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homerecycling

In a way councils act as middle men when it comes to siting communal recycling bins and it is something you can do yourself. It is something businesses do for themselves and it would be much easier for you to convince waste companies to put recycling bins on a pub site for example where volume can be assured. It should be an easy sell to the pub as it would be diverting the amount of trade waste going to landfill and the amount paid. I say "should be" because chained pubs have complex management structures which sometimes makes getting a decision out of them tricky.

Curry_Queen

For anyone living in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough areas, the council are offering quite a nice incentive for people to take their rubbish for recycling. It's called Recycling Bin-go and you are given a card with nine boxes on it, featuring different types of recycleable waste ..

• aluminimium cans
• car batteries
• glass
• electrical
• cardboard
• garden waste
• textiles & clothing
• wood & timber
• paper

Everytime you visit a HWRC at March, Wisbech, Whittlesey or Grunty Fen they will stamp your card and when you get three in a row you're entered into a weekly prize draw to win £50 in supermarket vouchers! :j

Their website is here, and also has a Swap and Sell section on it too

Gingham_Ribbon

I've found that there are hardly any places to recycle tin cans, but lots for aluminium. Since we seldom have aluminium cans (unless visitors are having beer rather than wine) but use 3 or 4 tin cans a week, I wondered why that was. And if recycling tin cans is less efficient.

Also, does anyway know if you are supposed to remove the paper and wash and crush the cans. I always do, but gave myself a nasty cut washing one last week.

squeaky

My council ask for things to be rinsed, and I usually take the labels off to join the recycled paper. Tin cans have a much lower scrap value than aluminium ones do so that might explain part of it.

Gingham_Ribbon

Thanks. One final question about recycling that I can't find out about: is it okay to put paper plates in the recyling if they've been used for finger painting rather than food? Our council doesn't want any paper waste that's been in contact with food (eg pizza boxes) but I wasn't sure about kiddies' paint.

And can ordinary paper that has been painted on go in the composter??? (I think the shiny layer on plates means I can't compost them?)

squeaky

Glossy paper is no good for the composter:-

http://www.hdra.org.uk/organicgardening/gh_comp.htm

so shiny paper plates probably won't be either.

Given the inks that go on pre printed boxes I'd guess that painted paper would be ok... but it's a guess, and each council is different as to which wastes it has the facility to handle. Mine has now decided that they can't do plastic film. Plastic bottles yes, plastic wrapping and bags, no.

Your local council's website SHOULD have pages on recycling and somewhere in there should be details of what you can and cannot do.

kiwichick

Hmmmm, what about cereal cartons and cardboard packaging of the same type???? For the recycling I mean, can I put it in with my newspapers?

squeaky

It really does depend on what your council can deal with, or the local recycling place. Mine does. I suspect most do. But if you can find your local council's site you ought to be able to get the information directly from them.

And if you don't have their website address the link below might help.


Local Government Directory

squeaky

LOL That site is a bit wrong! It's NEW SOUTH WALES !!

There must be a UK one! I was sure I'd clicked on the UK button. Ho hum

here you go...

http://www.localgovernmentwebsites.co.uk/

homerecycling

Most cardboard is great in compost bins - it counteracts too much green content e.g. fruit, veg peels, grass cuttings etc and also lets more air into the mix and more living space for organisms all of which help speed up decomposition, lowers dodgy gases and is better than it being transported somewhere else to be recycled. Most cereal packets are fine, egg boxes and toilet roll holders fantastic but high gloss cardboard not as the inks often contain toxins - if you've got the nerve leave them at the checkout. Sounds dodgy but mainline supermarket staff have been trained to ignore it if you leave packaging there without comment.