NFR - recycling

[BalDrick]

How much recyclng do we all do? Will be interested to read answers from posters in other countries, in addition to the UK.

I think I'm pretty good at recycling - old newspapers, envelopes, paper from work (shredded), cereal boxes, plastic yogurt pots (washed up), plastic milk bottles and the like, cans and tins (food or drink). Oh and all glass jars, be they empty wine bottles of jam jars/cook-in sauces/that type of thing.

[Two Ton Ted]

Quiet day Balders?

[finnster01]

In New York there used to be decent recycling, now it is very dodgy as the City has cut back on their program. It really for all practical intent and purposes comes down to each apartment building policy. I find that as such I am getting sloppier also. Don't recycle cans anymore or plastic, just glass and paper. Nothing to be very proud of to be honest.

[Two Ton Ted]

I don't understand why people don't recycle. It's no real hardship to put things in a different bin. Don't moan about having a slop bucket in every home(c) Daily Mail, just do your little bit.

[aussierod]

It all depends on what kind of accomodation setting you live in too I think. Previously when I was in Australia, we had 3 large wheelie bins, one for general waste, one for paper/glass/cans etc and the last one for green waste being organic/tree clippings type stuff. Recycling was easy then as you'd fill it up and put it out for weekly collection

In Scotland, my flat is on the 4th floor, so although I carry my glass/cans/paper to the recycling bins 50-250 metres down the road, I do find myself throwing out cans etc in the normal rubbish as it feels like less of a hassle (ie I can take the rubbish bin down and throw it out as I head out for the day, rather than pulling out all the cans/glass/paper and putting them into their respective recycling bin and then going back up to my flat to return my reusable bag) I'm all for recycling, however I find it much easier back home. So I'd say in Australia, we aren't too bad, but then again, I'm only speaking from my personal experience.

Btw, can anyone name the most recycled product in the world?

[BalDrick]

Quiet day Balders?

The subject came up in some work I'm doing actually!

'Previously when I was in Australia, we had 3 large wheelie bins, one for general waste, one for paper/glass/cans etc and the last one for green waste being organic/tree clippings type stuff.'

Yeah that's what we have, although have to take the glass to a bottlebank, but there's one in most supermarket car parks round my way. Bit annoying with the green waste one, not supposed to put apple cores etc in, which I suppose is understandable to an extent, but also the trunk of a broccoli stalk you can't put in. Put the pumpkin outers in but usually wait a few weeks till they're covered before putting that one out.

[Lighthouse]

I have a plastic skip that I can put all my recycled stuff in and carry it down to the road where it is picked up once every two weeks. So I don't need to seperate stuff into different containers. Down the road there is no recycling from the flats at all. So it really is more luck than anything else. As for furniture and the like. There is a good and very helpful recycling dump with people to help you put stuff in the right place ten minute car ride away.

[Ron Sheepskin]

Btw, can anyone name the most recycled product in the world?

Is it Peter Crouch?

We get to recycle paper, cardboard, plastics, glass, tin cans, clothes, garden waste and kitchen waste at home for council collection. It has cut my rubbish bag output by about 3/4. And it keeps Fred on the streets.  :dft012:

[Two Ton Ted]

Btw, can anyone name the most recycled product in the world?

Beer!

[RidgeRider]

Balders recycling here in California is pervasive. We used to have the three different bins we would leave out once per week for them to pick up however now our city is able to separate cardboard, cans, and plastic at the refuge plant automatically. so we now throw everything in the garbage bin.

I have no idea how they do it but they stopped having us use the bins about 1.5 years ago.

What I do know is much of this is sent on container ships to China so they can ship us back products.

[The Equalizer]

Beer, wine, pizza boxes and plastic bottles/containers all go in recycling with any other metal or paper products.

All to be fired off to China and put into a landfill.

[BalDrick]

Balders recycling here in California is pervasive. We used to have the three different bins we would leave out once per week for them to pick up however now are city is able to separate cardboard, cans, and plastic at the refuge plant automatically. so we know throw everything in the garbage bin.

