How are garden waste collections more important than peoples lives

shaun_from_Africa

Nick_C said:

Care to explain why you think we shouldn't be squashing aluminium cans? 

One of very many similar reports:
https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/29/shouldnt-crush-cans-putting-recycling-bin-9059155/

Matt Meenan explains that most sorting facilities for rubbish use a single-stream recycling system, which means that everything’s mixed together then sorted. A lot of the sorting relies on material and shape – so if you mush up a can so it no longer has its traditional shape, the machine may not recognise it, pushing it straight in the non-recyclable pile. Or, worse, the can may be mistaken for paper or cardboard, leading to it contaminating the entire batch of paper recycling. When this happens, the entire batch can be sent to the landfill.

peachyprice

Moneyineptitude said:

KatrinaWaves said:

Moneyineptitude said:

adonis said:

My issue is we can have food waste in ours so I have a lot of chicken and meat remains in the bin that will be starting to stink and I am not going to dig them out from the grass cuttings and various prunings.

I think you should seriously re-think that attitude. 

Why have you put such food waste in your garden bin in the first place?

 Remove it now, the health risk isn't going away anytime soon..

I think some councils do it that way? Maybe. Different types of treatment I think. Anyway, currently neither garden waste nor separate food waste are statutory so same rules would apply 

No Council will knowingly accept garden waste mixed with food waste containing meat. 

Vegetable food waste  in the garden waste bin is acceptable for obvious reasons but anything else is contamination. 

Surely separate food waste is just as unhealthy left uncollected as general household waste? So why doesn't it form party of the statutory collection requirement? 

You are quite wrong.
We have one wheelie bin for all garden and food waste, 

Yes please	No thanks
Garden waste	Food and drink pouches and crisp bags
Meat, bones and gristle	Tetra paks tm  and other food cartons
Fish and fish bones	Cling film
Cooked and uncooked food waste	Oil or liquid fat
Shredded paper	Hard-core, soil rubble and turf
House plants (without pot)	Cat and dog waste, pet hutch waste

[Deleted User]

peachyprice said:

You are quite wrong.

We have one wheelie bin for all garden and food waste, 

Yes please	No thanks
Garden waste	Food and drink pouches and crisp bags
Meat, bones and gristle	Tetra paks tm  and other food cartons
Fish and fish bones	Cling film
Cooked and uncooked food waste	Oil or liquid fat
Shredded paper	Hard-core, soil rubble and turf
House plants (without pot)	Cat and dog waste, pet hutch waste

I should have said my local Council won't accept food waste (especially meat) in the Garden Waste bin.  

If this thread has shown anything, it's that there is no standardisation across the nation. There really should be. 

happyandcontented

Moneyineptitude said:

KatrinaWaves said:

Moneyineptitude said:

adonis said:

My issue is we can have food waste in ours so I have a lot of chicken and meat remains in the bin that will be starting to stink and I am not going to dig them out from the grass cuttings and various prunings.

I think you should seriously re-think that attitude. 

Why have you put such food waste in your garden bin in the first place?

 Remove it now, the health risk isn't going away anytime soon..

I think some councils do it that way? Maybe. Different types of treatment I think. Anyway, currently neither garden waste nor separate food waste are statutory so same rules would apply 

No Council will knowingly accept garden waste mixed with food waste containing meat. 

Vegetable food waste  in the garden waste bin is acceptable for obvious reasons but anything else is contamination. 

Surely separate food waste is just as unhealthy left uncollected as general household waste? So why doesn't it form party of the statutory collection requirement? 

Our council does it this way too. I think an apology might be in order to the poster you told to 'seriously re think their attitude' don't you? 

[Deleted User]

Our council does it this way too. I think an apology might be in order to the poster you told to 'seriously re think their attitude' don't you? 

If the bin remains uncollected with food waste in it then it will ultimately become a health hazard. The poster concerned said that he wasn't going  to remove the offending   waste and my advice was to simply re-think his attitude on that  and to instead transfer it to the household waste for collection.

So, on what basis do I owe anyone an apology? 

EDIT:

In addition, I gave that advice to poster "Adonis" on 26th March and so I expect the "stink" he complained of at that time will be a whole lot worse two weeks on!

Nick_C

Moneyineptitude said:

Nick_C said:

Care to explain why you think we shouldn't be squashing aluminium cans? 

My local  Council is very specific about this when listing what is acceptable in the recycle bin; "Cans (do not crush)".  I expect this is to do with the way these are sorted at the recycling centre..

 To be fair, I don't know if other Councils specify this so best to check...  

shaun_from_Africa said:

Nick_C said:

Care to explain why you think we shouldn't be squashing aluminium cans? 

One of very many similar reports:
https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/29/shouldnt-crush-cans-putting-recycling-bin-9059155/

Matt Meenan explains that most sorting facilities for rubbish use a single-stream recycling system, which means that everything’s mixed together then sorted. A lot of the sorting relies on material and shape – so if you mush up a can so it no longer has its traditional shape, the machine may not recognise it, pushing it straight in the non-recyclable pile. Or, worse, the can may be mistaken for paper or cardboard, leading to it contaminating the entire batch of paper recycling. When this happens, the entire batch can be sent to the landfill.

Thanks both.  After ten years in the industry, visits to several Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs), and signing off on a new one, this is a problem that I was unaware of!  The council I worked for, and neighbouring councils, collected mixed recycling in standard compactor RCVs (dustcarts).  The recycling would arrive at the MRF already compacted to some extent.  Cans were largely flattened and glass was broken and crushed.  Our MRF was designed to deal with it.  Perhaps older MRFs are not, or were specified differently.

But I should know better that to give general advice without the caveat "check with your own council", knowing that local councils do things differently (for good reasons).

molerat

Moneyineptitude said:

I don't think any Council has stopped collecting Recycling waste, only the garden waste collections have been suspended.

 

My council have most certainly stopped collecting recycling, they are continuing to collect the (paid for) garden waste in the same bin as the food waste.

Plus there is no mention of not crushing cans in their information.

Just goes to show that telling people what they must and must not do based on what happens in your area is simply not helpful although it does highlight the disorganised mess that is recycling in the UK !

[Deleted User]

 it does highlight the disorganised mess that is recycling in the UK !

Yeah, check what  your own Council does and don't post broad generalisations as they all seem to be different!

Where I live (which is somewhere), the garden waste collections are not charged extra, they don't allow food waste in them, they are currently suspended and crushed cans are not allowed in the recycling!

My original general advice about not leaving food waste in a garden bin which is not going to be collected still stands and no apologies will be forthcoming!

Abbafan1972

Our garden waste is still being collected every 2 weeks, but we were told that the bins will be emptied in with the general waste.  I'm fine with that, as the garden waste is a separate subscription you have to pay for if you want it.

JosephK

I think all we've really learnt from this thread is that different local authorities have different policies for collection/recycling. Some allow all food waste in with garden waste, some don't, some are still collecting garden waste, some aren't, and so on and so on. We simply need to check what our own respective councils are doing at the present and go with that.