Rubbish Collection

dick

dick

LOTSW Fanatic
Caught a programme tonight on rubbish collection in Newcastle and what is done with/to it.(sorting etc) One thing struck me , people are much the same all over the country as regards recycling. Some will, some wont and others don't seem to care. I wont go full blast into the whys and wherefores but one thing stuck out like a sore thumb! Newcastle has two bins of different colours for different rubbish, A blue one for recyclables and a (dark) green one for general rubbish. In my area of Nottinghamshire we have a (Light) green lidded one for recycling and a black bin for general rubbish also a brown lidded one for garden waste.When I was last in Worksop ,it was blue for recycle and brown for general .A contractor came to my house once and tipped a load of plaster and wood shavings in my recycling because where he came from in Sheffield their general rubbish went in a green bin! It makes you wonder if a country wide recycling target should have consistency of dustbin colours so everyone knows where they stand!:13:
 
Hmm yes you have a point, I have green for garden rubbish, brown for recycled and black for household, again the complications of modern life !! I still have an open fire so without hopefully incurring the wrath of environmentalists to much I have to confess to burning some papers etc.
 
Norm said:
Hmm yes you have a point, I have green for garden rubbish, brown for recycled and black for household, ...
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My trash/recycling contractor provides two bins, a blue-black one for trash and a slightly less dark blue for recycling. The only way to see which is which at a glance is to read the label. This is much less complicated than my former system of hauling it all to the county landfill transfer station myself. The county accepts many fewer types of recyclables and what they do accept has to be sorted by type.

The village picks up grass clippings, shrub/tree prunings and fallen leaves twice a month, and requires only that we heap it all between the curb and the sidewalk no earlier than 24 hours prior to the morning of pick-up day. A worker on foot rakes or shovels it into the scoop on a front-end loader, which in turn picks it up and deposits it in a dump truck to be taken to the village compost pile for later use in the parks.

Marianna
 
Here in the States, I'm glad I don't have to fool with bins. I package up the recycling in clear bags and the regular garbage in white or black bags. Up to the trash guys to determine which bag goes into which truck.
 
Hello Dick ,

I actually live in Newcastle we have 3 bins blue for recycle , green for general waste and brown for garden waste , which was free at one time but I think now is £25 per year [ I have no requirement for one] . One thing I have often wondered about recycling are containers from ready meals , sauce bottles etc which the council, I believe, expect you to wash out before depositing in the bin . In essence you are "saving the planet" by recycling the containers but damaging the planet by using energy to heat water and using detergent to clean said items .

There seems to be a fourth bin appearing in Newcastle , not sure if the programme covered as I missed it, and its the pavement , fly tippers seem to be on the increase , some however are quite considerate they deposit the rubbish next to the street bins !
 
The programme did cover the fly tipping, it even got a dig in about "the cuts" stopping them from really cleaning up after the fly tip. Where before there were two on the wagon collecting ,there is now only one. He do's not have time to sweep up after. He just throws the larger stuff into his wagon. He said the reason he was on his own was due to the fact that the council had to make savings of £85,000,000 over the year. :30:
I did notice another bin, it was for glass .(My own glass bin gets emptied once a month . Good job I don't throw any wild parties !! :22: :me:
 
Adanor said:
Here in the States, I'm glad I don't have to fool with bins. I package up the recycling in clear bags and the regular garbage in white or black bags. Up to the trash guys to determine which bag goes into which truck.
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I'm in the States, too, but fortunately I'm located in the Casella Waste Systems service area. They started in Rutland, Vermont, in 1975 but have expanded until they now serve all of New England, most of New York State and a bit of northern Pennsylvania. They're somewhat more expensive than the other garbage/recycling pickup services licensed by the village, and a great deal more than doing my own hauling to the land fill, but Casella's is much more convenient than the latter alternative; the other contractors pick up only the very limited recycling accepted by the county and it all has to be pre-sorted. Casella's has their own landfills, highly automated recycling sorters and a much broader market for the recyclables.

Marianna
 
One refreshing trend that is happening in pockets of the country is people are rescuing Supermarket food they are disposing off and also touting local businesses for food they are getting rid off, all of which is destined for landfill and they are cooking this perfectly good food , offering it not only for sale to the public through places like Skiptchen , but are also offering it up at a nominal or no cost to people who cannot afford to always eat .
 
Adanor said:
Here in the States, I'm glad I don't have to fool with bins.
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Here in Durham, we have three different wheelie-bins: Green for trash, blue for
recycling, and brown for yard (wooden-tree?) waste. So we dump all the
recyclables into the blue wheelie-bin which is processed at a warehouse.
The green bin gets emptied at a dump site, loaded on trucks, and
taken to a central, out-of-state dumping area.
 