I have no idea how they do it but they stopped having us use the bins about 1.5 years ago.

What I do know is much of this is sent on container ships to China so they can ship us back products.

Sounds very labour-intensive. Mind you god knows how they sort all the shredded paper out of my bin (lots of people shred here I've noticed so I'm not the only one).

Old clothes/shoes etc are quite a new thing but we do them too now.

[The Equalizer]

I'm often amazed by certain boroughs which provide 4 different coloured boxes for recycling (which you have to find room to put, even if you're in a tiny 1 bed studio). Wandsworth Borough Council provides orange sacks, into which you place everything that can be recycled.

They then send these sacks off to Merton, where they are dropped off outside the houses of the less well-off for sorting into the relevant coloured boxes by the local residentia.

[Scrumpy]

Balders recycling here in California is pervasive. We used to have the three different bins we would leave out once per week for them to pick up however now are city is able to separate cardboard, cans, and plastic at the refuge plant automatically. so we know throw everything in the garbage bin.

I have no idea how they do it but they stopped having us use the bins about 1.5 years ago.

What I do know is much of this is sent on container ships to China so they can ship us back products.

Sounds very labour-intensive. Mind you god knows how they sort all the shredded paper out of my bin (lots of people shred here I've noticed so I'm not the only one).

Old clothes/shoes etc are quite a new thing but we do them too now.

Here in North Hampshire, we used to recycle everything. Then we were told that shredded paper could not be accepted, since their equipment was not capable of recycling this. So it just gets slung in with the other stuff now.

Then we received a leaflet explaining that while plastic bottles could be recycled, no other form of plastic containers (yoghurt pots, plastic vegetable tarys etc) should be recycled because these are shipped to bleedin India to be recycled and the local Council felt the Carbon footprint was too big.

I think most of us want to recycle, but surely it is down to our 'leaders' to get their act together and get the right equipment in to do the job! You do wonder if someone is making some serious wonga out of this somewhere. I bet Fred could tell some interesting stories!!

[sipwell]

Flanders is "world leader" in recycling. We recycle everything, companies and individual households alike. I must say I am pretty pleased with all the effort our government puts into recycling. It is one of the only policy areas in which we see considerable progress.
rd
We have three kind of sacks in Brussels: white for general trash, yellow for everything paper and blue for everything plastic (no yoghurt pots). We have glass containers on almost every street corner. Next to that, the government picks up free of charge organic waste (leafs, branches) and bigger things (chairs, ...). Every citizen is however asked whether the object he throws away has no more value/function or still can have value for someone else. For instance, if your sofa is old but refurbish-able, then they will suggest one of the non-profit organizations to pick it up: there is a scheme of second hand shops which give unemployed a job in fixing things. If it is broken,then the local council will take care of it. For electronic devices, we have to pay a small fee when we buy it (something like 5 % of the actual cost) but that means that every company which sells the electronic device will also have to take care of your old device. So if you buy a new TV because your old one is broken, the old TV will be taken away by the people who deliver your new TV. You can also call the local council to pick up your broken TV/fridge/... free of charge.

There is many more but it is a start, isn't it?

[The Equalizer]

Balders recycling here in California is pervasive. We used to have the three different bins we would leave out once per week for them to pick up however now are city is able to separate cardboard, cans, and plastic at the refuge plant automatically. so we know throw everything in the garbage bin.

I have no idea how they do it but they stopped having us use the bins about 1.5 years ago.

What I do know is much of this is sent on container ships to China so they can ship us back products.

Sounds very labour-intensive. Mind you god knows how they sort all the shredded paper out of my bin (lots of people shred here I've noticed so I'm not the only one).

Old clothes/shoes etc are quite a new thing but we do them too now.

Here in North Hampshire, we used to recycle everything. Then we were told that shredded paper could not be accepted, since their equipment was not capable of recycling this. So it just gets slung in with the other stuff now.

Then we received a leaflet explaining that while plastic bottles could be recycled, no other form of plastic containers (yoghurt pots, plastic vegetable tarys etc) should be recycled because these are shipped to bleedin India to be recycled and the local Council felt the Carbon footprint was too big.

I think most of us want to recycle, but surely it is down to our 'leaders' to get their act together and get the right equipment in to do the job! You do wonder if someone is making some serious wonga out of this somewhere. I bet Fred could tell some interesting stories!!

I know a bloke in East London who has people drive around in a couple of trucks collecting cardboard that's left in the streets. Each truck load gets compressed and stored in his lock-up. He gets about 80 truck fulls a week into the lock-up. He then gets this shipped off to China who pay for the lot. He earns about £3,500 a week profit.

Nice business if you own a truck and a small bit of storage space.

[sipwell]

Additionally, in Belgium you have to pay for plastic bags in the supermarket or any other store. The result is a massive drop in the number of plastic bags (75 %) littering up our communities. Most shops don't even have plastic bags any more but have either a fashionable re-usable bag (which people continue to use hence it is free marketing) or a cardboard bag which can be recycled (or was already recycled). I never go to the supermarket without my re-usable (handy) bag and a lot of people do the same.

[BalDrick]

That really annoys me, the over-packaged products. It's toothpaste FFS, no need for it to be in a cardboard tube which probably only half of consumers will even recycle.

The other thing that annoys me is supermarkets doing buy-one-get-one-free - quite often the second one will be out of date before you come to eat it. Why not just half price on the one item? Supermarkets will cut down on transport costs, as will customers. Also applies to the over-packaging thing above.

'...in addition to that we have a 'Peel' bin where all potato peelings, vegetable matter, old tea bags, basically anything organic are placed, when that gets full we put it into one of our compost bins.'

We would do that but we really don't have any soil areas where compost would be used, whole garden is just grass. But if the council want to pick up a green bin, seems to me they could put all this stuff in it too. Sure there might be a rodent problem at the site but I'd imagine there already is anyway.

[BalDrick]

Additionally, in Belgium you have to pay for plastic bags in the supermarket or any other store. The result is a massive drop in the number of plastic bags (75 %) littering up our communities. Most shops don't even have plastic bags any more but have either a fashionable re-usable bag (which people continue to use hence it is free marketing) or a cardboard bag which can be recycled (or was already recycled). I never go to the supermarket without my re-usable (handy) bag and a lot of people do the same.

That was supposed to come in a few years ago, supermarkets weren't supposed to promote their plastic bags, but they all still do - suspect that's more a recessionary factor than anything else, where customers simply can't afford to buy a bag for life every time they go shopping (particularly if, like me, you leave it at home by accident every time you go to the shop!).

[sipwell]

Additionally, in Belgium you have to pay for plastic bags in the supermarket or any other store. The result is a massive drop in the number of plastic bags (75 %) littering up our communities. Most shops don't even have plastic bags any more but have either a fashionable re-usable bag (which people continue to use hence it is free marketing) or a cardboard bag which can be recycled (or was already recycled). I never go to the supermarket without my re-usable (handy) bag and a lot of people do the same.

That was supposed to come in a few years ago, supermarkets weren't supposed to promote their plastic bags, but they all still do - suspect that's more a recessionary factor than anything else, where customers simply can't afford to buy a bag for life every time they go shopping (particularly if, like me, you leave it at home by accident every time you go to the shop!).

No, your logic is wrong. The expected effect is that you will LEARN to take your bag with you to the supermarket. Moreover, the non-reusable bags aren't that expensive (10 eurocents for a small one and 50 eurocents for a big one). The strategy is to make people used to re-usable bags. Initially you got the bags for free and you got loyalty points each time you brought it to the originating shop. And as I said: great marketing for the companies involved. If I go to the market for instance I will always take my Delhaize bag with me (because it is big and handy), so I am basically a walking commercial for them. You use the bag for almost everything (my dirty football boots or hiking shoes for instance always travel in a Delhaize bag). You grow so accustomed to that useful bag that you never forget it any more.