Recycling.

[Leekbrookgull]

Like many even Staffordshire Moorlands has taken up the 'fortnightly' rubbish collection. Maybe like a few ? I am not 'sold' on global warming. However i strongly approve of recycling as much as we can. I don't know if anyone else has found the same ? As a parent of of two teen lads i am stunned by the amount of plastic we 'bin' in the recycling bin, in fact we often overflow it.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

We have had fortnightly collections (one week waste, second week recyclables) for a couple of years now. No problems with it.

However you have to be careful what you put in the recycling. Any "contaminants" (and that includes the wrong sort of plastic) can lead to the whole collecton being rejected and ending up in landfill which rather defeates the object of the exercise. For example we can only recycle plastic bottles, which means most of the plastic we have can't be included. Every time we complain the council to get them to take other plastics, they reply that it is currently "uneconomic" and "no market" for those types

 

[REDLAND]

me and the misses do 3 bins in a fortnight, though most of that is wine bottles

 

[Gully]

...I am sure that you could get round more if you took up jogging, or maybe invested in a couple of bicycles...

 

[London Calling]

We have had fortnightly collections (one week waste, second week recyclables) for a couple of years now. No problems with it.

However you have to be careful what you put in the recycling. Any "contaminants" (and that includes the wrong sort of plastic) can lead to the whole collecton being rejected and ending up in landfill which rather defeates the object of the exercise. For example we can only recycle plastic bottles, which means most of the plastic we have can't be included. Every time we complain the council to get them to take other plastics, they reply that it is currently "uneconomic" and "no market" for those types

Find out if they are searching for a company to recycle the other plastic, we live under Hackney Council, and they have vowed to use a facilility being built within London, to recycle all non plastic bottle plastic.

We have been recycling for years - long before our Council provided the service.

We aim to buy products in glass containers, paper bags or cardboard instead of plastic.

We can go 3 or 4 weeks before we have enough rubbish - all plastic wrapping - to go to the bin. Plastic bottles tops go to our children nursery.

Hackney is now excellent, we have the following recycling: glass, paper, tin, batteries, plastic botles, textiles, and food waste and garden waste. We have a few compost bins, so food waste, most of the card board goes in there.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Hackney is now excellent, we have the following recycling: glass, paper, tin, batteries, plastic botles, textiles, and food waste and garden waste. We have a few compost bins, so food waste, most of the card board goes in there.

Sounds about the same as out here with Horsham DC; I think they'll even arrange free compost bins for you - if not then at minimal cost.
Still weekly rubbish collections, glass recycling points in every village and now trialing the recycling of tetra packs.

 

[London Calling]

Yep ,we trialing tetra packs recycling as well, annoyingly, some of the juice/ soup cartons are not tetra, but the collectors now ignore them!!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

We have mostly the same. Also a couple of compost bins.

We can recycle brown cardboard boxes in the green waste, but the council won't take printed cardboard boxes apparently because of the amount of ink/plastic type covering is regarded as a contaminent - even though the supplier says they are perfectly good for recylingand biodegradable, the council disagrees and refuses to take them. I can't include them in the paper recycling either so they have to end up with the landfill stuff Elsewhere apparently other councils do not have this rule so there is little or no consistency

http://www2.valeroyal.gov.uk/intern...dentifier/DOC6985EDA371341165802570AD00434BE7

There is also a move nationally to charge for refuse collection by weight, using a microchip on wheelybins rather like trade waste, to encourage more domestic recycling, but there issues with this - especially the potential increase in flytipping, people dumping their waste in other peoples bins, technology required etc

http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/b...alties-the-answer-to-better-recycling-19.html

 

[London Calling]

We have mostly the same. Also a couple of compost bins.

