Cardboard recycling advice needed

StormCrow

We were told 2 weeks before xmas that our local council was going to stop curb-side cardboard collecting (nice timing!) due to the "new EU guidelines on compost". I now have to catch a bus down to the local recycling centre (as Iam medically banned from driving) with 2 bulky bin liners full of cardboard which the bus drivers aren't happy with. Aside for using it to pack ebay items in has anyone got any good tips on how to reuse it? Thanks

abwsco

No ideas on how to use it but ours is still collecting cardboard. Sure councils make up their own rules regarding recycling!

Moorhen

Hi Stormcrow,

Our council still collect cardboard but have never collected glass, I am sure that they make up their own rules.

As for the cardboard, you can chop it up small and use it in the garden to loosen up clay soil or have a bonfire and burn it1

SailorSam

If you've got big boxes, kids love making things; or some can go in your own compost despite what the Council do for theirs; i don't think i'd make a bus journey with it just cut it small and put in the normal bin or burn it.
Not very eco friendly of your Council to give up on it.

flea72

i would just put it in with normal household waste. as soon as the council stop meeting their targets due to all the additional waste going into landfill, they will restart collecting cardboard.

the only thing that is stopping your council collecting cardboard is because they mix it with green waste, to try and cut down on the amount of bins/staff needed. they just need to collect it separately so its not used for compost. if you continue to take it to the tip yourself then you are playing into your local councils hands

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THIRZAH

They don't make it easy to recycle, do they?

Our council has stopped collecting cardboard with the green waste. We now have to put it in with the newspapers.So of course all the bags for papers are now too small. There are larger bags avaliable but we have to collect them!

This is supposed to be a temporary thing and we are promised a new recycling collection system in the spring-I'll believe that when I see it.

Stormcrow-I really wouldn't put myself out by carting the stuff down to the recycling centre by bus.If you do feel strongly about recycling card contact your local councillor or local paper and make a fuss.

bupster

If there are big boxes, you could use it in the garden for a no-dig bed. I pile up a couple of layers of cardboard, top with rotted leafmould (the council delivers this to the allotment site but you can make it yourself) and then plant straight into that. Then I usually mulch whatever I'm planting with spent hops (ask a small brewery nearby). Obviously this depends on whether you've got a garden! Smaller bits of cardboard can be ripped up and used for compost; big boxes and egg boxes you might be able to give away on freecycle; ask your local nursery school if they could use some old card for the kids to play with?

anguk

With our council, there's the usual household bin, a box for glass and another bin for paper/cardboard/plastic. They only do fortnightly collections though so we end up making at least one trip to the recycling centre with rubbish.

the_cat

Absolutely agree with flea..... no way would it be going anywhere but the general bin! If the council do not see an increase in the waste which they have to pay to put in landfill, they have no reason to reconsider this decision.

Sambucus_Nigra

What new guidelines on composting?

flea72

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

What new guidelines on composting?

PAS100 - some councils are just misinterpreting a directive regarding the quality of compost. too much cardboard that has a certain type of ink on it doesnt rot down quick enough, so makes poor quality compost, and in winter months the ratio of cardboard to green waste, affects the quality even more.

so rather than recycle cardboard with paper, some councils have decided to totally stop recycling cardboard, because they cant compost it


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