| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Helen M |
curbside recyclingi love it! i l0ove that some lovey man comes and takes away my recycling from my house.But, i have had several conversations recently involving the "it just goes in the landfill" thing. is this true in any way? also why must they come so blooming early???? i can't put it out the evening before because we have stray cat issues, so i have missed them again. not a big problem cos i will bag it up and take it to the nearest recycling point. But why so early!!!!!! (rhetroical moan) |
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| Treacodactyl |
I'm not convinced what they do round here is the best way. There's all sorts of problems and it seems to result in large amounts of litter about the streets including broken glass which isn't much fun for pet owners. I'm sure there's a better way such as collecting all rubbish and sorting it later - after all much of the recycling seems to get mixed up anyway.
I just don't think much thought is put into it. Our council has started collecting plastic bottles but wants them held in a re-usable plastic bag. The obvious result is the wind blows the bottles and bags around before they are emptied and the bags get blown down the street after they are emptied. |
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| JB |
Re: curbside recycling
Unfortunately very true. There's currently a glut of recyclable material available so lots of it gets tranferred back into regular landfill or incineration. Having said that I think it is still worth recycling even if that happens because it both reduces the cost of material to be recycled and so potentially the cost of the recycled products and, more importantly, because it establishes a culture in which public recycle and councils have to provide facilities for them to do so. |
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| mark |
Well they are just starting it here (got the letter today) ..
Not much of gain for me personally as their are public recycling bins a short walk from my house.. so i then had the convenience of putting stuff in whenever I like .. And seeing as we''ll go to the black bin/blue bin alternative weeks I think it will be less convenient. What I really dread are the summer months when i am away a lot and can't put out the bin every week - so i can forsee food waste staying in there for 6 weeks or more without being moved... I't mainly the meat/fish waste that goes there cos i tend to compost most stuff. But I suppose its a good sign .. Mark |
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| marigold |
Costing The Earth on Monday had an interesting feature about recycling and burning waste to create energy. You can hear it at 13:30 today or on Listen Again.
We have just started wheelie bin co-mingled collection here. It's better than boxes as far as rubbish left in the street is concerned. Query: Why co-mingled? |
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| sean |
Because they don't know what mingle means? | ||||||
| Barefoot Andrew |
I don't even bother with the kirbside collections here. Since they don't take plastic or cardboard, I've got to go to the recycling point anyway. Might as well take all of it.
A. |
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| JB |
Confession time. I don't recycle plastic  There's no kerbside recycling here but there is a recycling point in the village but it does not accept plastic. So as the alternative would be driving to somewhere that can take plastic or storing it for months until I go somewhere that can take it it's the one bit I no longer recycle.
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| Hairyloon |
IMO all the householder should need to do is separate gacky waste (which should probably compost) from non gacky waste.
The non gacky waste should be reasonably easy to sort through into the various recycling streams, and the prisons are all full of people capable of doing the sorting. |
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| Barefoot Andrew |
More positive to take responsibility for one's own purchases and the waste thereafter I'd have thought.
A. |
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| Helen_A |
We found that having no plastics recycling was a huge aid to not having the stuff come into the house, and then that LA introduced 1,2,and 3 (which was great, and the bins were on the bus route and in every village!!). Here there is some, but its only for *bottle shaped* plastics, as apparently the machine cannot cope with the occasional non bottle shaped, even if they are 1,2 or 3 (which is what the plant actually takes on talking to them).... All I can see is that the value of the load is going to be consistently small as there are loads of shops around here selling imported goods that come in bottle shaped plastic that is a 7 
So all our plastic goes to the 'bin' at asda, which takes by number type (i.e. 1 through 7, hole for 1-3, 5 and 7 together and another for 6 and hard 4, with 4(bags) and 9 going into the bag bin instore). Annoying really as it means that it goes through the asda system (i.e. by the lorry load to their plant in Cumbria) instead of the local ones (4 miles up the road to a suposedly state of the art LA owned one...) |
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| gnome |
every council in the country has a magical recycling machine - you just pour the waste into it, and the machine automaticall sorts it all out and turns it back into raw materials. if you put a stale cake in there, fresh flour and eggs come out the other end. | ||||||
| linz71 |
I think it's infair that all the responsability should be placed on the end consumer, the supermarkets/food companies should cut down the on the unessasary packaging.
Whenever I buy meat I have to re-bag in order to fit it in the fridge/freezer. I have no plastic recycling box to put it all in either. I rang the council last week to complain about the bin men collecting our recycling boxes. They don't put them back, just sling them all over the pavement. They've even hung them from the garden gate in the past., they never shut the gate either.
I saw a news program on the TV last year that said that alot of our recycling goes to China to be sorted. Apparently appart from the cheap labour it helps prevent them from using virgin plastics. Giving it to prisoners in the UK to sort would make alot more sense. |
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| cab |
For me the best solution is not to buy meat in the supermarket. Ain't like they stock much meat that isn't minging anyway.
Lucky you for having binmen that come inside the gate! 
It is a problem that recycling boxes/wheelie bins just end up wherever. If you're lucky and have responsible neighbours then thats not such an issue, but on occasion we've had our bin hijacked and filled with all sorts of nasties. I've also found that the best way to prevent the good, strong plastic recycling boxes being nicked is to put a good crack in them.
Only if we're going to do something with it (and even then, I'm dubious that it should be a 'prisoner' activity). If we're not going to remanufacture the sorted plastic into something else, its not that useful dealing with it here. Of course, one could argue that some of our imports from China are just stupid. For example, bamboo sticks for growing plants up, for example... Sticks. We're importing sticks. Why not press all of that plastic into near everlasting sticks instead? |
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| cab |
Totally. Its all very well complaining about over-packaged products (and its fair to complain to shops that do that I think), but if you want less packaging don't buy such things. |