We can recycle brown cardboard boxes in the green waste, but the council won't take printed cardboard boxes apparently because of the amount of ink/plastic type covering is regarded as a contaminent - even though the supplier says they are perfectly good for recylingand biodegradable, the council disagrees and refuses to take them. I can't include them in the paper recycling either so they have to end up with the landfill stuff Elsewhere apparently other councils do not have this rule so there is little or no consistency

http://www2.valeroyal.gov.uk/intern...dentifier/DOC6985EDA371341165802570AD00434BE7

There is also a move nationally to charge for refuse collection by weight, using a microchip on wheelybins rather like trade waste, to encourage more domestic recycling, but there issues with this - especially the potential increase in flytipping, people dumping their waste in other peoples bins, technology required etc

http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/b...alties-the-answer-to-better-recycling-19.html

Generally, you're Council people are talking bollocks, the majority of print now uses vegetable dyes, which is of course the norm for all printing on food related cupboard.

Plus, the Council as part of its contract, should state the materials to be removed and as such the contractor must remove these materials, so the Council is at fault here, either its tender/ procurement was poorly written, and/or it is failing to enforce the collection of cupboard.

It is apparent, as our Council is developing its recycling (from an appalling position 3 years ago) that new contracts are continually being put into place.


Land fill is filling up very fast. I believe the LOcal Government Association, states that by 2009 our present dumps will have reached capacity. Your council needs to sort itself out!!

 

[Starry]

We have ABC's here as well and I cannot stand it.

We recycled far more before they started this and if I put my bins out and find another yellow tag telling me they have not emptied my bin because of one piece of paper in the wrong part I might take my rubbish and dump it on the steps of the town hall.

We have a bin for general house waste (no raw food scraps, that is teh ultimate sin), raw food scraps must be composted. MUST. Don't dare put one tiny piece of banana peel in there, because Mr. Bin Inspector will find it and hold you to ransom over it. Then we have a cardboard, paper bin. DO NOT SHRED THE PAPER BECAUSE THE MACHINE THAT SORTS CANNOT COPE WITH THAT. Ever. Don't shred your personal bank details, name, address, inside leg measurement. Because, yanno. THE MACHINE WILL BREAK. Then we have a glass bin. I keep my jam jars and reuse them so we only have the odd wine bottle, beer bottle. But wait. They are the wrong colour. Don't put them in there because heaven forbid a stray brown glass bottle makes into the white bin and upsets the colour scheme. We have a plastics bin as well. Remove all labels but DO NOT PUT THOSE SMALL PIECES OF TORN PAPER in the paper recycling because they will break the machine. Do not put the lids in the recyclable bin.

So, the wrong coloured glass that is not suitable for the glass recycling bin goes into the general waste bin, the shredded paper that will break the machine goes into general waste. Mr Bin Inspector spies these items and so our bin does not get emptied. He picks up on one thing. The "What Goes Where" leaflet says the opposite and they keep trying to charge us because my daughter has the nerve to screw up, tear up her colouring pictures and put then in our black bin. Oy.

Oh and popcorn? NEVER EVER EVER put popcorn in the bin. EVER. popped corn mjust be composted. MUST.

 

[JJ McClure]

We live in Burgess Hill and have recently had our new wheely bins delivered. They are a massive improvement to the two recyling boxes that we used to have and were just a pain. We now recyle so much more. They are a very good thing as far as I am concerned.

 

[Curious Orange]

We have ABC's here as well and I cannot stand it.

We recycled far more before they started this and if I put my bins out and find another yellow tag telling me they have not emptied my bin because of one piece of paper in the wrong part I might take my rubbish and dump it on the steps of the town hall.

We have a bin for general house waste (no raw food scraps, that is teh ultimate sin), raw food scraps must be composted. MUST. Don't dare put one tiny piece of banana peel in there, because Mr. Bin Inspector will find it and hold you to ransom over it. Then we have a cardboard, paper bin. DO NOT SHRED THE PAPER BECAUSE THE MACHINE THAT SORTS CANNOT COPE WITH THAT. Ever. Don't shred your personal bank details, name, address, inside leg measurement. Because, yanno. THE MACHINE WILL BREAK. Then we have a glass bin. I keep my jam jars and reuse them so we only have the odd wine bottle, beer bottle. But wait. They are the wrong colour. Don't put them in there because heaven forbid a stray brown glass bottle makes into the white bin and upsets the colour scheme. We have a plastics bin as well. Remove all labels but DO NOT PUT THOSE SMALL PIECES OF TORN PAPER in the paper recycling because they will break the machine. Do not put the lids in the recyclable bin.

