Want to recycle as much as poss!!!

dawnylou

Thank you everyone for all the pointers.

Yesterday we drove down to the local skips and put a load of cardboard into the cardboard only recyclying skip.
And then we drove straight to the town centre and donated 2 huge bags to the PDSA shop too.

I felt so good afterwards!

Bin will be emptied on Thursday and it's not even half full! I'm chuffed at this.
However this week a lot of food got wasted as I have been going through one of my 'phases' and haven't really been bothering to cook or anything

Sarahwx

these pointers all look really good , im going to read through but one thing really bugging me is the tetra pak or other fruit juice containers..the counic i live in won't recycle them, but there is a sainsbury store that will take them.
Abel and cole sell juice in cartons and that surprises me if they can't be readily recycled.

PabloNeruda

Besides plastic bags, which are the single most serious abuse of the environment in terms of what goes to landfill (please, please everybody use their own bags), aluminium cans etc are probably the next most important thing to concentrate on once you have begun composting. Here are a few facts about why:



• Each household uses approximately 600 steel cans per year
• There are over 300million cans used per week over the xmas period
• The thinnest part of the can wall measures only 0.07mm thick - that's thinner than a human hair
• It would take 1087 steel drinks cans stacked end to end to reach the top of the London Eye or 2818 to reach the top of the Eiffel Tower
• The value of used steel cans in the waste stream is £28 milllion per annum which is available to collectors.
• Don't forget that 1.8 billion drinks cans are made of steel
• Millions of steel cans are collected every day by using huge magnets to pull them out of dustbin waste
• The recycling rate of all steel packaging is 46%; aluminum has a 23.4% packaging recycle rate .
• Steel cans are becoming lighter with the average weight of a soft drinks can in 2004 expected to be only 21.4g .In 1980 it was 31.2g
• There are over 2.5 billion cans recycled in the UK each year - [That's a saving of 125,000tonnes of solid waste every year] that's equivalent to the weight of 18,000 double decker buses!!
• All steel cans are 100% recyclable
• All steel cans contain up to 25% recycled steel
• Its not just food and drink cans made from steel! - most of your deodorants, hairsprays, polishes, paint cans and other household and DIY products are made out of steel too!
• Recycling one tone of steels cans saves 1.5 tonnes of iron ore ,0.5 tonnes of coal & 40% water usage
• Two-thirds of all cans on supermarkets shelves are made from steel
• Recycling 1 tonne of steel scrap saves 80% of the CO2 emissions produced when making steel from iron ore
• Recycling seven steel cans saves enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 26 hours. One recycles can will poewr a TV for 3 hours.

monsieur_epargnant

Please note that Tetra packaging is actually RECYCLABLE.

Already around 20% of local authorities recycle them and more to follow. I've actually written to my council and got no response but the more of us that do it the better the result.

http://www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk/


It may not be the right way but I've now taken to still putting it in the recycling anyway. Eventually they'll get so sick of getting the Tetra stuff they'll have to recycle it. You could even post your Tetra packs back to them to recycle using THESE address labels.

4Chickens

My 14yo son and I were discussing last night how to reduce our recycling and by that I don't mean throw it all on the landfill. I am sick of all the packaging that supermarket stuff comes in and I want them to take responsibility for it. So my first idea was to take a load of tuppaware containers to the supermarket and decant whatever I could into these and leave the packaging behind. But I think the supermarket would throw me out in the end. So I came up with another idea, decant all the stuff when I get home and return their packaging the next week. But they might just chuck it in the bin and it will end up in the landfill anyway. So for my next idea, and I think this is the best, I will take my old plastic takeaway containers to the supermarket and get my ham and cheese from the counter. Also the fish counter can put my purchases in the tubs I provide and just stick their price label on the lid. I could take my own little basket for fruit and veg and only buy it loose. Can anyone think of anything else that could be done in respect of not even allowing the packaging to leave the supermarket.:beer:

samf1971

On a continuation of the thread, I try and recycle as much as possible. It is difficult for us as our council still don't have a green bin for our street (I have called and called them, they insist we should have green bins as we're on a route, but we don't and neither does anyone else in our street)

Anyway... I save up my recycling stuff in the cellar until we either get on a round, or I can carry it somewhere that I can recycle it (don't have a car so will have to be on the bus !)

I've ordered a compost bin a big thing for only £9 !

I use re-usable bags and decline bags in shops & get my meat from local butchers, fruit & veg from the market which comes in nice recycleable brown bags.

I try to not buy bubble bath etc which is in bottles, I go to Lush where I can buy solid bubble bar slices, and ballistics which come in paper bags which they will refill or you can recycle. I also use solid shampoo, it's £4.95 which might seem a lot of money, but it lasts for ages and ages, much more economical than shampoo, and it doesn't come in a plastic bottle!

I think I'm doing my bit, but always welcome any further suggestions like the OP.

weemissy

mamashaz wrote: »

Batteries - my children's school takes these and they raise money for the school so maybe check with your local primary school to see if they would like them.

Also our local tip has a recycling point for all kinds of batteries from tiny hearing aid ones to car batteries.

interested in primary school converting batteries into funds, can anyone elaborate?