Reycling Counties

[RobinP]

Originally Posted by Poirot

4 bins Robinp bet thats fustrating sorting it all, what do you do with your garden waste? we have another bin for that

Garden waste goes in the green bin (or onto the compost heap!) as does any cardboard, shredded paper and foodstuffs. Can't think much will go in the landfill bin, just plastic packaging and other disposable stuff that can't be recycled.

[petermcgain]

In our part of Suffolk we have a green bin for recycling (paper, card, cans, hard plastic, metal) and a blue bin for landfill. We had a recent visit to the big "Municipal Recycling Facility" to see what happens to the recyclables and it was pretty impressive. It always seems daft that we don't have a national system (as in Germany) where all councils and residents have the same responsibilities.

[galanthus]

We have normal waste collected weekly. Recycling is split into

• bottles, cans, tins, foil, recyble plastic
• garden cuttings, grass etc plus kitchen waste
• paper, cardboard

this is also collected weekly. think our council have had awards for the amount of recycling collected etc

[Garden Carpet]

In my part of Lincs, South Holland we have weekly black bin bag collection. Then we have a green bag for recycling... we can put glass, plastic, paper, card, waxed paper and cans into that. The bags have a statement that we can put it all in together and it will be sorted at the depot.... I wonder!!!

I have my rubbish collected from my house as I am unable to ferry it to a collection point. I am extremely grateful for this service
jaki

[pressld2]

Here in the London Borough of Bexley we have a brown wheelie bin for compostable waste, a green box for paper and cardboard, a maroon box for plastic and tins (combined - I assume they separate at the recycling plant), a black box for bottles and glass and finally, a green wheelie bin for non-recyclable.

They've just changed the collection schedule and we now have all rercycling and the compost collected weekly but the non-recyclable fortnightly.

Bexley used to claim that they were the best recycling borough in London but I don't know if they still do. We are constantly hearing rumours that all our carefully separated rubbish is still going to landfill because the recycling facilities cannot cope with the volume. I've no idea of the truth or otherwise to these rumours.

What I do know is that the people doing the collections are the biggest bunch of muppets you could ever meet. Hardly a week goes past without us having to ring up and complain that they've driven straight past without collecting something. And you can't just leave it until the next collection because then they'll refuse to take it on the grounds that "you've put out more than you're allowed"!

Dave P.

[JW]

In North West Norfolk we've had the black bins for almost 10 years, these go straight to landfill. The genius who ordered the ordered the wrong size so a family of 4 has a wheeled bin big enough for 2 peoples waste!

The black bin is emptied weekly. We have a green recycling bin which is emptied every two weeks but is twice the size of our landfill bin.

We also have an optional brown bin for compostable waste, but this costs us £35 a year.

All in all, although there is room for improvement, this is all a big step in the right direction.

[petermcgain]

I recently read an article in the Guardian about a town in Japan called Kamikatsu where household waste has to be divided into 34 categories! It's an experiment that has been going on since 2003 to try to achieve a zero-waste community by 2020 and so far they have improved their recycling rate from 55% to 80%.

[Jacky]

I guess Plymouth, Devon is behind all of you. We still get a normal rubbish wheelie bin collection every week and a recycling wheelie bin (but not glass) every fortnight. Some houses get a gardening waste bag, although we don't have that in my street so what I can't compost often goes in the normal bin. I might have taken it to the tip to go in the garden waste skip, but I can't help but feel that a bit of natural product rotting away can only help the landfill sites to rot a bit quicker - or maybe that's my naivety.