So, the wrong coloured glass that is not suitable for the glass recycling bin goes into the general waste bin, the shredded paper that will break the machine goes into general waste. Mr Bin Inspector spies these items and so our bin does not get emptied. He picks up on one thing. The "What Goes Where" leaflet says the opposite and they keep trying to charge us because my daughter has the nerve to screw up, tear up her colouring pictures and put then in our black bin. Oy.

Oh and popcorn? NEVER EVER EVER put popcorn in the bin. EVER. popped corn mjust be composted. MUST.

Wow, Guildford Borough Council sound pretty relaxed in comparison. All our glass goes in one bin, all plastic bottles and tins in another, and paper/magazines/cardboard in a third. Easy.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Your council needs to sort itself out!!

Generally they are doing quite well

"Over the last 5 years Vale Royal have made huge strides towardsimproving recycling in theBorough. Our recycling rate has increase from just 10% in 2002/03to 40% one of the quickest increase anywhere in the UK!!!
This huge increase has not onlymade Vale Royal the bestperforming recycling authority inCheshire but also moved us from282nd in the national recycling league table to within the top ten!!."​

http://www2.valeroyal.gov.uk/intern...F003490DB/$file/Recycling Performance web.pdf

However the cardboard rule makes me .

The plastics rule appears to be fairly consistent with elsewhere at present, including Hackney.
http://www.hackney.gov.uk/greenbox.htm#plasticbottlescardboard

However if enough people put pressure to collect other plastics it might not be uneconomic. It is something to do with the type of plastic the non-bottles are made of. http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/plastic.html

Also if people don't improve their recylcing it is going to cost their local council a fortune in fines for missed recycling targets which will have to be passed on the council tax payers (us). Therefore even if you don't buy into the global warming argument, if everyone doesn't improve their recyling they will see their council tax bills potentially sky-rocket.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/localauth/pdf/recyclingcreditscheme-guidance.pdf

 

[Eggmundo]

we just throw everything in the blue box, paper, plastic, glass, metal etc. Once a week they come and empty it. Good old Adur !
We have our compost bin at the bottom of the garden into which all the garden, vegetable waste and shredded paper goes. It produces a really good compost which the veggies love!

 

[London Calling]

Over the last 5 years Vale Royal have made huge strides towardsimproving recycling in theBorough. Our recycling rate has increase from just 10% in 2002/03to 40% one of the quickest increase anywhere in the UK!!!
This huge increase has not onlymade Vale Royal the bestperforming recycling authority inCheshire but also moved us from282nd in the national recycling league table to within the top ten!!."


But if they don't do all your cupboard, they are using a bit of poetic license, again, we have a relaxed attitude. Its better to encourage recycling than to penalise people.

And it is just being realistic, again, I would say, that some councils quoted above have just got themselves involved with the wrong contractors and/or have produced an unrealistic or poorly prepared tender for recycling.

I think Greenwich council has only one bin now, it all goes in, but the recycling centre they use can filter it all out using turbelence, magnets etc.

It does annoy me still, that the Government should be taking a lead here in providing facilities that recycle plastic. It is a waste threatening to fill up our dumps. The business opportunities are poor for this type of recycling and this is where Government should step in.

The facillity is LOndon, is getting money from Ken's Livingstone's regeneration agency - who I happen to work for!!

 

[London Calling]

I attach below correspondence I received from Hackney's helpful recycling team

"Plastic bottle lids are frequently made of different types of plastic to the main body of the bottle. These cannot currently be collected for recycling and we ask that residents remove and dispose of the bottle lids. Removing the lids also enables the bottle to be compacted and bulked more efficiently. The plastic bottle market is now established in the UK and Europe and facilities are geared up specifically to deal with plastic in bottle form. In contrast the market for other plastics is weak and there are limited options for plastic material, such as the packaging items you mention, to be recycled.



