Life without a bin?

TiaBaby

Our council recently delivered a small brown counter top 'kitchen bin' . The idea being that we put teabags and kitchen scraps etc. in there then empty into the large brown bin outside ( along with the lil bin came a leaflet saying that they will now take cardboard and food scraps in the compost bin )

In September they will take plastics too, although there is a plastics recycling point in use at my daughters school which is always brimming over.

We started to use this lil bin as soon as it arrived and for the last 2 collections of the normal grey bin, there has only been 1 30l bin bag in there!

On the flip side, my neighbour left her grey out with 2 black bin bags as well and when we came back from school today - the bin bags had not been taken.

I am now determined to be on par with my spanish neighbour, who only throws out 1 tesco carrier bag out per week

looby-loo_2

TiaBaby wrote:

I am now determined to be on par with my spanish neighbour, who only throws out 1 tesco carrier bag out per week

That's like me then! One TESCO bag is about it most weeks. I doubt I'll bother to put it out if it's raning on Wednesday.

kittiwoz

JillD wrote:

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.

It is because the card is lined with a plastic film on the inside so it doesn't go soggy and it is too hard to separate it out. Why they can't be made out of recycled card is another question and one I don't know the answer to.

fudgem

I can't understand why different councils have different rules. I read with interest the things that can go into some peoples brown bins. We aren't allowed to put any vegetable waste in ours, only grass and hedge clippings and small sized twigs, certainly no food, cooked or otherwise. If one council can recycle my potato peelings and cauliflower root, why can't they all?

Fivenations

I had to call oot the council pest control as we had rats living under our garage. He told me that rats, though they will eat anything, are more likely to go for grains than meat. Thye love wheat etc which is why they use posoined wheat as bait.

I beleive you can compost food scraps but need an nelcosed bin and some sort of activator. Not sure if this is the same as a worm bin.

Sujamjen

catowen wrote:

I find i stick a lot of supermarket packaging in the bin, also left over food (normally the children not clearing their plates!!!) we havnt got chickens, and i would love to know how i could reuse that rather than putting it into the bin!!!!

I put food scraps onto a plate and then first thing next morning I put them on the lawn for the birds. They soon get used to being fed and are waiting. The only things they don't eat are vegetables.

natzini

I would love to recycle more but our Council is rubbish, it really is! We are meant to be living in a 'bohemian' town with fair trade status and much more besides, but when a block of 25 flats is given 2 small black boxes and a brown bin for all of our rubbish, it really makes me wonder why I even bother paying all of my council tax! I recycle all of our newspapers, other paper, card etc, glass and plastic, and do a once a month visit to the tip where there are proper bins to dispose of all of the recycling... I'd like to visit there more but have to drive there and I usually work at least 6 days a week, so it is not always possible.

I cannot wait until we get a house with a garden, then I can have a compost bin, and an actual recycling collection!!

skyepark

for food scraps, birds will eat most of it, even cats and foxes, however this may also attract mice?

angelavdavis

Fivenations wrote:

I had to call oot the council pest control as we had rats living under our garage. He told me that rats, though they will eat anything, are more likely to go for grains than meat. Thye love wheat etc which is why they use posoined wheat as bait.

I beleive you can compost food scraps but need an nelcosed bin and some sort of activator. Not sure if this is the same as a worm bin.

I have one of these recycling bins, its called a joanna or green cone:

http://www.greencone.com/home.asp?lang=1

Part of it is dug into the ground so there isn't a gap for the rodents to get into. It comes with some accelerator which lasts ages, although in summer it doesn't need it - you can then buy more for £13 for 6 large sachets when you need to. Make sure you keep the lid locked on to minimise flies and any other nasties!

We also have four compost bins and a wormery.

http://groups.msn.com/AngelasPhotographicEmporium/gardenproject2005.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=1673

We compost:
- Shredded paper (I use a paper shredder to shred up personal docs, as I have no lawn, it adds bulk to the heap)
- cut up rags (old dishcloths etc)
- all uncooked kitchen waste - teabags, fruit peelings, etc
- cardboard
- Cooked waste including chicken carcasses, bones, etc. go in green cone

We recycle:
- Tins
- Bottles/Jars
- Paper
- cardboard (if we have too much to rip up and put on the compost)
- Milk Cartons
- Toilet rolls
- carrier bags
- Plastic bottles

other stuff through freecycle:
- Greenhouse Glass
- Aluminium greenhouse structure
- wooden pallet (came with patio materials delivery)
- 1 tonne bags
- old furniture and lighting
- computer parts

We have found no solution as yet to:

- Used cat litter (can put some p** in the green cone but I don't like to do that)
- plastic packaging from supermarket

SusanCarter

JillD wrote:

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.

"They" can recycle tetrapak. The whole point of tetrapak is that it is recyclable and in the rest of Europe most of it is recycled. It is just in the UK that it is not recycled as council recycling targets are based on percentage weight.