My land fill rubbish challenge

JAMIEDODGER

ooooooooh what a great thread squeaky!!!! i already recycle quite a bit but rubbish bin always seems to be full at the end of the week, here is west sussex, arun area, the binmen will only take max of 5 bags per week, the rest they leave with a sticker on saying to recycle more!!!! i love the idea of a compost bin....what could i put in it? i am always eager of finding new ways to reduce the actual "rubbish" leaving my house for the landfill.

squeaky

A great site about composting is this one:-

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


And we have a number of other threads on composting in the Food section of the MEGA Index sticky at the top of the forum listing that'll cover just about every question you could think of

culpepper

Where I live we have green garden waste collection bi weekly ,although you do have to buy the bags yourself and they have to be the official printed green ones.
There is also a paper box collection every other week and glass collection.
We take our tin cans to Asda as they have a tin bin outside(this is new in the last month or so).
Plastic bottles get reused for summer drinks or are used in the garden.
Foam meat trays are used as pot stands in the greenhouse as they help keep the earth warm.Plastic punnets are used as pots or little propogators.We reuse carriers but also take strong shopping bags to the shops and refuse the carriers where possible.Plastic veg bags are used for bagging things for the freezer,fridge or packed lunches.Any kitchen scraps are composted.
Most of the rubbish that ends up in the bin is plastic packaging .

Nikki

We have a green box recycling scheme here in Oxford but they take !!!!!! all (tin,glass and non shiny paper). We bought some extra recycling boxes from Homerecycling and use them for the stuff the council won't take, then we take them to the dump ourselves. Doing this we have reduced our black bags from 5 to 1.5 a week(family of 5). In contrast my parents live in Fareham and their council take everything that can be recycled. They have 2 wheelie bins, one for normal rubbish and one for recycling. The council collect the recycling one week and the household the next. I don't get it, if Fareham council can do this why can't Oxford city council!?

Sweet_Pea_2

Our council (Birmingham) takes paper and card only. We have a couple of plastic stacker boxes with lids out by the dustbin for tins and glass which we take to the recycling bins at the supermarket. All veg peelings etc and garden waste now go in my huge super duper compost bin (£5, it was subsidized by Worcestershire county council which my friend comes under, she was quite happy to have my bin delivered to her address, Birmingham City Council charge £19.99 for their compost bins)
I do the majority of the shopping at Aldi, so I use my Sainsburys carriers for that, and lining the bin, so I dont need to throw any away any more.
Despite all of the above we still generate 2 black bags full a week, (family of 4) although half a bag is guinea pig shavings etc which I read somewhere that I cant compost. I dont put meat or any cooked waste in the composter because a neighbour mentioned she saw a rat in her garden, I dont want to encourage them, (or be accused of encouraging them) although like Squeaky said, there are loads of pet cats around here.
Ive rung all the local councils but no-one takes plastic, because its not cost effective, so Ive started to save all the plastic squash bottles for propagators or to cut off and put seedlings in or something, so the garage is a bit full, (we look like mad hoarders when the gas man had to go in there to read the meter recently!) and DD1 has started to "collect" plastic bottle tops (I dont ask!)
Im glad you started this thread Squeaky because I have been thinking about how much rubbish we generate, so this will prompt me to take it in hand and try and do something about it.

squeaky

A recycling site that you put your post code into to find local places:-

http://www.recycle-more.co.uk/

And this is one of the many pages on recycling that my local council site has:-

My local council

And I see that they don't take textiles. OK - that just means that I'll have to use the first link to find the nearest textile bank

soba

MrsB - It's still a great idea to compost as much as you can even if you can't use it all yourself. Maybe when the time is right you could offer some to your neighbours, or even charge a small amount and donate it to charity?

soba

In our house we recycle paper, plastic bottles, tins, glass and cardboard and we've got a compost bin in the garden. Our garage has currently got 7 sacks of plastic bottles in it, we used to have to take it about 7 miles for recycling, but now the local council have (wisely) invested a skip where we can put all the bottles, so now it's only a mile trip for us. We can take cardboard there too. It's surprising how quickly cardboard mounts up, but I think it's something that a lot of people don't bother to recycle.
I don't take carrier bags when offered, and now take my calico shopping bag with me whenever I go out. It was from ebay and is covered in a German slogan - I'm hoping it's nothing rude!
BTW does anyone know where plastic bottles go for recycling? I'd hate to think that they eventually get mixed back in with everyday rubbish.

arkonite_babe

Soba,

Have a look at http://www.recycledproducts.org.uk/ to see what happens when bottles etc are recycled. HTH!

foreverskint

Oddly enough, I got stopped today in Stowmarket, which is the nearest town to me, and asked by a council representative about recycling. I explained fairly politely that the Village I live in still does not have even a wheelie bin scheme, enven though the surrounding villages do. She was quite shocked (as I was when I moved here). I would willingly recycle, but I have absolutly no storage space left at all in this house in which to store things for the recycling. The nearest tip is a 15 min drive and is always packed. I was under the impression that the councils now has a responsibility to recycl as much as possible?we have found though that we have got down to 1 bin bag and 1 standard dustbin a week since going old style. And if I recycled I'm sure we wouldn't even make a bin bag:rolleyes: