocchick Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 All very frustrating. I put my black bin out about once a fortnight or three weeks as I am an avid recycler....however this creates more work for me as I have to take cartons, glass, tins, and plastic to the recycling site every week. We have blue bins for paper and thin card, not massive boxes etc., which are emptied every month. Ditto, except we have recycling piling up in the kitchen until it really is too untidy OH has started collecting bottles for homemade wine Our paper bin is crammed in, and we can't afford to miss a collection. A lot of it arrives unwanted through our door. We could open our own charity/pizzeria with the no. of things we get every day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted October 25, 2007 Share Posted October 25, 2007 WE have one big wheelie bin for recycling paper products, tins and plastic - I manage to fill it most weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubyMurray Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 Hi all, I live in Nottingham and I find recycling quite easy. I used to recycle glass, tins and paper anyway before my council provided us with bins about 5 years ago. So when we got a bin for it, it did make it easier as I didn't have to travel to the local tip. We have a green bin for household rubbish and that is collected every other week, it's never full and we are a family of 5. I have 2 other bins, 1 for garden rubbish (grass cuttings, sawdust, compost etc) and 1 for plastic, (not just bottles but anything that has a recycling code on it) carboard/paper, tins and cans. The only thing you can't put in is glass, for safety i suppose but there is a bottle bank at our local swimming pool which my hubby drives to with the 3 kids and they have a 'smashing' time. So not bad eh?! Dyan (RubyMurray) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 IGarden waste isnt' going until next week so I've one half full bin left to fill up. At the moment I'm not composting my grass cuttings as they are more leaves than grass - If I mow again I will have filled the last bin and ended up with some over. Very frustrating. I have four compost bins, but have a brown bin for the council for 'garden waste' in which I put hedge clippings etc. I have to pay £36 per year for this to be taken away monthly. do other folk have to pay that sort of money - I think its pants! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 I have four compost bins, but have a brown bin for the council for 'garden waste' in which I put hedge clippings etc. I have to pay £36 per year for this to be taken away monthly. do other folk have to pay that sort of money - I think its pants! That's shocking - surely that's why you pay Council tax?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jomaxsmith Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 Our kerbside recycling is pretty good. A black wheelie bin for general rubbish, a green wheelie bin for paper, tin, plastic bottles and small sized bits of card and 2 sacks for garden waste. Black bin and recycling collected alternate weeks. So it's only really glass and cardboard boxes that need to go to the tip. I think the problem with a lot of the schemes is that it is too complex. My MIL is a dear lady but finds it too taxing to separate plastic and paper and put it in a separate bin. I just don't understand that mentality! Jo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 2 sacks for garden waste. Black bin and recycling collected alternate weeks Jo So you only get fortnightly collections? I think thats appalling. As for only 2 sacks for garden waste - I just put 3 overflowing wheely bins full of garden waste out - 2 sacks would mean a lot more trips to the tip for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoid Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 My council has changed all its recycling etc Everything (will be) collected on the same day, weekly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rona Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 Wow! Once you get your head round it, that seems to have covered everything (I think )unless of course you live on the red route. Hope they have some process for explaining it to elderly residents as that might be quite confusing for someone who has put everything in one bin for the past 70-odd years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shirl Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 Living so close to you Penguin we have the same system. Fortunately the OH keeps track of what goes out when. We too have a car port to store it all under but it takes up so much room and is so unsightly. The OH often ends up taking more to the recycling centre because the bins etc are full. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ain't Nobody Here Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 My council has changed all its recycling etc. Wow, that's pretty comprehensive. I thought Edinburgh was good! blue box & blue bag one week - jars/cans/bottles & paper red box the next week - cardboard green bin weekly - household waste brown bin fortnightly - garden waste Wish they'd collect plastic - I keep it in the garage and then take it to the supermarket recycling centres. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
