What do you recycle?

[Millie]

We are on 2 weekly collections here and have both a green and black bin, and black box. I tend to put grass cuttings, cardboard and rabbit hutch waste in the green. I confess I dont use the black box, I got stung once by putting a full box out and it being left as I had put something wrong in. I still have no idea what was out of place, as they wont tell you!

I recycle glass jars and bottles and plastic via the recycling centre in the next town, as there is no plastic kirbside collection of plastics grrr. So I tend to take the lot to the centre. Im about to start shredding and using newspaper as bunny bedding, so that takes care of that. I also need to start composting. Apart from that, it all goes in the black bin

I dont think I do enough, so what do you do? Go on, inspire me!

Oooo forgot to add, anything that can be reused, like furniture or whatever, goes on Freecycle

[Wombat]

Sounds like you do have an opening for compostables!

We compost anything edible that gets past us, the cats or the chooks.

We recycle cans, glass and plastic bottles and paper.

Anything still useable goes down the sallies.

I pick up bits and pieces where I can - road base to go under the wood fired pizza oven, pallets to make a handcart, and old truck brake drum to make a forge.

Dud car or deep cycle batteries go to our local battery recycler.

That's us Millie.

Nev

[herbwormwood]

We are on 2 weekly collections here and have both a green and black bin, and black box. I tend to put grass cuttings, cardboard and rabbit hutch waste in the green. I confess I dont use the black box, I got stung once by putting a full box out and it being left as I had put something wrong in. I still have no idea what was out of place, as they wont tell you!

I recycle glass jars and bottles and plastic via the recycling centre in the next town, as there is no plastic kirbside collection of plastics grrr. So I tend to take the lot to the centre. Im about to start shredding and using newspaper as bunny bedding, so that takes care of that. I also need to start composting. Apart from that, it all goes in the black bin

I dont think I do enough, so what do you do? Go on, inspire me!

Oooo forgot to add, anything that can be reused, like furniture or whatever, goes on Freecycle

We don't have the black box scheme as we live in a block of flats with communal bins and no garden. I persuaded the council to put a couple of recycling bins beside our communal bins, glass and newspapers. I put the junk mail and white paper in the paper bin. I take magazines to the hospital waiting room as re use is better than recycle. I have given a bag of envelopes, bubble wrap and cardboard to a freecycler for the same reason and now am saving another bag to post on freecycle. Plastic bottle and tins go to the recycling bin in the local school yard.
I use margarine cartons and salad cartons to grow sprouting seeds in, mustard, cress, broccolli etc.
Carrier bags used to line the waste bins.
I use sticky labels and biodegradable sellotape to re use most of my envelopes, havent bought a new envelope for years. I collect bits and peices to make home made greetings cards and gift wrap. Ink cartriges go to the Dogs Trust in an envelope. Used stamps to the Dr hadwen Trust collection. Batteries to the recycling dump. I recently cleared out a lot of 3.5 inch floppy discs and re formatted them for the students at my basic skills class to use. Anything else goes to the charity Shop (PDSA as I won't give to charities which raise money for animal tests). Or to freecycle or to my local contacts. Furniture and carpets to our Community Furniture Service.
Excess food goes to my neighbours if I ever have too much of something.

[elfcurry]

East Dorset council collects cans, paper, glass and some plastics fortnightly so they get recycled with no effort.

They dont accept envelopes with windows or glue, and have no facilities for cardboard or many plastics. I have a sackful of the kind of plastic they don't accept (eg moulded plastic packaging, yogurt containers, many bottles) in the hope that their recycling of plastics will broaden in future.

I'm collecting the cardboard but not sure what to do with it. Is having a bonfire better than letting it go to landfill? Maybe I should experiment with composting it. The next council area does accept cardboard.

I'm never sure what to do with aluminium foil; it's what I remember as being worth collecting as a child for charities but I never hear it mentioned now in connection with charity or recycling. Can someone fill me in?

So most of my rubbish is my housemate's processed food packaging (and mine) and tetra-pak, envelopes, and some steel cans that are too much bother to wash out, like sardines.

[herbwormwood]

I'm collecting the cardboard but not sure what to do with it. Is having a bonfire better than letting it go to landfill? Maybe I should experiment with composting it. The next council area does accept cardboard.

Try freecycling it and advertise it as suitable for eBayers. New packaging is expensive and canny eBayers are on the lookout for free packaging. I put mine on freecycle and had 3 people wanting it. If your envelopes are not torn they can be re-used with some sellotape (which is biodegradable) and a sticky label. Large ones will be popular with the eBayers and could go with the cardboard. I use the brown ones which are torn as shopping lists.
Bonfires are good fun but cause pollution.

[elfcurry]

I meant light card, like cereal packets, so not worth posting and not much use for packing I'd imagine.

I have also collected a fair bit of stouter corrugated cardboard with the idea of lining my roof for some free insulation. I intend to staple it to the under side of the roof supports, thus trapping a layer of air and letting the flaps interrupt the channels thus formed to reduce the downward flow of cold air. It may not make a huge difference but it's free and not hard to do.

Does a bonfire create much pollution? I'd like to compare the smoke and CO2 with whatever is given off in typical landfill processes and consider the transport effects as well. Better still, perhaps I could get a stove and use the heat!

[Ranter]

Light card will compost I believe, but don't put printed card into a wormery - chemicals in the ink harm the worms.

To find out exactly what can go in UK kerbside collections of recyclables, check your local authority's website or phone their recycling dept. Local phone book will have the no., local authorities tend to have full page adverts givng contatcs for specific depts.

[albert onglebod]

we have paper and glass collection boxes but reuse the other side of paper first.We hardly ever put either of these bins out as we compost paper too and reuse glass containers. I save up tins and take them to the tin bank about every 2 months.
Compost most degradeables.
Reuse old clothes or make them into new things
charity shop old books and kids toys
All suitable containers become plant pots.
We have carrier bag and small bag containers on the wall to put them in and they are all reused.
Most of our throw away rubbish is plastic and things like chicken bones.

[Millie]

I meant light card, like cereal packets

Ask if the local preschool/nursery/infants want it for crafts? I know they dont accept loo roll or kitchen roll tubes for hygiene reasons (may I just cos its not harmed thousands of kids but now its no longer allowed grr). You could also cut up the plastic coated food packaging and use the matt side for writing shopping list/notes/phone messages. And I do 2nd freecycle to target ebayers, I have recieved stuff in cereal packets before

Ahhh also, try nursery etc for the used foil.

[Millie]

Oh, I just realised, I also use cloth bags and cool bags for shopping, and any carrier bags are reused to scoop after the dog or as bin liners in the bathroom. I work on a supermarket checkout and it makes me very sad to see that on an average shift of 6 hours, only 1, maybe 2, will have bags for life, and you can go from one month to the next not seeing a cloth bag.

I have accumulated various tubs and bins to put outside the backdoor to encourage more recycling. Ive bought wheelie bin liners to line the black bin, and then any rubbish can go straight in rather than keep putting bin liners in. I can only get about 4 days worth of rubbish in the black bin, then spend the next 10 days having to drive to the dump with it . At least this way I will be able to get more in!

[Hillbilly]

Recycle darn near everything.

Ecover refills from local shop for everything from soap to toilet cleaner who also takes any extraneous bags/boxes that we are given though we use crates for shopping.

Tins/glass/plastic/paper gets taken to recycle centre.

Bottles get reused for homebrew.

Old clothes go in recycle point or on freecycle if they are decent enough. In fact a lot of stuff goes on freecycle - furniture, seedlings, clothing, appliances, crockery...

Old towels get turned into baby wipes.

Books get swapped on readitswapit.com

Wood gets turned into something else.

Kitchen waste gets composted. As does bedding from chooks/animals.

Egg shells get washed, oven blasted and crushed and fed back to chooks.

Cars go to a guy in Ballater that either sells them on or does whatever car recycling people do.

If theres anything else, we're probably working on it :-)

[shiney]

Hi Millie,


We have the same system as you, as we are only up the road from Trowbridge.

I recycle all my plastic and take it to the Recycling place in Canal Road.

I have just bought a mahoosive composter to replace my black one, which I have given to a neighbour.

I put all the cardboard in the green bin, ripped up and all my snails, slugs, weeds and egg shells.

The black box is full every fortnight of wine bottles, beer cans, tin cans, clothes that are way past the charity shop (easily done with two boys!) and newspapers etc.

I use freecycle alot too to get shot of useful things as well as receiving some great bits and pieces.

The black box collecting guys are a miserable bunch of herberts. Right snarly lot they are! If I catch them coming down the road and run to put my black box out they roll their eyes in disgust, even if they haven't even started collecting stuff in our road!

It still amazes me how many people still fill their green bins with domestic waste thinking the green bin men will take it. Hopefully it will make people think just how much rubbish they chuck out. My grey bin which is for the domestic stuff I can't recycle is only 2 thirds full in a fortnight.

[herbwormwood]

I meant light card, like cereal packets

Ask if the local preschool/nursery/infants want it for crafts? I know they dont accept loo roll or kitchen roll tubes for hygiene reasons (may I just cos its not harmed thousands of kids but now its no longer allowed grr). You could also cut up the plastic coated food packaging and use the matt side for writing shopping list/notes/phone messages. And I do 2nd freecycle to target ebayers, I have recieved stuff in cereal packets before

Ahhh also, try nursery etc for the used foil.

cereal packets can be used for packaging, yes. I have also made filers from them. Cut part of the top down and then glue it to make a handy filer. The cut down part allows you to see the contents and have easy access. Loo roll and kitchen roll card can be used to protect seedlings, leeks esp, also can be composted. I also use margarine containers for freezing stuff.

[ina]

Reading that, I must say Aberdeenshire council is pretty good at recycling... Not a lot gets picked up (only paper/light card), but then - we do live right in the middle of nowhere, and it just wouldn't make sense to send all those vehicles round to pick up bits of stuff here and there. But the recycling centres seem to be breeding like rabbits, and they take just about everything, from foil to fridges. Not taken are some plastic items, like marge tubs, yoghurt pots etc. But I re-use them anyway (freezing, garden...), same as I re-use everything else that has a trace of life in it!

[cir3ngirl]

I help out at our church youth group. I came down stair one evening to find an adult telling my son that you cant recycle cardboard and then putting it in the bin. I them took it out the bin along with the plastic bottles and put the lady straight. Just because its not taken from the door step she was not prepared to go to the local dump. It all now gets left on the side for me to collect at the end of the evening.

Talking about the dump last time I went I mugged a lady for her loo roll tubes as I have a couple of gerbils.

Cir3ngirl