How do you all organise your recycling?

freebie_junkie

my mum bought a butchers block from ikea for her new kitchen then changed her mind as she only really wanted the wooden chopping block off the top! she gave it to me and it makes an ideal recycling centre for our kicthen, it has a low shelf on which we have small bins for all the 'blue bin' stuff (cans, bottles, tins, foil, empty deodrants, jars etc.), a drawer into which we put our 'green bag' stuff (card and paper) and the top which i will keep my kitchen caddy on once i have a 'brown bin' for food and garden waste (apparently it will take another month at least!)- i would have a look if you can get soemthign like this. its so handy, raised off the floor so i can keep clean under it, on wheels so i can move it about and easy to keep the shelf and top clean too. all saleable stuff like clothes etc. we sell at carboots/ ebay and thats kept in boxes behind our telly and under our desk (we have a one bad flat with combined living and dining room so not too much room!) the only paper the council won't recycle is envelopes, so we shread them for packing material for ebay and this is either kept in the shreader itself or in bags behind it (also under the desk). we re-sue carriers for shopping, bin liners and to take for customers at the carboots and we keep them in one of those wall-mounted bag holders from ikea. the only stuff we throw away is non-recyclable plastic and currently kitchen and garden waste as theres nowhere locally to recycle it and we live in an area where a compost bin would go walkies my brown bin better get here soon!

chardonnay_2

freebie-junkie - thanks for the really clever idea of using shredings for ebay packing materials - really ingenious way to avoid bubble wrap. we'd never thought of it- cheers

ka7e

Thank goodness I have a utility room!
Paper in green box (personal paperwork shredded and put in compost bin)
Tins, washed and squashed - put in plastic carrier, hung on the wall.
Bottles, washed and stored in large box (which recycling chappies leave behind for re-use)
Cardboard, squashed flat and kept in empty 15kg dog food bag until OH goes to tip (not part of recycling collection).
Plastic bottles, squashed flat and kept in old flip-top bin until OH goes to tip.
Uncooked food (veg peelings, teabags) and garden waste in compost bin.
Cooked waste in dog!

Unfortunately, my 2 sons like a bottle of beer with their evening meal, OH occasionally, too. I get slightly embarrassed at the number of bottles put out for recycling every fortnight - so I put an extra bag of them in my neighbour's box after he's gone to work

ailuro2

The blue wheelie bin for paper which is only picked up once a month now, lives outside the back door.
The plastics,glass and aluminium can box lives next to the back door too, everything has to get squished before it goes in or we run out of room. Gets picked up once a fortnight.
The brown wheelie bin lives in front of the garage next to the main rubbish bin, goes out once a fortnight except for December and January when the garden pick-up route is cancelled.

I'm very happy with our service, I'd be happy to go to fortnightly colleciton on the main bin as we only ever have two binbags at most in the bin- we still see people in the street with overflowing main rubbish bins and no recycling put out next to it- I think these people are the ones who would claim it's unhygeinic to pick up rubbish every fortnight- basically they are too lazy to separate their garbage.:rolleyes:

ka7e

we still see people in the street with overflowing main rubbish bins and no recycling put out next to it- I think these people are the ones who would claim it's unhygeinic to pick up rubbish every fortnight- basically they are too lazy to separate their garbage.:rolleyes:

Likewise, we usually have one or two swing-bin liner full for a family of 4 (occasionally 5) adults. Across the road there are 5-8 black binliners per week from a house with 5 adults and 1 youngster - no recycling at all!

NickiM

We have a wheelie bin for recyclable garden waste, a blue bag for paper/magazines, a box for bottles/cans (I *think*) and then we recycle plastic as well.