Selfsufficientish.com

Well it seems that we (in the UK) are the worst in Europe for dumping into landfill. Hmm, not a title that I am proud of.

27 million tonnes a year . That is scary.

its a shocking statistic, but sadly i can see whee it comes from.

We have a terrible amount of packaging on things, and far too many people who are not ashamed of the amount they throw away. and too many people who refuse to separate their recyclables too. they see it as too much effort.

i wish people could suffer embarrassment about the amount they throw away, but sadly they see it as some kind of status symbol.

Packaging should be reduced too. i bought a pair of earphones at the weekend, and they had a paper information shee,t and a carboard insert, and that horrible plastic packaging that you need a stanley knife to get into. And then there were plastic inserts too! It was all so unnecessary.

I over heard a conversation yesterday in IKEA. A woman was moaning to her friend that the guy behind the till was charging her for carrier bags (10p each) and that she had to buy the larger blue bag (50p) she did not understand that the big blue bag was a sturdy reusable bag that is more practicle than taking the 1/2 dozen carrier bags.

This is Joe Public's view on it (I fear) I think IKEA are coming from the right place, they have got to force people to re-consider the throw away lifestyle that we have in this country.

Ironic isn't it that we can buy a practically disposable sofa, table, chairs, bed all for under £100

Ann Pan

I agree Fee.fairy manufacturers do use alot of unnecessary Packaging. And like you said they should just cut down on it cause theres no need to have it. And the plastic packaging Nightmare.

Going back to what Annpan said about being charged for bags. I think all supermarkets should charge for Plastic bags, Hopefully it would encourage people to take there own.

Kev.

I think there should be a quota of weight of rubbish for each household per month, if you go over you pay extra, if you stay under you get a rebate on your council tax. I think they do something similar to this already in Ireland. The problem is some people will see this as even more of an excuse to go fly tipping. I can never understand the extra effort fly tippers go to by dumping the old sofa or whatever over a fence into a river, it would be so much easier to just leave it on the river bank, it would be so much easier to clear up as well.

Tom

Our council have just given us green bins for recycling, but have told us we can only put plastic in if its bottle shaped, no tray shaped stuff or any other plastics even if they are marked with grades 2 + 3! I suppose its a start though. We can't put corrigated card in iether???
Do other areas have the same restrictions?
Karen

Roll up corrugated card, put inside a pipe or kitchen roll inside. Then leave it in the garden for the insects.

Packaging i think is the biggest problem we have.

However, i do agree on the disposable society problem. We want everything to be quick and easy, no effort. unfortunately, with quick and easy does not come quality, so things don't last as long.

Its time that quality came back into the equation.

Annpan wrote:..and that she had to buy the larger blue bag (50p) she did not understand that the big blue bag was a sturdy reusable bag that is more practicle than taking the 1/2 dozen carrier bags.

I can't understand that. I have a couple of those blue Ikea bags and they are fantastic for keeping stuff in.

I am saddened by the amount of waste that goes on too - one of our housemates who has just left the house used to throw away a horrifying amount of stuff, and had (as you say) no shame at all.
He just had no concept of waste at all - he came down with some bags of "rubbish" when he was moving out and I asked him what he was throwing away. They were full of perfectly good clothes, which I took off him and have since taken to the charity shop.

cor some people eh.

I agree that there should be a tax or levy for uplift of bin bags but we live in a close with a bunch of @&%$£s who can't even be bothered putting a black bag into a wheely, hence the rats and foxes (yuk)

Companies should also have to justify their packaging and can any one explain to me why groceries can't be sold in paper packaging? (ie bread, fruit, veg,etc)

grrrr

I'm having a struggle at work to try and get people to recycle their printer cartridges, newspapers, plastic cups, cans etc...

We recycle (or Freecycle) almost everything we can at home. I hate it on bin day, when I go down the road and see the vast amounts of rubbish people but out in their "non-recycleable" bins.

We always put out our 3 recycleable bins and they are always full to bursting, but I see some people down our road with hardly anything recycled at all.
You're telling me they have no plastic/glass/cardboard/paper/compstables to recycle in a 2 week period?? Of course not...they're just to lazy to do it!

Enormous Sage wrote: he came down with some bags of "rubbish" when he was moving out and I asked him what he was throwing away. They were full of perfectly good clothes, which I took off him and have since taken to the charity shop.

Well done!

Sorry but taxing the bin bags people put out won't work. Just think of the fly tipping problem that it would create.

A much better way to address this is to tax at source, i.e. tax the manufacture/import of plastics and packaging with the taxation going to assist in more suitable disposal (if there is any). With the profit obsessed supermarkets and the price obsessed consumer in this country you would soon see a shift to less packaging, and more cardboard.....

Of course the government isn’t interested in this, as they want to tax the individual as much as possible, and upset industry as little as possible….

Regards,

AbingdonBoy.

Sorry but taxing the bin bags people put out won't work. Just think of the fly tipping problem that it would create.

A much better way to address this is to tax at source, i.e. tax the manufacture/import of plastics and packaging with the taxation going to assist in more suitable disposal (if there is any). With the profit obsessed supermarkets and the price obsessed consumer in this country you would soon see a shift to less packaging, and more cardboard.....

Of course the government isn’t interested in this, as they want to tax the individual as much as possible, and upset industry as little as possible….

Regards,

AbingdonBoy.

Karen_Grace wrote:Our council have just given us green bins for recycling, but have told us we can only put plastic in if its bottle shaped, no tray shaped stuff or any other plastics even if they are marked with grades 2 + 3! I suppose its a start though. We can't put corrigated card in iether???
Do other areas have the same restrictions?
Karen

Hi Karen
Just be grateful you get your recycling uplifted. The only uplift we get is for paper. They will take green bags of garden waste as well but we have to buy the green rubbish bags.

Everything else has to be taken to the recycling points. But, of course, most of my neighbours just chuck it out. Oh, and no wheelie bins either - no just good old fashioned black bags. We used to get given a few by the council once a year but they were rubbish (oops no pun intended there).

And in answer to your question, if I do take the plastic to the recycling then you can still only recycle the bottles, not even the tops!

And to think I moved here from Bristol. Mad!

Zoe