Recycling Ideas which could catch on?

mishmogs

Hello

I have an exchange student staying with me and we have had the chat about recycling cans, jars, bottles, textiles etc. and his response was in Germany, they get cash for beer and food cans (25cents), glass etc. Hmm I thought, why aren't we getting this in the UK? This morning his words rang a thoughtful bell with me "Your government makes you recycle but gives you nothing back, what rubbish is this". So why aren't we getting cash for metal, etc?

Also, in the US and some european countries you put your unwanted items out on the roadside on particular days/weeks of a year and you can take what you want. Good idea or what? I have done this already and given away an old cycle, garden table, chairs, wood, etc with a note on of Free - Help Yourself. I know we have freecycle but in my area its not very good and I thought this would be a good move forward.

Justamum

When I was a child we used to be able to take pop bottles back to the shop and get some money for them.

I think Australia has a day where people put their unwanted furniture etc out and other people can take them. What happens to the stuff which isn't taken though - does the householder have to take it back in, or is it then removed by the local authority?

I have no problem with recycling - I recycle glass, food tins and any other metal (they go to a skip at the local amenities centre and a scrap metal dealer collects it all up), aluminium, paper and two types of plastic (number 1 and 2 - I believe they are the only two types currently recycled in the UK so other numbers I throw away). Old clothes and other still useful household stuff goes to the charity shop. It doesn't bother me that I don't get any money for it all. It's a bit like people who will only go to the police with information if there's a reward in it for them (and I have heard of people like that!)

floss2

mishmogs wrote: »

...I have an exchange student staying with me and we have had the chat about recycling cans, jars, bottles, textiles etc. and his response was in Germany, they get cash for beer and food cans (25cents), glass etc. Hmm I thought, why aren't we getting this in the UK? This morning his words rang a thoughtful bell with me "Your government makes you recycle but gives you nothing back, what rubbish is this". So why aren't we getting cash for metal, etc?....

Probably because the German economy is in much better shape than the British economy, and there is not the cash available for this sort of incentive. Any councils who have a recycling contract will generally be needing the income to support their services - particularly since the recent cuts in council funding.

valk_scot

In the Netherlands you put your bottles in a machine at the supermarket and get a voucher for them for use in that supermarket. BUT you've already paid a deposit on these bottles when you bought them of course. Sure it isn't the same in Germany? And I remember when we indeed did pay 6d or 10p deposit on lemonade bottles and we kids regarded it as a real find if we came across an abandoned lemonade bottle, it meant free sweets.

"Your government makes you recycle but gives you nothing back, what rubbish is
this".

Well, it's OUR rubbish after all, why should we be paid for recycling it? And where does he think the goverment is getting the money to pay 25cents a can or whatever? Could it be taxes? Is he expecting we pay even more to the goverment to recycle rubbish than we pay at the moment? Sounds a bit daft to me.

If we want to recycle furniture etc that's still in usable condition our council runs a charity project where furniture and domestic items like white goods, linen, crockery, pots etc are supplied to people on very low incomes who are setting up home for the first time. They'll come and uplift these things for free.

We have a cycle project locally that refurbishes old bikes for the 3rd World projects, and some are sold locally to cover the costs of the project. There's also one for sewing machines and gardening equipment.

As to the rest I'm happy to take clothes etc to the charity shops and other items to the skip. Why not? I don't mind giving my unwanted items to charity projects. I don't mind taking responsibility for disposing of my own rubbish either tbh. I think your student sounds rather young in his attitude tbh, not to mention a bit self centred.

[Deleted User]

Having lived for a little while in Germany we were used to the can crushing machines in most of the local supermarkets, which gave you vouchers or tokens to spend in the store. They also had 'Spare Mull Tag' where basically if you had anything servicable that you didn't need any longer you put it out on the pavement on the designated day and anyone could take it if they wanted to. There was one kiddies cycle that was 25 years old and being passed from child to child in the village by this method. We were close to a university city and the students furnished whole houses with this. I have talked with a local councillor here about setting a similar scheme running and apparently Health and Safety rules would rule it out completely, particularly with any electrical items being offered. The council in Germany also came with a bigh lorry the next day and removed anything not taken away. Pity we can't do the same thing here isn't it? Cheers Lyn.

Heffi1

I lived in Germany for over 17 years and once a month there was what we called bulk rubbish, anything too large for the industrial size rubbish bins, we all lived in blocks of flats and there were one or two for each block, you have probably seen some outside businesses etc, but furniture, fridges, freezers and the like could be left at the road side once a month and they would be collected and sent on their way. We used to watch families with cars and trailers going from one road to the other collecting the items left, it was reused by them or sold on who knows really, but it meant that we could dispose of large items easily and at no cost to us.

I also remember the beer houses, literally someone would open up a beer shop in their garage or cellar and sell pop and alcohol, if you returned your bottles then you got some money back, it was a great way of tidying up, obviously we paid a small deposit on the bottles and that was returned with the bottles.

lisawood78

valk_scot wrote: »

In the Netherlands you put your bottles in a machine at the supermarket and get a voucher for them for use in that supermarket. BUT you've already paid a deposit on these bottles when you bought them of course. Sure it isn't the same in Germany? And I remember when we indeed did pay 6d or 10p deposit on lemonade bottles and we kids regarded it as a real find if we came across an abandoned lemonade bottle, it meant free sweets.

It is the same in Germany, cans, bottles etc have deposits on them, when you have enough just take them to the supermarket and load them into the recycling machine and you get a till spit type voucher to the value of whatever you have loaded in. This is just getting your own money back, yes it is an incentive but the waste rules in Germany are a bit different anyway. The general waste collection is paid for, you pay per litre (well you pay per the size of the bin you are allowed to put out each collection) but the recylcing bin is free to collect. Pretty much anything recycleable goes into that, well anything that hasn't been returned for the deposit. My husband works/lives in south Germany in the week and the system works really well.

Badrick

Some scrap metal merchants will buy aluminium drinks cans, but obviously in sufficient quantities ie. by the sackful, not half a dozen loose cans.
Scrap rice is currently around 60p per kilo based on 25 kilo load which is 1471 x 440ml cans (sorry, only had beer can to weigh ) for £15 back.

Pink.

As this thread is more concerned with recycling than Old Style, I've moved it over to our Green and Ethical board.

Pink

uncommonadvice

Do scrap merchants really pay for old Aluminium cns though? I did a search once and couldn't find any.

antrobus

uncommonadvice wrote: »

Do scrap merchants really pay for old Aluminium cns though? I did a search once and couldn't find any.

Yes.

Trouble is that they usually aren't interested unless you have a certain minumum quantity. I looked at it once and, from memory, it was a minumum of 250kg, which was about 20,000 cans, or something like that. Which is a lot for one household.