I think it would make life easier if the bins were uniform across the country but then again we are talking about the council! We have black bins for general rubbish and orange bags for recycling, if you pay £20 a year you can have garden waste bin but to be honest its easier taking it to the tip or bagging it up and hiding it in the back bin :D
 
This reminds me of a story I read many years ago in Readers Digest

A couple had moved in to a new home and each week they could not decide where (the Single Dustbin) could be put so it did not detract the look of their lovely new home and would keep moving it, early one morning they were woken by a knock at the door, on opening the door there stood a dustman,all he said okay we give up
 
It certainly is an inconvenience and expense to have to wash used tins and sauce bottles etc, particularly if you're on a water meter.


Different councils seem to accept different things for recycling.

Do you know some boroughs won't even take cardboard??!!!

Others won't take tin foil or milk bottle tops.

All basic things that were among the first to be recycled.

Whatever happened to getting money back on the empty Lucozade bottles? Now that's what I call recycling.

It's strange that now a bottle has to get broken up and remade into another glass object, using goodness knows how much water and energy - whereas if each container was returned to each manufacturer they could simply be washed.

There doesn't seem all that much incentive to recycle at the moment, with strong rumours that all the recyclible waste just ends up in landfill along with the ordinary waste.
 
wstol said:
It certainly is an inconvenience and expense to have to wash used tins and sauce bottles etc, particularly if you're on a water meter.




There doesn't seem all that much incentive to recycle at the moment, with strong rumours that all the recyclible waste just ends up in landfill along with the ordinary waste.
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There are stories that our recycling ends up in "landfill" in Third World countries!!:39:
 
Re Lucozade forget about taking bottles back 99% of it is bought not by sportsmen and sportswomen , a popular misconception, but by people who have a hangover . Unfortunately most of the empty bottles end up on the street, sometimes in the street bins, or rolling around a bus much to the annoyance of every passenger.
 
Thing is, there's probably packaging waste now than there ever was.

I don't think anyone actually ever asked for more packaging.

Plastic bags with everything.

Polystyrene.

What was wrong with paper carrier bags?

Thing is, I can re-use paper or plastic carrier bags to carry things in, then they can finally get used to put all the other rubbish in so save buying bin bags.

The place where I live wants all my non-recyclable waste in bags before it goes in the big bin.

Is there a better way?
 
I use a Wheelie bin lining bag. It helps to keep my bin clean etc. On my street most other people tip their rubbish into the bin which is a nice little earner for the man that comes around with a mobile pressure washer on black bin day.
I shred old letters and bills etc but the shreddings have to go in the rubbish bin not the recycling because "it clogs the sorting machinery " at the recycling plant.???
 
dick said:
I use a Wheelie bin lining bag. It helps to keep my bin clean etc. On my street most other people tip their rubbish into the bin which is a nice little earner for the man that comes around with a mobile pressure washer on black bin day.
I shred old letters and bills etc but the shreddings have to go in the rubbish bin not the recycling because "it clogs the sorting machinery " at the recycling plant.???
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I use the bin liners too purely because in the summer the smell is disgusting. I don't mind getting plastic bags from the Co-OP because they dissolve after a few months, as I found out when I used one to store some summer clothes in one winter and when I came to pick it up off the wardrobe floor it turned to dust in my hand but other than that I use reusable bags now.
 
wstol said:
Thing is, there's probably packaging waste now than there ever was. ... What was wrong with paper carrier bags?
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How about sturdy, washable, flat-bottomed tote bags with loops in the right places for hanging upright while the store check-out clerk is filling them? They're not free, but they are very inexpensive and they're reusable for much longer than the free ones. I keep mine on the passenger seat of the car so it's impossible to forget to take them into the store.

wstol said:
The place where I live wants all my non-recyclable waste in bags before it goes in the big bin.
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My waste disposal contractor doesn't have that requirement, but I line my kitchen step can with a fresh bag each time I empty it; otherwise it would need a thorough scrub with hot water and dish washing liquid every time it's emptied to keep it from reeking. It's a fairly large can, so I empty the wastebaskets from other rooms into it. Then the bag goes in the garbage can and that makes it possible to avoid having to wash it frequently in warm weather to keep odor under control.

dick said:
... On my street most other people tip their rubbish into the bin which is a nice little earner for the man that comes around with a mobile pressure washer on black bin day.
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There's no such service here. The best I can do is to lay the bin on its back and hose it out.

Marianna
 
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Talking about bags , I just been to Asda and the woman in front of me in the checkout took 22 of the stores free bags. Talk about saving the planet!! >:( (mind you its a pet hate of mine. Who are we saving the planet for?? The younger generation! Who are using the most bags??.....................The younger generation!! :confused: :46:
 
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