Most plastics are embossed (usually on the base) with a triangle surrounding a number. This is the polymer identification code. Plastic bottles are typically made from two different types of plastic 1 (PET) and 2 (HDPE). Plastic packaging material such as margarine tubs and yoghurt pots are not made from the same type of plastic as plastic bottles and can be made from any number of different plastics making identification complex. As such the message being promoted by Government bodies who lead on recycling is to focus on collecting plastic bottles as they are easily identifiable to householders and the market in the UK is now established and growing.



Local Authorities who have gone down the route of collecting all plastics have reported huge amounts of contamination, despite extensive communications campaigns, resulting in a large quantity of the plastics collected ending up being disposed of. The plastic that can be recycled is typically dealt with outside the UK and audit trails cannot be guaranteed. There are plans to build a plastic packaging recycling facility in Dagenham, East London. Once this facility is operational we will look into the possibility of expanding our plastic recycling collection services. At present however the message is simple, if it's made of plastic and shaped like a bottle it can be recycled.



It is great that producers are beginning to use easily reusable, recyclable or biodegradable and compostable packaging. In landfill plastic bottles take several hundred years to biodegrade so companies such as ‘Yeo Valley’ taking a lead is very positive.



I hope this information helps and thank you for recycling."

 

[Cheshire Cat]

they are using a bit of poetic license, again, we have a relaxed attitude. Its better to encourage recycling than to penalise people.

And it is just being realistic, again, I would say, that some councils quoted above have just got themselves involved with the wrong contractors and/or have produced an unrealistic or poorly prepared tender for recycling.

I think Greenwich council has only one bin now, it all goes in, but the recycling centre they use can filter it all out using turbelence, magnets etc.

It does annoy me still, that the Government should be taking a lead here in providing facilities that recycle plastic. It is a waste threatening to fill up our dumps. The business opportunities are poor for this type of recycling and this is where Government should step in.

The facillity is LOndon, is getting money from Ken's Livingstone's regeneration agency - who I happen to work for!!

Probably true - I know that there is alot of statistic fudging everywhere - especially relating to recent figures on flytipping where central government was supposed to count every instance of a bin being left on on the wrong day as an nstance of flytipping. But most local councils failed to include these in their figures, resulting in Liverpool appearing to have almost all the flytipping incidents in the entire country simply because they followed the reporting rules properly.

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk...objectid=19230003&siteid=50061-name_page.html

 

[DIFFBROOK]

In Leeds, we have two bins. One black one and one green one.

The green one (i.e recycling) is for all paper and plastics and tins. When you think about it thats most of your rubbish. Scrapings go into the black one. Jars are taken independently by us to the recycling centre.

As for collections, the green bin that takes up most of our rubbish is collected 4 weekly. Its practically over filling by the time they come. The black bin, which has very little rubbish in it, is still collected weekly.

Madness. Leeds Council at its best. Not only do we put paper, tins, all plastics in the same bin, so what machine separates out plastics etc (maybe it goes to malaysia?), but Leeds eonly picks up a full bin monthly and a near empty one weekly.

 

[London Calling]

In Leeds, we have two bins. One black one and one green one.

The green one (i.e recycling) is for all paper and plastics and tins. When you think about it thats most of your rubbish. Scrapings go into the black one. Jars are taken independently by us to the recycling centre.

As for collections, the green bin that takes up most of our rubbish is collected 4 weekly. Its practically over filling by the time they come. The black bin, which has very little rubbish in it, is still collected weekly.

Madness. Leeds Council at its best. Not only do we put paper, tins, all plastics in the same bin, so what machine separates out plastics etc (maybe it goes to malaysia?), but Leeds eonly picks up a full bin monthly and a near empty one weekly.

The metals and paper are removed from the bottles, problems can occur when paper is stuck within the bottles and of course plastic minute fragments can get within paper. There are ample plastic bottle facilities within the UK, a lot of clothing is made partially from this plastic - it should never go abroad.

What I like about our council, is it openess, we know where our recycling goes! And its potential future uses.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Everywhere seems to be different ? What is wrong with phone books ? For recycling. Before September here we had to 'sort-out' our rubbish tins in one box,glass in another that was because it was hand sorted onto the truck into seperate areas on the truck. Now just one bin for that kind of stuff. So what happens next ?