emptying recycling into bin without noise

red_imps_2003

Aye; I feel a little self-conscious about getting the recycling from the 'holding' receptacle in our kitchen to the wheelie bin outside. As with some others, it does tend to be later on in the evening, usually well after 9pm, by the time I get the opportunity and I know some of our neighbours go to bed fairly early. I'm also trying not to disturb our own little rugrat, who seems to be a light sleeper and wakes up wailing if, say, a mouse farts in the garden.

I don't have a solution except to say I carry the 'holding' bin next to the wheelie bin and lower tins and bottles in one at a time as gently as I can and try to make layers of cardboard in between. As the OP observes, the first couple of layers has to be cardboard or else there is an almighty din as other materials hit the plastic bottom and echo around the empty chamber.

I did like the idea of a pouch in the lid that releases the items upon closure, thus hopefully muting the sound a bit.

The one about half-filling with water first and releasing later...not so much.

red_imps_2003

kingfisherblue wrote: »

Why don't you just put things straight into the wheely bin instead of using an inside bin first? I have one of those garden storage boxes outside my door for the numerous recycling boxes/bags. It's no effort to take things straight to the door instead of putting them into another bin first.

Pardon my ignorance, but isn't what you describe equivalent to a bin indoors except you keep it immediately outside your door? Don't you still have to empty the contents into the wheelie bin on/before collection day?

Incidentally, one of the reasons we collect our recycling inside and empty into the wheelie bin in batches is because we have a wretched vertical blind drawn across the [french] door for privacy reasons and it is a p.i.t.a. to keep opening and closing this (along with the associated noises potentially waking The Beast - see above) several time an evening. Also, when the weather is inclement (as it generally is in the North East) I have to change my footwear to get from the kitchen to the wheelie bin else risk the wrath of my wife by leaving muddy footprints on the floor. My wife doesn't like the idea of bins right outside the kitchen door (for aesthetic, practical and...er...nasal reasons) so it definitely is easier to dump stuff in a receptacle in the kitchen as it arises and transpose it en masse to the wheelie-stored-in-discrete-location as conditions allow.

McTaggus

We use inside receptacles too, but now sort these into card, milk cartons and non-noisey stuff, and keep bottles and cans separate. That way, when I empty it I can put the quiet stuff in first to line it, and place the bottles and cans on top by hand - minimises the noise and means I don't panic that I've just woken up next doors 3 week old baby!!!!!

dada44

you know, it didn't occur to me to separate the types of recycling before putting them together in the big bin, but that's quite a good idea. do you do that specifically to reduce noise..?

McTaggus

It started off being solely to reduce the noise (as we used to live next door to our landlord and he terrified me!) and we used three cheap baskets to keep everything separate and then put them in so they didn't make too much noise. Didn't need to separate it for the council - they take pretty much everything anyway.

It became habit after that, and when we moved next door to our new neighbours with their young baby, I bought a specific indoor recycling receptacle that has a separate holding tray / bucket for bottles, a separate tray/bucket thing for other items like cardboard and paper, and also has a separate food caddy holder. It all now sits in one (considerably less messy and less offensive to the eye) receptacle but I can still separate things so I can make less noise at 11pm when I finally switch off the laptop and realise I haven't emptied the darned recycling!!!

Andypandyboy

We have this problem too, we do drink quite a lot of wine! Luckily, all the neighbours do too so our road is awash with the tinkling of bottles as they find their way to the bottom of the bin.....

cyclonebri1

I simply don't believe this post is serious, why waste MSE space with this, you simply drive down a country lane at midnight and chuck the bottles out the car window 1 by 1, just like they do with Mc Donuts bags.

And guess what?, you can hardly hear them smash.:cool: