rubbish

[ChrisG]

I am currently reading a book called 'the book of rubbish ideas' (written in 2007, so a little out of date). It contains a statement that garden waste accounts for 20% of all household waste and that in total it amounts to two wheelbarrow loads per year. Now I dont know about you, but I fill more than two wheelbarrows every time I cut the lawns. Not to mention all the rest of the rubbish I accumulate. However, I am trying to compost most of my garden rubbish this year (the one bin the give us for garden waste, emptied once a month, is woefully inadequate).

We are also trying to cut down on waste in general.

So, how much 'garden waste' do you think you generate? How much of it do you compost? And what ways are you trying to cut down on rubbish, especially the non-recyclable stuff (looking for ideas )?

[saint-spoon]

Pretty much all of my garden waste goes into our compost bin, the stuff that doesn’t, such as woody stems from the bush thing in my front garden, goes into the garden waste bin at our local recycling center. We recycle all of our metal stuff, cans etc, all of the plastics that they will take (which is still annoyingly low) all the kitchen waste that will go in the composter and all of our junk mail/envelopes from bills etc which gets shredded and composted. We are quite reliant on the supermarkets for ourr meat so we still have far too much packaging from them.

[ChrisG]

That's the problem - meat always comes in too much packaging! But then, if you buy it at a butcher, where they can wrap it in greaseproof paper and brown paper bags, you still have the problem of what to do if you need to freeze it Not to mention we dont actually have a local butcher and so are dependent on the supermarkets for our meat.

Our council has just issued us with a big recycling bin; it's a wheely bin and we are to put all plastic, paper, card and tins into it. But I did hear that if the plastic is not the recycling sort, they just bin the lot, so what use is that? Glass goes into a separate box. So now we have three bins (or should have - we have never managed to persuade our council that we havent been issued with a green bin for compost type waste) and a box. The box and two of the bins are collected fortnightly, alternating; the garden waste is collected four weekly.

[saint-spoon]

all our galss goes to the bottle bank as the council won't take it away for us, fortunately there are bottle banks at the supermarkets so we unload once in a while when we go shopping.

[Annie]

Our council will provide as many recycling bins as you request . We needed two large green garden bins and that is what we have. The composter is used but also a council type dalek which I dont find terribly efficient, old chicken run woodchip,bedding and poop gets bagged and passed onto a family with 2 gardens they are trying to enrich and some also gets dug into my little patch. Lots of weeds and some grass cutting are given to the hens to play with . Many containers that are used with fruit e.g. strawberries are perfect for use in the raising of seeds , pop bottles make cloches for newly planted veggies/flowers until they are established and also confuse the slugs. Actually we dont often have a very full bin although we do have weekly collection of household and recycling and fortnightly collection of green bins

[ChrisG]

The saying is 'reduce, reuse, remake, recycle' - we are trying to redce, but it isnt easy; looks like you have 'reuse' all worked out Annie - wish we could say the same! And we are definitely inyo recycling, but I often wonder what the council actually does with it all. Do they incinerate it and try to say they are remakin g it into energy? Incineration of course, brings its own problems (and toxins in the atmosphere).

[wendy]

I suppose the bin that gets the most waste is the Green [compost]wheelie ie: parrots paper and chicken bedding. Although we do give most of the household peelings etc to the chooks.
Not a lot of plastic as I mainly have veggie meals from the market or organic boxes, now I am cooking, just the packets the dog meat comes in. Always use our own bags at the supermarket.
Also not a lot in the landfill black wheelie. Papers are used for the bottom of the parrots cages and then into the green bin.
Glass and cans are wine and beer I am sad to say

[Kernow]

Because we have to pay for green collection and landfill collection we have learned to be much more careful with waste.

If the chickens can use it then they can have it, if not then its composted, if it can't be composted then it goes into the green recycle bin unless its glass, all else into the black landfill bin. (the glass goes to the bottle-bank)

Notice that the top of the pecking order is the chickens.

[Nefertari]

Where I used to live (Winchester) we had a green sack for putting grass cuttings/prunings etc in, a black wheelie for general waste and a green bin for paper/cardboard/tins/certain plastics.

So I would put very little in the black bin since it was so easy to recycle there.

