Crush your waste (repeat moan)

[nightshade]

The nice men that are supposed to take my garden waste, didn't take it!
The next collection day I waited, as I waited I watched the various stuff put out by neighbours for the household recycling. I was surprised to see whole cardboard boxes, bags full of uncrushed cans and milk cartons. It takes seconds to step on a can or milk carton to reduce its volume by 90% (guess)
I think perhaps the great British public may need printed instructions on packaging they are obviously too daft to figure it out for themselves.
I bought a mulcher (Ryobi, but others make 'em) and put most of my woody waste through it I put it in with the chickens, they "bathe" in it and sun themselves sat on it (the nice sappy smell?) later as insects move in they dig in it , finally it disappears into the soil.

[AfternoonLemon]

It might take seconds, but unless there is absolutely no liquid content left in the can/container/bottle, it will also make a mess on the floor. Fair enough, could do it outside, but that's an inconvenience to me and I already spend enough time sorting and cleaning/rinsing out the recycling.

Cardboard is different, I always compact that.

[Littlesparrow]

I crush and rinse, but keeping a household of teenagers in line is another matter, they go deaf unless money or chocolate is in the conversation.

[fairplay]

The collecting vehicles surely vary from council to council don't they? Our recycling bin is a large green community job and is emptied into the back of a lorry where it is crushed anyway.
Sadly, the general rubbish bin (same size as the recycling bin) is still full to overflowing because the other flats are too lazy to separate their rubbish.
My rubbish works out at about 4 - 1 loads in favour of recycled material.

Neil.

[thunder]

Despite claims of collecting waste for recycling (clear bags) my local authority only ever collect blue bags (non recyclable). Hence, everything (cans, bottles, general unburnable stuff) goes in blue bags, and I see no reason to spend time crushing stuff, unless they provide me with a can crusher. Glass bottles must specifically not be crushed!

henrya

[Cordaline]

I always wash'n'squash!

[htcdude]

Doesn't all the rubbish get crushed once it goes into the back of the lorry anyway? I do crush mine but only to save a bit of space, don't see it as a necessity as it'll get crushed anyway.


On a side note one thing that made me laugh. My parents live near Bristol and have several boxes for various waste. Over Christmas they put it into the various as they usually do and put the boxes outside. When the dustmen came they took all the boxes and emptied them into the back of the dustcart What's the point in us separating them if they all end up in one pile anyway!

Nige

[nightshade]

Crushing your cans and boxes can improve the amount of recycling collected