They don't make it easy to recycle

[Meanqueen]

I like to recycle all I can and our council provides bins for the usual stuff, general waste, plastic and cardboard, glass and tin, paper, and garden waste.

They give us a list of which plastic is recyclable and which is not, so I look at every piece for the number in the triangle usually located on the bottom of the receptacle.

I have a small plastic bottle here, (omega 3,6, & 9 capsules), The bottle is coded 1 which is recyclable, the lid is coded 4 which is not. The lid is attached to the bottle with a very tight plastic collar. Now I am going to take a knife to this and separate the two pieces, a task that a child, or an elderly or infirm person, might find difficult. :cry:

They complain that we are not doing enough to recycle, but why can't the manufacturers make it easier? Most people would chuck the whole thing into the plastics bin, then they would say the load is contaminated. I shall carry on doing my bit, but I feel I am widdling in the sea sometimes.

Ilona

[spudley]

keep widdling! if we all widdle pretty soon it will be quite a large puddle.......

[Teasal]

Living out in the sticks as we do, its quite a way to carry stuff to the recycling points, but we do it. We have always had a weekly collection of rubbish in a black wheelie bin, but we have to carry the rubbish up the track to where the neighbours bins are, for it to be collected. Then it was decided a big green wheelie bin was to be introduced - this was for garden waste and cardboard. They did not leave one for us , but we have a compost bin anyway, so not a problem. However, some people are getting confused what can go in this green bin, and they collectors must check it, cos quite often our neighbours have a sign on their bin saying it is contaminated and will not be lifted .....I looked in to see what the offensive material was, and it appeared to be some leftover salad Hardly the crime of the century is it ....and hardly likely to encourage people to recycle, if they have to rummage round in the green bin to move the offensive article.

Some of the neighbours who live on the lane, get a little lidded green container and a blue bag. Green container takes cans, and bottles, bag is for newspapers ....again certain things cannot go in the bag, which I would class as paper, so people get confused over this too. To be honest, the green container is not much use to us, we have lots of farm cats, and lots of tins etc. so we usually go to the recyling place with those, and also all the plastic milk containers.

When we get to the recycling place, again there are problems. The hole to put your cans in, is narrow, and you virtually have to put them in one at a time .....and its high up. The plastic bottle one will only take the 4 pint containers, so anyone with 6 pint ones, plus the large spring water containers just dump them outside the bins ..... Anyway, I rescue the big spring water containers as they are ideal for carrying water down to my hen sheds, so they get recycled more than once. Hope I don't get done for stealing ....oops!!

Sometimes we get there, and the place is overflowing with items, don't know how often its emptied. I have also noticed that we have to put tins here, brown bottles and green and clear in separate places. Yet when the refuse collectors come they bung them all in one container ......and one day they emptied the bins on the lane, got the green containers and put them in following the household rubbish and they got munched up .......so they were not exactly recycled that week for some reason!!

We struggle on with these difficulties, but I know some people who just cannot be bothered to sort things into different lots, and then if they get to the recycling place and there are problems, they will not do it again.

[misty]

A friend of ours (in the same County) can put left over food waste in their recycle bin!
Why on earth can't all the councils get together and sing off the same hymn sheet. Oh, and the bins with the food waste go to the same site as the one which are not allowed food waste.
I've seen it on our tv where they just take out stuff on the conveyor belt so I put what I think can be re-cycled into the bin, that includes bottle tops.
I suppose all the complicated clap trap keeps geeks in work.

[chickentina]

I am always argueing with my brother-in-law, who doesn,t recycle a thing that they do take stuff to the recycling yard and separate it. He thinks they just chuck it all in land fill. I try to educate him but he won,t have it.
I recycle everything possible and sometimes put out five boxes a week but only have half a wheelee bin full a week where as before recycling two whole bins were full(i have a large family) I also use a compost bin in the garden for veg and fruit etc xxx

[spudley]

we have bin bags, one for standard rubbish, one for paper ect and materials, and the third is for tins, plastic and carrier bags. our area doesnt have wheelie bins as the lorry couldnt get up there. the bags work really well as you can fit them into the size of bin you are using in the kitchen, and only get put out when full. The paper one hardly ever gets put out as we use that to light fires and already recycle cardboard. In all the little villages around us there is a public car park, and in each car park there are recycling bins for everything.
This means that when popping to the local shop and parking it is no extra effort to pop in the glass, although there are bins there for everything. This means that nearly everything we buy can be recycled and it works really well. Powys seems to have got its act together.

[Richard]

I'm sure that some Councils are getting their act together. I recall a large Skip outside a Supermarket with two holes, one for something and the other for something else.

I saw it being emptied one day and they weren' separated atall, just went into the same place !

My daughter in Southampton pays for a green bag to put garden waste in. It's about the size of a Refuge Bag !
I've told her to look round for a second hand shredder. As it is, she does one days gardening and it takes 3 weeks to dispose of the waste !