Since living in west berkshire, we have the same size green sacks but here it is for cans/plastic bottles/shampoo bottles etc. then we have 2 green plastic boxes, 1 is for paper and the other is for glass. Then there is a green wheelie for compostable garden rubbish and the black wheelie. the black bin is emptied every other week and all the recycling ones the opposite week.

It is such a fag having so many containers, the green sack blows down the street and when we've had rain (like recent weeks) and you pick the green boxes up to move them to the edge of your driveway for collection, the water comes out the bottom and all over your shoes! They can get quite heavy so I don't know what older/infirm people do.

They've also recently given us a kitchen waste composter with compostable 'plastic' liners which you fill up and then put the bags in the green wheelie. Well what a nuisance, who wants rotting kitchen waste hanging around and who has room for another container in the kitchen.

So i'm afraid i don't recycle any plastic, tins or jars. If they made it easier to do so like the 1 wheelie for most things then I would recycle more.

the chicken waste all goes on the garden to improve the soil.

walking past neighbours houses on the way to work, I can see that I'm not the only one doing - or not doing, the same.

[aceface]

chicken /rabbit waste = garden
tins/bottles/glass /cans/plastic =blue recycling box
newspaper/card =blue recycling bin
garden waste privet =off to the tip for recycling
grass =dumped at back of compost heap=happy chooks!!
i have no waste to put into the normal dustbin at all so my binmen ar great they will take away privet if the lid is shut as the tip only accepts so much at a time so sometimes we cant tip it
wood/branches from trees =chicken coop
we did used to have a green bin for all garden wasts but sheffield city council decided to get rid of it and in their wisdom said we can go to the library and get black sacks and put it in the pavement and they will collect it once a month, it has never happened yet and to plastic bags i use my own supermarket hessian bags
and yes i do nag folk about plastic bags they drive me bonkers i hate to see them hung from the roadside on the trees it breaks my heart

[ChrisG]

i have no waste to put into the normal dustbin at all

That's my aim, but there is just so much plastic stuff that isnt recyclable :(

All food waste either goes into the compost now, or the Johanna, which composts cooked food waste and even bones (or that's the idea - dont know yet if it actually works on bones). Glass, paper and card go into the recycle bin/box, so our general waste is so much less than before, but we are still bringing too much throw away stuff into the house.

One suggestion has been to register with mailing preference services so junk mail (in theory) doesnt get through. But that only removes the problem from me; it doesnt actually solve the problem. The printers will still print the junk - it just means someone else is having to dispose of the waste rather than me. I'd like to find a way of reducing the waste, rather than just reducing MY waste, if you see what I mean. But where does one start?

[Mrs B]

We are very lucky to have an excellent recycling wheely bin collection we can put most plastics, carrier bags, tetra style packaging, tins, foil, glass and cardboard even plastic toys get recycled. We an have as many compost wheely bins as we need and a sturdy bag for paper plus the landfill bin.

We can buy cheap compost bins and water butts from our council and the cemetery has greenhouses which grow many of the flowers for the roadside displays, there are regualr events promoting recycling at the cemetery and they even have a garden displaying recycled objects as planters including an old loo.

We have an awful lot of garden waste due to taking on such a big garden project.

[ChrisG]

Our council seems rather far behind in the recycling game. When they first started, they were fined for collecting it but then chucking it all in the landfill anyway They seem to be doing better now, but there is still a way to go.

[saint-spoon]

Our council was actually quite good for once (I think it was the Lib dems a while back who got it all sorted) and we have got a fantastic recycling centre (it used to be called the dump). They have just expanded it. They take just about everything, there is even a tank for used engine oil, a sealed thing for mercury vapour lights, and a battery bank for used up dry cells. Pretty good. As we live on a peninsular it is a maximum of a couple of miles away from pretty much anyone living here. They take old fridges as well, better that then have them dumped.

[Totally Scrambled]

Our local tip, sorry recycling centre, is a similar set up.
They have a large section for garden waste which they mush up, compost and use on Council gardens and also sell to the public for a very reasonal price.
Collection wise we have a green bin for cardboard and garden/food waste, a tin & newspaper bin and a general rubbish bin.
Dom