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

Triggles

We moved during the summer and found that our new area has good recycling program, so that we are much better about recycling, which has really decreased what we put out in the rubbish bin. Also our local Sainsburys has a number of huge metal bins for extra recycling items that our curbside recycling doesn't pick up. So we're using both and it really makes a difference. I much preferred the meat in paper wrappings, as it fits in the freezer better. We have been buying some of our meat from the butcher, and that's in plastic bags, which is at least better than those trays.

We do have weekly rubbish pick up, and I think we might struggle initially with fortnightly collection, but I guess you just learn to adapt. If we had to, we would I suppose.

kittykat500

Makes we wonder why we bother when this happens:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1053015/Uncovering-great-recycling-lie-trail-leads-India.html

lemontart

rarely have waste food as have a walking dustbin called a dog and as we recycle or compost whatever we can I rarely fill up my main bin in two weeks but there are only two of us

MATH

As a family of 5 we qualify for a super-sized wheelie but opted for a regular as I couldn't ever imagine having that much trash! Emptied every 2 weeks we only half fill it except at Christmas.
Most of the people I see on the news griping about the bins collections look and sound as thick as puddings IMO. My sister has just come home after living in the States for years and is shocked at how lazy most Brits are at recycling. Over there everything has to be sorted and washed!
If your bin isn't big enough/emptied to quickly enough then stop throwing sooooo much away would be my advice.

Penelope_Penguin

Hi there! We dispose of only a carrier bag of rubbish a week. We try to reduce the amount of packaging (loose veg and fruit from farm shops, minimal packaging from the butcher) and compost most of our kitchen waste.

There's already a thread on this subject on the Green and Ethical Board so I'll move this thread over.

[Deleted User]

We still have a weekly collection where I live, but are being continually bombarded with leaflets from our local council about the penalties of recycling the 'wrong' sort of rubbish .I am lucky that I live about three minutes away from a shopping precinct where I can take my paper /cardboard ect almost daily.The very small amount of rubbish I can also dispose of via a litter bin there as its emptied daily.
My dustmen seemed to be a law unto themselves and empty the bins at different times of the day so some weeks they are there at 7.02 a.m. and others in the afternoon.As we aren't 'allowed' to put rubbish out until 7.00.a.m.according to the litter police it became quite confusing and often I had to drive to the tip with my rubbish ,so I now daily have a walk across the road, and what small amount of rubbish I have is got rid of every day.

Years ago when I was small the dustmen were a cheery lot who came once a week and emptied whatever rubbish there was (including the ashcan from the fire) without complaint .My Mum always gave them a good tip at Christmas as she said they did a rotten job and deserved it .Nowdays the only tip I would give the surly blokes that come around is 'get another job'
I agree there is far too much packaging, M&S bleated about charging customers 5p for bags to 'save the planet' and yet try getting a shirt from the amount of packaging around it.There must be a dozen pins at least.

My Mum used to go shopping with her shopping bag and a string bag for the veggies, three times a week,she had a family of five to shop for Perhaps its us the consumers who are buying too much food. I am at the moment doing a GC and have had 6 days out of 7 when I haven't been to the shops .It's quite a surprise to see how much food I haven't bought as I usually would . Normally I would shop in the supermarket and buy things almost automatically whether I need them or not .This last week I have 'shopped ' from my cupboards and my freezer and have found that its quite possible to get by on what I had in store . Plus of course I have saved a lot.I know I don't have a family to shop for, but my DD has five children, and she only shops twice a week.Mainly because she hasn't the room to store more in her small kitchen. I did an inventory of just my cleaning stuff and couldn't believe that I had three bottles of washing up liquid under the sink that I had fogotten about buying .
I think when we go to the big supermarkets we are sometimes almost trancelike in our shopping habits.I know I was but now I have decided that I shall be a bit more selctive about what I buy. I really don't need 12 toilet rolls for goodness sake, there is not going to be a 'world shortage ' of them. less shopping, means less rubbish hopefully

OrkneyStar

one2escape wrote: »

I will be the odd one out. We were struggling with the weekly collection never mind the fortnightly. We are a family of 6. We have just got a bigger bin but we fill it in a week. We have 2 children in nappies and the other 2 where nappies at night. We fill 2 recycling boxes a week. Use our blue paper bin and the brown bin. We then have to store black bags in the shed until the bin is emptied. It is then hit or miss do we get maggots. Last fortnight they where crawling out of the bin. This week it is due to be emptied tomorrow we have 2 big grey bags full of rubbish to be put in. There must be health and safely issues with the fortnightly collection. Does anyone else have the problem of when they open there bin a million flies fly out?

I understand what you are saying but have you ever thought of reusable nappies (even part of the time) ? I saw a programme on tv about the carbon footprint we leave, cannot remember the exact stats but it was something along the lines of 'the average UK child has left a bigger carbon footprint in their first couple of years than a child in an African country (might have been Malawi- not sure) in their whole life!'. This is not a dig at you, I do understand the pressures of babies/toddlers/children and everything else that comes with it, but it really made me think about it!
PS We do get flies round the green cone but then thats to be expected!
x OS

exlibris

bertiebots wrote: »

Shopping at the market for veg and meat definatley = less packaging and it still baffles my as to why supermarkets are so het up about carrier bags but insist on packing everything in plastic trays.( I use re-usable bags btw.)
.

Could this be because the government has targeted plastic bags but not said anything about food packaging. Supermarkets shout loud and long about how they are looking after the environment but only in areas where concern has been shown by their customers. If they can sell us something at a higher rate because it is 'green' they will. If it is more profitable/easier to handle using packaging they will definitely do that too until forced by Govt or public opinion.

arkonite_babe

MOVING THREADS FOR BETTER RESPONSES

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]

one2escape

OrkneyStar wrote: »

I understand what you are saying but have you ever thought of reusable nappies (even part of the time) ? I saw a programme on tv about the carbon footprint we leave, cannot remember the exact stats but it was something along the lines of 'the average UK child has left a bigger carbon footprint in their first couple of years than a child in an African country (might have been Malawi- not sure) in their whole life!'. This is not a dig at you, I do understand the pressures of babies/toddlers/children and everything else that comes with it, but it really made me think about it!
PS We do get flies round the green cone but then thats to be expected!
x OS[/c]

In regards to the nappies the carbon footprint works out just a little more for disposables due to the cleaning if the nappies. This was on one of the green programs. I also dont think my 8 year old would like me trying to put one of them on him. He only wheres them at night for pee!