Life without a bin?

shoperholicnot

where I live people regulary burn their rubbish...only when they set fire to the bin chute tho!

SnowyOwl_2

I think that part of the solution is to acquire as little rubbish as possible in the first place. For example:

instead of buying tinned chick peas, buy a big packet of dried chick peas then cook them all at once and freeze in portion sizes.
buy fresh veg loose rather than put into individual bags
buy massive big boxes of breakfast cereals rather than a lot of little ones.
Feed cats and dogs predominantly dry food from a big bag rather than out of lots of tins. (This is actually the single biggest change I have made and it is a huge difference....with three cats I had around 15-20 tins a week to get rid of, now with two cats I feed them on biscuits and bits of fresh fish or meat, and just have one single plastic bag a month to dispose of)
Buy milk in glass bottles rather than in cardboard or plastic.
Buy meat from the butcher rather than in one of those little tray things from the shelf in the supermarket.

etc etc etc...


For what it's worth, one of the richest families in the UK is the family which invented Tetrapak...it's on so many shelves in the shops it's beyond belief, and it just goes into the bin... One of the richest Irish persons is a Mr Smurfit, who also made his rather substantial fortune out of rubbish (or rather packaging). His businesses have moved on to recycling.

All this packaging is no accident really....and considering the money involved in it, it's going to be quite a battle to get rid of the excess.

Mr_Proctalgia

Where I live the council are good (so I thought) we have a brown bin for garden waste and the such like. A grey bin for household rubbish and as many as you want Heavy duty bags for paper, plastic, bottles and tins. They have intructions on the side about what can go with what etc and loads of stuff about collection dates and holidays and all the other bumph that happens througout the year. HOWEVER a few weeks ago I was up early (the bin men arrive here at Sparrow Fhart) and they were chucking the lot into one wagon!!!!! :mad:

Upon questioning the bin men they said they were short staffed and anyway it was all exported as they had no recycling facilities anyway! I have since given up and burn all that is burnable in my stove!

So much for trying!

melancholly

they're re-running 'it's not easy being green' at the moment on the bbc - mondays at 8 (i think). well worth it for anyone who missed it, and also quite watchable for the second time!

embb

ocemeer wrote:

now i haev a range and wood burner tend to burn alot even some of the newspapers and recycle the rest but then just have ash in the bin. does anyone have any ideas what i can do with the ash.
Feel a little guilty about buring all of the stuff too.

I'm not 100% sure here but I vaguely remember my late father-in-law saying they used to dig it into the soil in their garden, it's good for it apparently

Zed42

Ash ... can be used on the compost heap, in moderation.

Our biggest source of "rubbish" is plastic packaging.

We have doorstep collections of glass, tin, paper, green waste (food scraps, compostable stuff, cardboard, etc).

I take plastic recycleable bottles to the tip when I'm in that direction (types 1 & 2)

Fortnightly collections of "rubbish", today I had to put the "rubbish" bin out, we had less than one dustbin (not wheelie bin) of rubbish, and that was for a fortnight.

Carrier bags get used for bin bags, given to tescos to recycle (or B&Q), or given to the local health food shop who use them.

When DD was in nappies, we used cloth, currently selling them

Paper, we shred, then either compost or make in to paper bricks for the fire.

JillD_2

We recycle all paper, cardboard, plastics (that are recyclable) and cans - this is all collected every two weeks.
We take our glass to recycling place.
We try and put veg and fruit peelings in the compost bin

We put out 3 binbags a week and I would say one of those alone is nappies and nothing else. I'd love to use cloth nappies but hubby is not keen.
The rest of the binbags are :
food scraps from the kids (tons of these)
yoghurt pots
other food packaging eg flora tubs and veg trays
tetrapak

I don't get why they can't either recycle tetrapak, make it recyclable, or replace it with something that is recyclable. It really winds me up.

Lillibet_2

catowen wrote:

I didnt think cooked food could be put in the compost bins? I know i had a fridge magnet with mine, and it def says no cooked food on it, but i always feel bad putting the scraps in the normal bin!!!!

Technically cooked food can be composted the same as uncooked, however it is likely to attract vermin & foxes. Depends on how you feel about rats (and how far yoru compost bin is from your house!)

HTH;)

Becles

tallulah_beaulah wrote:

With all our landfills and excess packaging these days, do you think it would be possible to return to life without a rubbish bin?

In those days, she probably would have bought food from local shops weighed out and packed in paper bags, or wrapped in sheets of paper. This would have gone on the compost heap.

These days most food comes pre-packed in plastic, so you can't really get rid of that at home. Even self serve fruit & veg at the supermarket has to be put in plastic bags.

We recycle as much as we can, but it's mainly plastic packaging and thick cardboard that goes in the bin.

If you want a good solution to get rid of scraps, buy a dog. We never have any food scraps for the bin

jcr16

i think it a very good idea. our council give us a green bin which all food scraps go in, and a big black box and in this they collect jars/bottles and newspapers. i have just found out that there is a place locally that i can take my empty cans to , ie beers and cola etc. and all packaging that can get used to make things withs i keeps some and send the rest to my daugthers nursery. this is things such as cereal packs , the trays fresh chickens come on , steak and chicken fillets and sausages etc. also yoghurts pots and maragrine tubs. that cuts down alot of my rubbish. we don't have any where , where i live to seperatly put plastic bottles but they do separate them at the rubbish site and then send them for recycling.

generally i have about 2 black bags of rubbish. son still in nappies so that takes room.