How many bags of rubbish do you put out? (MERGED)

JimmyTheWig

When we were 2 adults and 3 kids (all in disposable nappies to one extent or another!) we were down to one black bag a week on the majority of weeks.
Now we're 4 adults and 3 kids we've increased a bit but hoping to get back down again. Are trying to switch to reusable nappies but not finding it easy.

Council collects paper, tins, glass and plastic bottles. The dump near where I work takes mixed hard plastics and tetra-pak so we save all of that (as well as cardboard) and take it there. Ironically it is more convenient for me to get to that dump 60 miles away than it is our "local" dump which is the other side of the borough. Also save metal, wood, batteries and carrier bags for the dump. As I'm only in the office once a week, and it's not always convenient to go, we store it all in our shed and I often fill up our people carrier when I do go - it's become an in-joke at work.
Home-compost (non-meat) kitchen waste but often have a problem with garden waste as end up with too much cut grass than would like to compost but council charge for a garden waste collection bag. Don't want to go all the way across the borough just to take it to the dump, and don't really like leaving it in the car all the way round the M25 (and often until lunchtime) if I take it to work.

nodwah wrote: »

glass ( but not broken glass -why?)

Health and safety, presumably. You can't expect the poor guys who come round to collect the recycling to pick up broken glass without warning.
They normally take them if you take it out to them seperately as they are passing, though.

zekepes wrote: »

All compostable matter is composted (including cooked food etc) in our compost tumber (Jora 125) or regular composter (for larger quantity fruit and veg scraps), so we don't use liners in the kitchen bin. The added bonus is that our wheelie bin does not smell and it isn't a problem if I forget to put it out on collection day - a monthly collection would be fine for us.

What do you do with meat waste / bones? You can't home compost them, can you?

A_fiend_for_life

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

What do you do with meat waste / bones? You can't home compost them, can you?

Certainly not if they are cooked as it would attract vermin - you can boil them down for stock as suggested on the old style board I think.

You can also get a lockable digester that you bury in the garden for cooked waste.

JimmyTheWig

What are the chances of this happening...

Within hours of posting on this thread we get a letter from the council through the door and they're changing our collection system.
From weekly rubbish and fortnightly recycling they're moving to fortnightly rubbish and weekly recycling.

But good news is that part of the recycling package includes a lidded box for food waste - including cooked and raw meat. So I'm pretty chuffed with that. Will suit us much better, especially as they'll now be collecting cardboard and waxed cartons.
Now just hard plastics and excess garden waste I'll have to deal with myself...

A_fiend_for_life

Not sure on the chances JimmyTheWig as I produce very little compostable material that it is not worth doing. I just have loads of cardboard and the very rare grass cuttings.

Any neighbours with cats/ dogs for the meat waste?

That's good news on the cardboard and food waste though. I'll need to check my local authority website. See if they have any changes coming. We have no cardboard, plastic or compost collection on my street / route.

Elia_2

I have a pretty good recycling scheme where I live - alternate fortnightly collections of green waste/newspaper and tins. Between my partner and I we only put out 1-2 small bags, mostly filled with tetrapak from fruit juice cartons & food waste.

Just discovered that I can put tetrapak into a recycling bin at a place not too far away. Although it can't be recycled in the UK, I seem to recall that tetrapak make some environmental donation (carbon offsetting I think it was) for every load taken to Scandinavia where it can be made into pulp.

You can check where your nearest tetrapak recycling place is at http://www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk/locator.asp

bigpaws23

Those of you who donate yogurt pots and similar to nurseries and schools - are they actually grateful for these things? I'd never felt comfortable with it, thinking they might believe I was passing on my tat! but if they'd appreciate it, I'm more than happy to save things.
What else do you pass along for kids activities?

JimmyTheWig

bigpaws23 wrote: »

Those of you who donate yogurt pots and similar to nurseries and schools - are they actually grateful for these things? I'd never felt comfortable with it, thinking they might believe I was passing on my tat! but if they'd appreciate it, I'm more than happy to save things.
What else do you pass along for kids activities?

You could always take a small bag and ask if they'd like more of the same. Generally I think they're happy with most things as long as they're clean. For "health and safety" reasons they're not allowed to take toilet roll tubes. :mad: Kitchen roll tubes are always appreciated, though.
Think back to your Blue Peter days, just about anything can be used to make something. Especially with younger kids when they enjoy sticking stuff onto paper - it doesn't even have to make anything.
Remember they've got the same space constraints as everyone else, so I try to stick to smaller things (e.g. not too many cereal packets, etc).

newlywed

Right one week of recycling my food cans and glass jars and the once a week trip to the tip isn't too much effort, so hope to keep it up.

Next on the list will probably be cardboard I think, judging by what else has gone into the bin this week - does that include all cereal packets/food boxes as well as the brown packing boxes? - sorry I sound so dim

JimmyTheWig

newlywed wrote: »

Next on the list will probably be cardboard I think, judging by what else has gone into the bin this week - does that include all cereal packets/food boxes as well as the brown packing boxes? - sorry I sound so dim

Yes, anything like that will go into cardboard.

Waxed cartons (e.g. tetrapak) probably won't go in the same thing as cardboard, though.

Primrose

In a household of two, we put one one bag of rubbish a week which is often only half full. We separately recycle paper/cardboard/tins/glass & plastic bottles, as well as putting kitchen & garden waste on a compost heap.