Green!

[ailbhe]

Last night I emailed the guy who stood for the Green party here last local election. I've tried talking to the council refuse collection dept direct but it got me nowhere.

You see, we have a huge grey wheelie bin for landfill waste and a huge burgundy one for recyclable waste (where "recyclable" means "accepted by local council for recycling"). I've asked before if I can get the huge grey bin replaced with a smaller one - no - and whether the recycling bin can be collected more often - no.

The landfill waste, usually less than a quarter of a binfull, is collected weekly. The recycling waste, usually so full the lid doesn't close properly, is collected fortnightly. Our friends N+L (Of Baby Iz and Baby Jo fame) have a similar problem, and their kids are both in disposable nappies, which should be producing plenty landfill to go around.

So I wrote to the Green fella. I asked him if he thought the Greens would be interested in a petition or a poll, since the Council's excuse to me is "there's no demand" for more recycling and less landfill.

I'd like more recycling. I'd like a paper bin and a tins bin and a plastics bin (all in together at the mo) and I'd love a glass recycling collection instead of having to schlep it to the bottlebank. I'd like to be able to recycle waxed cardboard milk cartons, which aren't usually waxed but plastic lined anyway, and plastics other than "bottles". Yes, the council only accepts plastic bottles for recycling, no other kind of plastic. If it's molded into a box instead, no dice. Isn't that... arbitrary?!

I'd also dearly love a compost collection; our own compost bin isn't really up to us, and the wormery isn't either. (Memo to self: start seperating cooked and uncooked kitchen waste again so we can use both composter and wormery again). I'd love a garden waste collection. At the moment, people just put all these things into landfill, which is so wasteful.

And I want my water butt to arrive. We ordered it ages ago, I think.

User	Paper	Card	Waxed paper	Plastic bottles	Other plastic	Food and drink cans	Glass	Garden waste	Uncooked kitchen waste
ailbhe	x	x		x		x
sam_t	x			x		x	x	x
cangetmad	x	x				x	x
artela	x						x	x
ai731	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
mrs_warwick	x	x		x		x	x	~
buzzy_bee	x					x	x

Comments

[buzzy-bee.livejournal.com]

Wyre Forest District Council do a fortnightly rubbish and weekly recycling collection, FWIW. They are not the only ones AFAIK.

[rjw76]

The reason Cambridge council gives for the bottles-only thing is that bottles generally have the type of plastic they are made of printed on them or embossed into them, so it's really easy to sort and process each individual bottle. This is, sadly, not the case for random plastic items.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

We only get plastic bottles collected too (there was a reason but I can't remember what it was), but our other recycling is working quite well. We get a 'normal' grey wheelie bin for landfill rubbish, a similar sized one for green garden rubbish to be composted (no food, no invasive weeds), a box for tins and glass, and a bag for paper. Everything is now collected fortnightly, one week for landfill and one for recycling, so if your council provided better doorstep recycling they'd probably save on the landfill collection. After the first month or so of the current scheme (which introduced the fortnightly collection and added plastic bottles to the recycling scheme), just about every household I noticed was putting out less landfill waste.

I hope you get your survey, and that the council listens.

[helenprev.livejournal.com]

When our recycling bins were delivered, a few months ago, I asked about plastics, and apparently there is nowhere AT ALL in this country that recycles anything plastic other than bottles. It has not been found to be cost effective, apparently. So the fact they have little recycling triangle logos on them means nothing in the UK.

So that is why none of the councils take them. I loathe throwing them away though :-(

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

While our council only doorstep-collects paper, card, tins and glass (fortnightly, sorted into different boxes and bags), they have on-street big bins every mile or so that take plastic packaging, and that's not restricted to bottles. And here's an FAQ which says there's a plant in Yorkshire which recycles other plastics, including things like yoghurt pots.

[helenprev.livejournal.com]

How very interesting - thank you for that! :-)

[artela.livejournal.com]

Ours is collected weekly on the same morning as the "normal" wheelie bin is emptied - but they only accept waste in bags (green bags for green garden waste and clear bags for newprint/magazine waste) or in the box for glass (so from that you can see that all they collect here is glass, green garden waste and newsprint - no tins, no plastics, no card...).

Our "normal" wheelie only gets put out about every other week as there's only the two of us so we don't produce that much waste. We don't buy normally buy newspapers or magazines that are to be thrown out so a paper recycling bag only gets put out maybe twice in a year, and garden waste that can't be used in other ways is generally added to the next bonfire. We don't need the glass collecting as the bottle bank is literally just across the road from us. Trying to recycle around here without a car is impossible, as anything worth recycling has to be driven to supermarkets to use any recycling bins they have.

[ai731.livejournal.com]

Our recycling collection is pretty good. They take just about everything (all paper, including envelopes with plastic windows, books, and cardboard, all soft plastics including any king of plastic or foam container, and plastic shopping bags, all glass containers, and tetra-pac milk/juice/whatever cartons); our only problem is that with this much recyling our little rectangular green bin is full to overflowing every week by the time recycling collection comes around. We generally manage to put out a half-binbag's worth of non-recyclable rubbish every two weeks or so (and yes, rubbish is collected twice weekly, and recycling only once weekly), especially in summer when we're composting. Next winter we should seriously consider a wormery for winder composting.

[mrs-warwick.livejournal.com]

Here in Blaby District Council, we have 4 bins: a standard wheelie bin with a black lid for landfill, another with a green lid for all types of paper and cardboard (it's Rhiannon's job to take the plastic windows out of envelopes), a small bin for glass and another for tins and plastic bottles. The recycling is collected once a fortnight, the landfill is collected every week. If we wanted to, we could rent another wheelie bin for garden waste which would be collected once a month between March and October (I think). The other councils in Leicester recycle, but they all have different policys.
My parents (in Holyhead) don't have any doorstep recycling.

[buzzy-bee.livejournal.com]

Oh and our kerbside is: aluminium tins, glass bottles, newspaper and magazines. That's it. Which is why I have been driving round with an ever growing back of empty plastic bottles for the last month - one of the few good things about my old job was that I used to drive past the recycling depot almost daily. Nowadays I have to wait until I am in the vicinity *and* not carrying passengers. Whenever I am down that way for work, I have someone else with me.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

That is a really good idea, to write to a Green candidate. If the Green party people are looking for issues to rally people around, this is a good household-scale example.

We have a pretty good weekly recycle collection the same morning as the garbage. It's about to change to be half the stuff (paper, plastic?) one week, and the other stuff (cans, bottles) the other week in a different coloured bin. Which means more storage for us (at a premium in a city townhouse) but apparently reduced costs for the city.

We don't have curbside compost pickup. I wish we did, since we gave up on composting after the raccoons dug into our ostentibly-impervious container and made messes. When we bought this house it had a "garbage disposal" in the sink drain (a motor with dangerous blades that grinds up all your carrot peelings and puts them in the sewers along with more fresh water). These are common in the USA, but not in Canada, and when we renovated the kitchen our plumber told us it would be illegal for him to reconnect it.

[ailbhe]

Illegal because it's a criminal waste of water and filtration resources, or because it might cut your fingers off?

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

I think it's the stupid immoral use of fresh water & filtration part. I was terrified of the things when I encountered them in the US and didn't want it in the same house as children, but when we got it here our sensible teenagers weren't at all interested in playing with it.

[barakta]

We get the normal black bin waste collection weekly. And a 2/3 blue wheelie bin for paper and card collected monthly. We applied for a second blue bin as we have a lot of paper and card, an ebuyer order of computer parts will easily half fill one. The second blue-bin turned up within days. I wouldn't mind a twice-monthly blue-bin collection, but the additional bins is a reasonable compromise. We could also lob extra in the not-quite-full bins on the roads on the night before collection. Nothing we didn't do with normal waste and normal wheelie bins as students in houses of 6 or 7 people!

At the same time as asking for a second blue bin I asked aboutother collections such as glass, plastic, metal and textiles having read about a trial on the council's website. I believe the council is concluding that doorstop collections are not cost-effective with several areas having the bins vandalised before collection or the contents of the recycling bins being incorrect.

The council's alternative is to set up lots of local recycling banks in carparks in larger shops, or in otherwise 'spare land' near residential areas. Our nearest one is literally across the road in a B&Q car park. Friends have one just down from their house. I think if you don't have one close and have an idea of where one would be needed the council would assess the viability of it.

