Proud of my rubbish

[Meanqueen]

I'm rather proud of my rubbish. This bag is my household waste for two weeks, which can't be recycled. It went in my grey wheelie bin, along with a bag of soiled cat litter, to go to landfill.

All other waste is recycled and put in the appropriate bins for collection. My tins and glass box is collected every two weeks, but I only put mine out every six weeks because there is hardly anything in it, same with the paper box.

The largest amount I send for recycling is cardboard, the bulk of this is the boxes that the cat food pouches come in, it's a pity they can't find a better way to package it.

Does anyone have a smaller bag than me?

Ilona

[Sunny B]

No - but there are 4 of us! Until we got the puppy we usually had two black bags per week, which I thought was pretty good! All the rest was recycled, composted or dealt with by the hens!

[wendy]

No as well, but there are 2 of us, 4 dogs and two parrots. Mainly the packets on the fresh food. Grrr. All chook stuff can go into the green bin. An awful lots goes to the different recycling bins though, fortunately.
Wendy

[p.penn]

I do quite well too I feel, 1 black bin liner per fortnight usually. There are quite a few people in and out of my house during the fortnight and I have my grandchildren to stay at least a couple of times too.

We have a fab, easy recycling system - full marks to our council. I also compost ALL my food waste so the bin is all dry stuff.

[manda]

I would say we get a small kitchen bin per week for us (us being -me, hubby, eldest son (18) and little un) all recycling well....see here...


We recycle everything that we can put it into old feed sacks that are in our recycling bit and store them too so we get as many as possible and then probably about once every six weeks load up the trailer and take them to the recycling centre. Don't have household and recycling bins out here and being rural we don't have any recycling facility so any rubbish we put in our bins are charged for- so not only is it about recycling but money saving for us.

[lancashire lass]

I'm probably about the same as you Ilona - being single, I find that both my black & green bin need only get collected once a month and even then they are rarely more than half full because I compost a lot of stuff including the cardboard packaging and freebie papers etc - it makes a lot of sense to make use of stuff like that on the allotment rather than buying in compost

[kate egg]

OMG Ilona I have that much a day in my kitchen bin We recycle papers, glass, compost the veg trimmings and chicken poop, all our cardboard boxes are re-used to send out items sold on eBay. There is no recycling in our area for tins or plastics so this soon fills the bin up and although I am careful to try to buy things with minimal packaging we still seem to have about 3 or 4 black bags a week

[Meanqueen]

Interesting to hear about others recycling efforts. We have a very good council policy here to recycle as much as possible, pity other councils don't do the same.

LancsLass you have just reminded me about putting crdboard on the compost heap, I already put shredded paper on there, so maybe I could do more. But as mine goes for recycling anyway the council can take the bulk of it.

Just a thought for multiple occupancy households, especially those with teenage youngsters, perhaps try giving each person a biodegradable carrier bag and get them to sort out their own rubbish. They will moan a bit but it might make them think more about the need to recycle. So, four people = four bags. Make it a challenge and maybe offer them an incentive to reduce their waste.

Ilona

[manda]

I have the eldest living in the sleepout at the bottom of the drive and his mates sorting all the rubbish into recyclable stuff

Make it a challenge and maybe offer them an incentive to reduce their waste.

..........
I found that the shrieking at them like a banshee and threatening to make them pay for the bins was very effective

[liskeardjane]

I wish we paid for waste by weight as I have only the one bag a fortnight. I recycle and compost the rest. Anything paper gets used to light the fire.

[lancashire lass]

I wish we paid for waste by weight

providing the council tax was reduced as a result of this new found income ... I already feel I pay far more than what I receive in services as it is!

[p.penn]

I found that the shrieking at them like a banshee and threatening to make them pay for the bins was very effective

Yes, I do think that charging per household would make the majority of us think twice about even buying stuff with excess packaging and therefore put a rocket up the manufacturers bottoms.

It would also help make the consequences of excess wastage more visible for those people who demonstrate little concern for environmental issues.

[manda]

Yep the area we live in - in town they have council pick up but you have to buy the bags and they will only take the bags that have "WDC" (Waimakariri District Council) printed on them - so the tipping charges are paid for by the bags.
The others are private companies - the ones we use provide Oil drums as bins and they come every two weeks.
I think having paid for my bins through the rates in the UK and then moving here and paying for them as you use them I prefer this way - it does make you think what you put in the bin and it can work out much cheaper than just paying a blanket fee....that being said if the person happens to be a mass consumer of all things wrapped then I'm sure it wouldn't be the option they'd choose

[Sara]

We pay a blanket fee every year. I put out a 50 litre bin liner every 4-5days and take the recycling to the special bins every week and usually take a bin liner full. The rest goes on the compost , I used to have very little in the way of rubbish before Marc and Liv came along.........

[Lilo-Lil]

I probably have the same as you a week Ilona, but then I do live alone (apart from the animals).

I do have about 3 carriers of used cat-litter a week, though. Dont know what else I could do with it. At the mo I have 6 indoor cats on foster, so cant really reduce it.

All the empty dog, cat and chicken feed sacks get filled with soiled chicken bedding, and given to my friend to put on his compost heap. I try to recycle as much as I can, and collect the stuff from work to put into the bin too. It is usually full by the end of the fortnight when its collection day.