A New Day Dawns

[Adams442T]

Lincolnshire, at least the 'South Holland' bit around here, take 'black bag' landfill on Thursday , and 'green bag' recycling on Friday, though, ironically, they not only do not  collect a separate 'green waste'  they do set the bin-men the task of ripping open and discarding any Thursday-bags they fear have grass or other garden clippings in, and leaving them by the roadside..

 

In view of the fact that land-fill will cost so much more, both environmentally and financially, to the rate-payers than providing a 'green-waste' alternative you have to wonder at their lack of 'joined-up' thinking.

 

Whether or not you believe in Mans' contribution to climate change it surely behoves us all to lessen our impact on the World.  If not for us, but for our children and grandchildren

[Baby Deltic]

Thank goodness for fly-tipping.

[Robert]

One of the biggest problems with the UK is the councils think that they can make money out of recycling.  This generally isn't the case.  The primary advantage of recycling, is to cut down on land fill.

 

Here in Germany, we also have different rules in different regions.  It just depends which contract the councils have negotiated with the recycling companies (in much the same way as in the UK).  Where I live, we have "Altstoff" which is packaging and paper, "Bio" which is garden and kitchen waste, and "Restmüll" which is stuff that cannot be recycled.  Bio is collected every week, and Altstoff/Restmüll alternate week on week.  In order to avoid the "Tactical Strike Binmen" we get a calendar which lists exactly when they are coming (although it is usually the same day, except when there is a bank holiday).

 

We have an 80 litre bin for Restmüll and it is collected every two weeks.  It is rarely more than half full.

 

Some towns have seperate bins for packaging, paper and glass - it just depends where you are.

 

Sadly, it is surprising how much cannot be recycled - it just isn't cost effective.  However, different types of rubbish have different calorific values, so it makes incinerating it easier.

 

In the UK, where my parents live, they have some ridiculous rules:

 

No kitchen waste - there is no high temperature treatment works, so kitchen waste is forbidden.  Ridiculous!  That all goes in landfill - which is now almost full as the town have been taking London's rubbish for years (they pay more)

 

Everything must be 100% clean - Daft!  Why?  What difference does it make if the rubbish is washed, or "spoon clean" as we say over here.

 

Everthing has to be separated, but at the end of the day it gets thrown in one lorry - I despair!

[Purley Oaks]

Here in Edinburgh we have 7 things to separate: large green wheelie for household waste (landfill); large brown wheelie for garden (for compost) waste but rarely full; large blue bin for washed cans and glass; large red bin for cardboard; large blue plastic bags for paper; large clear bags for washed plastic with the recycling mark (no yoghurt pots); small black bin for food waste. All collected fortnightly on rota basis (collections are every Wednesday and Thursday), except the food waste which is weekly.

 

Although I moaned earlier that separated waste is mixed by the binmen I think that recycling is the way to go. Save the planet!

 

Mal

[skipepsi]

I think ours is fairly logical we have a green bin for garden waste and uncooked vegetables for composting a black bin for landfill and a burgundy bin that has a seperate compatment for good quality paper and then clothes, cardboard, glass and batteries all go in the bin clothes and batteries are to be in carrier bags for ease of seperating at the contractors. One week the black bin is collected the following week the green and burgundy bins .

[petethemole]

We have a basic two bin collection, collected by the council, not "outsourced". Green top is for general waste, collected weekly, most of which goes to an incinerator, blue top is recycling (not glass), collected fortnightly. Glass collection is new this year; we get a plastic box, collected fortnightly on recycling day but by a separate lorry. That goes out in time for all the morning passers by to check out your taste in alcohol. The glass collection crew come round with lidless wheelie bins that they fill up noisily from the boxes, then empty into a normal refuse lorry with bin lifters. All that's gone out this morning. Garden waste bin is paid for. I have shrubs, small trees, climbing plants and a large ash, and have found that I can't get all my prunings into a compost bin; also the resulting compost consists mainly of un-rotted or partly decayed sticks. From now I'll just use that for grass clippings and weeds. It all seems to work well except in parts of the inner city where parts of the population don't give a t*ss. By observation this includes all ethnic groups and includes students.

 

Pete

[Coombe Barton]

We're on the 3 1/2 bin system, maybe soon to be 4 1/2

 

Black bin - non recyclable on Thursdays - out by 7am

 

Then the next Thursday:

 

Brown bin - garden waste - no kitchen waste on pain of non-collection

Blue bin - plastic and glass and anything else recyclable

And in the blue bin, insert for paper and cardboard (that's the half bin)

 

Generally works well

 

But now they're talking about another bin for food waste.