I think the council is concerned that those who care about recycling will walk to the nearest bank (where possible) whereas those who don't care about recycling will just fill the to recycle stuff. Whereas those who don't care about it fill their recycling bins with inapropropriate waste - which of course screws everything up. I believe in one area the paper bins were removed after all sorts of crap was dumped in them and very few people used them.

[kelvix.livejournal.com]

although we do not get our plastic recycled by Slough council in the kerbside collections, I heard somewhere that Slough had a company that specialised in the subject..

[kelvix.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to slim my bin - I am hampered by the fact that my composter ordered from Blackwall in Mid March has still not arrived... about which I am not pleased, since the payment went off my credit car at the start of April... I'm contemplating getting another water butt, so that I can water parts of the garden if necessary this summer, but don't want to have to wait for three months in order for it to be delivered.

That having been said, we do have a large green wheelie for garden waste (not including food waste, and if you stray outside what is permitted, then disposing of the contents of the bin is up to you, so I don't) which gets collected every other week.

More importantly, we do have a weekly black box mixed collection of glass, paper, light (not corrugated) card and tins. And we have two boxes, so on a week when we for some reason get through lots of paper, it can still go in there.

[uitlander]

Next door to you in West Berks we get a recycling collection every two weeks. We have one crate for waste paper, and another for cans and bottles. Plastic and card is not collected, although these can be dropped off at two recycling locations in the council's area (neither of which is convenient or anywhere close to where I ever pass in the normal course of things).

I collect cardboard and plastic, and issue them to friends who have home collections when they come over. I am deply jealous of your big red wheelie-recycle-bin, and our councils ought to show some more co-operation.

[heraldis.livejournal.com]

Bristol City council.

Paper : newspapers and magazines only
Card : see complaint
Waxed paper: no
Plastic bottles : no
Other plastic: no
Food and drink cans: yes
Glass: yes
Garden waste: see complaint
Uncooked kitchen waste: no
Tine foil, batteries, yellow pages, yes.

Complaint: from this summer they will take cardboard and garden waste, if we buy a green bin for £20, then pay £29 a year. They will be dropping black bin collections to fortnightly and refusing to take anything not in the bin. This is going to help how? I can see all the chavs flytipping massively, it's going to be grim.

[k425.livejournal.com]

In Calderdale we have a weekly rubbish collection and fortnightly recycling. The rubbish goes out in a black bag and I'm currently happy with the amount we chuck - the three of us don't fill a black bag most of the time. The recycling has to be bagged and is put into a black box, you can put glass, cans and paper in but they have to be bagged separately. Oh, and textiles, they'll take textiles too. However, one fortnightly collection isn't adequate for our paper and glass so we go to the recycling centre at the supermarket too. There's a plastics place at the local tip so we go there, with plastics and big house and garden waste, now and again.

We have a compost bin so I'm putting uncooked kitchen waste and much of the garden waste in that, and I've got another on order so I can have one composting and one filling. With any luck. And there's a waterbut to come too, although I don't think we're likely to be drought-stricken here. It's more to keep the water bill down since we're metered and I've started growing veg!

I was horrified over Christmas to see how much other people were chucking out. I watched one of the neighbours make four trips to the bin lorry, with a bin-man, each with two bags at a time. Sixteen bags of rubbish, in one week. How much of that could have been recycled? Wrapping paper, cardboard packaging, wine bottles...

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

We should be getting card collected as well, soon - it's been promised since March but we haven't got it yet. That will make quite a difference to my bin, as I don't always remember to take it to the one cardboard collection point and it takes up an awful lot of space when it's waiting.

[rmc28]

Cambridge has been steadily improving recycling collection and was prompted by recent new targets to reduce landfill waste collection.

So on week 1 we get black bin (landfill) and black box (paper, glass, metal) collected. Our house usually collects paper into a separate plastic box and puts all three out (in extreme circs we have an overflow metal+glass box) and they always collect it all so far.

On week 2 we get green bin (compostable) and blue box (plastic bottles) collected. The green bin takes card and all garden waste and all food waste, including meat and fish and cooked food. It's the same size as the black bin. We usually fill it or nearly fill it, while the black bin can occasionally miss a collection and take 4 weeks' of waste without a problem. We usually half-fill the bottles box in a fortnight. Before they got collected, we used to bag them up and store in the garage until Keith or I had the effort to take them to a plastic bottles collection point. For the first few collections I would decant bottles from the garage into our box (and into neighbours boxes if there seemed to be plenty of room) until they were gone.

