Recycling - is it always Eco friendly?

[4pigs]

Just a thought but cleaning tins out, washing plastic containers out and rinsing cartons - all that water wasted. I just wonder how green is it?
Probably not helped that I have just cut my fingers on the lid of a tin!
Seriously though (going back to previous topic) our recycling is collected once a fortnight and I dont want stinky rubbish by the door so I ensure it is all very clean but there is still the issue of water use and whether or not it is viable.

Jo

[Orfy]

I agree.

The bad side of recycling is that it is mainly about reaching targets and easing peoples guilt.

Make do, repair reuse then if all else fails then recycle.

You know the best thing Make do and don't buy in the first place.

Grow your own then there is no packaging.
Don't buy a new TV until the old one is dead and can't be fixed.
Mend what you can, Buy second hand.

Sorry I'll stop now or I'll be on a rant.

[Mallard]

I put the tins etc at the back of the draining board until I wash up, that way you don't use extra water!

[saint-spoon]

When I was young milk was delivered in a glass bottle by a milk man and meat came from the butcher wrapped in paper. Chips also came in recycled newspaper without an expanded polystyrene tray or indeed a sanitary paper insert piece (although there was a little bag that the chips were put into to prevent the newspaper disintegrating). Fizzy pop was a luxury item and came in glass bottles with 2p on them if you returned them after use; a fact that never missed the eye of an enterprising paper boy.
Whilst holidaying in Kenya a few years ago I was humbled by watching the locals taking water from murky puddles with old plastic oil drums and children playing with cars made from discharged pop bottles with a piece of wire pushed through and the lids as tyres.
Just a thought, but we need to get control of the decadent culture we have now evolved before it’s too late; much of it’s to do with government legislation and the supermarkets demanding what they have convinced the public is the perfect product. Beautiful red steak, uniform tomatoes, bacon that glistens in the packet, all the invention of our big four and now unfortunately the perceived norm.

[4pigs]

Ah yes, I remember the 2p back on pop bottles...

My bin does not have too much in it each week and I do recycle everything I can - I just wonder with everybody rinsing things out - how much water is actually wasted. Not everybody will leave this until the end of the day and do it after the washing up. Sometimes "stuff" seems to be glued to the inside of cartons and I can only get it to shift with more hot water.

Another thing is that the council will not allow us put Guinea Pig bedding into the green wheelie bin. I could understand if it was kennel litter but its just little bumbles produced by Guinea Pigs who only eat a veggie diet. The bedding is a recycled paper and obviously some hay gets into the mix as well. Its too much dry matter for me to compost each week and taking it the tip is a waste of petrol as it is a 1 hour round trip. I dont see why it cant go into that green bin!

Jo

[Stig]

We had guinea pigs when the children were little, & we used to let them run free in the garden. They were pretty much wild in the end, wouldn't allow us to handle them at all. Lived to a ripe old age - one was 8, an achievement I believe for a GP - big & fat with lovely glossy coats. The bit of grass they lived on was the greenest, most weed-free patch in the whole garden. Those pellets they produce must be fantastic for the soil.

Although we fastidiously collect & take all our plastic waste to the skip each week, I do wonder if it just goes to landfill. Looking at the assortment of stuff that goes in there, I'd question whether it is possible to to re-use it without completely re-sorting it by hand. I'd feel a lot better if I knew for certain that something was actually done with it!

[Orfy]

Stig, why don't you ask the council what happens to it?

[Badmonkey]

I agree sometimes all the washing out and cleaning of tins and jars and saving paper to go in the paper bin sometimes can seem bit laborious, however I found a great site for recycling stuff "www.recyclethis.co.uk"
Worth a look, I got plenty of ideas off there

5 exbattery hens, 1 rescue mad black lab, 1 patient wife

[misty]

I'm sure the gp bedding would be fine on the compost. If I put anything dry on, i e hay horses have left then I just put some water on.

[foghornleghorn2]

A lot of "recycling" isn't about recycling it's about easing your guilt.

Our council have just started a wheelie bin campaign, we have four, that's right four we can have a fifth one if we pay a little more

One large one is for cardboard, paper, tins, etc. The other large one is for non reclaimable stuff. one smallish one for food waste and an even smaller one again for food waste (this to be kept in the kitchen)
The optional one is for garden waste.

The two large ones are emptied on alternate weeks and the food one every week. My neighbour saw them empty the food waste into the non reclaimable stuff so what is the point of a seperate bin

Food bin here

http://www.surreyheath.gov.uk/environme ... addies.htm

What a load of old nonsense.

[foghornleghorn2]

I took some old fence panels to my local tip and I was refused permission to dump them

Why ?

Because they would take up too much room in their skip.

I was told to take them home and break them down into small pieces and then they would allow me to dump them

Well a bit of a heated debate broke out, and a supervisor had to be consulted and after much sucking of teeth they would allow me to dump them "just this once" and as "a special favour".

[secret squirrel]

How kind of them.
Rude words come to mind dont they.?
I went to the tip with stuff from the garden. We heard them say "F****** H*** look at the size of that" They made me go round to the weigh bridge.
It was only a "Warrior" for goodness sake.
lorna

[foghornleghorn2]

How kind of them.
Rude words come to mind dont they.?
I went to the tip with stuff from the garden. We heard them say "F****** H*** look at the size of that" They made me go round to the weigh bridge.
It was only a "Warrior" for goodness sake.
lorna

Harsh words were spoken for sure but if you are deemed to be "aggressive" you just get refused so I have to mind my words a little.(a lot)

it's not often you hear them use the foliage word down the dump

[kate egg]

My OH actually got banned from our local tip We don't get a rubbish collection at home (long story culminating in return of wheely bins to our council offices) so have to take all our rubbish to the tip. They know we have a business - although all that rubbish we pay to be collected by local council, so decided that we were dumping commercial waste, they tore the black bags open and although all they could find was household waste they still wanted to refuse to take it. It came to harsh words, and a call to their superviser who my hubby told what he thought of him. Result - a ban!!!!

Luckily there is another tip nearby where they are a lot more friendly so we go there now, we even have a special licence in the car as it is a pick-up and therefore commercial, the licence is to say we are bringing private waste. Not that they ever look at it