Our friend in Peterborough has kerbside collection of tetrapaks. We don't, nor does Cambridge have any collection points for them, so we use the garage as a temporary store, and on the occasions when she drives down to Cambridge on a visit we load up her boot with our tetrapaks.

Non-fish, non-meat kitchen waste usually goes into our compost bins (unless I suspect the kitchen box is contaminated with meat or fish, in which case to the green bin). The bins are open at the bottom and placed on bare soil. We have not yet used the compost output, but the level goes down and down in summer months and we just add more waste on the top. Receipts and other documents with lots of personal data on get shredded and mixed in to stop it getting too mushy.

http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/environment/rubbish-waste-and-recycling/ has loads of useful information.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

We also have very little in our landfill bin every week, and often a more-than-full recycling bin every fortnight (we have an arrangement with the neighbour that we can fill hers if she hasn't).

On the other hand, given how hot it gets here (Brisbane) I wouldn't want the landfill bin emptied less often. Smell and bugs of all kinds are significant problems.

[merryhouse.livejournal.com]

actually, wrapping paper can't be recycled. Something about the coating on it.

Next Big Campaign: recyclable wrapping paper.

(This is after the success of the incinerating sewage for power campaign, which hasn't yet been feasibility-tested...)

[merryhouse.livejournal.com]

We have landfill weekly.

Garden waste fortnightly - and I would *love* to know how many people need that, now that they've decided they can't have kitchen bits. (I bet it's the "solids at 6 months" thing all over again; everyone was too confused and getting it wrong so we've gone for the simple option...)

Paper (staples ok, windows not) whole glass and tins in a box, also fortnightly on alternate weeks.

We have recently had a Recycling Pledges scheme, where schoolchildren pester everyone they know to get them to sign a bit of paper. A recycling award is then shared out between all participating schools proportionally as to how many pledges they've collected. Apparently it has worked, in that kerbside collection has gone up. Our neighbours have certainly started using the box which was previously full of soil.

We bought our compost bin cheap about 7 years ago, and there's a similar scheme running at the moment - £6 for a bin which apparently costs £40 normally.

Various places - supermarket carparks - take stuff. The dump has rubble, garden and cardboard skips (we do a cardboard run when we go to the nearby Brewster's).

The leaflet *says* there is a book bank in Tesco's car park, but there isn't any more. Have you ever tried to do a big shop when you have a large box of books in the boot?

They also *claim* that there are several places to recycle textiles, but what they actually mean is that you can take your clothes there instead of waiting for a charity shop bag. I cannot find anywhere to take *dead* clothes. Even though the reading book Christopher had on the subject featured the recycling of fabrics. I shall have to take up patchwork. Or dolls' clothes making.

Oh, and we have nowhere to take plastic. I get the impresssion that the council is a little embarrassed over this. Apparently there is no market for recycled plastic products (what about *more* bloody bottles, that's what I want to know) and it's hard to find anyone willing to do it. I suspect this should be Priority Number One.

[ailbhe]

Boot - I don't have a car :)

Clothes - some charity shops here take dead dead dead clothes and pass them on to the rag man, whoever he is. Might be worth asking around.

Another world...

[(Anonymous)]

Thought you might be interested in hearing what our recycling program is like DownUnder.

I live in Sydney, Australia.. I've stumbled across your journal from time to time and am very interested in what you have to say...

In Sydney we have 1 small bin for general, non-recyclable household refuse, one large garden-waste bin, and one large recycling bin. The household bin is collected weekly, and the the garden and recycling bins are collected alternate weeks.

Recyclables include:
- Paper
- Card
- Waxed Paper
- Plastic bottles
- Other plastics (all plastics, with the exception of polystyrene accepted... yoghurt tubs, chinese takeaway containers... everything)
- Food and drink cans
- Glass bottles

[k425.livejournal.com]

Okay, not actually recycle, but definitely re-use. As I got older, it was part of the tradition of Christmas to smooth the paper nicely to be reused next year, and watch the paper from a big present reappear on a smaller present and eventually on a stocking filler!