That's probably why so many councils have gone to (or are planning to go to) fortnightly collections.
The irony is that in the current economic climate, the market for recycled glass, paper etc. has almost completely collapsed, and much of the carefully collected recycled items are going to storage or even landfill.
we are weekly for recyclable but fortnightly for landfill, so at least the stinky stuff goes weekly.
Maroon must be Reading Council's livery. The buses used to be maroon.
Nothing like keeping it simple, is there?
LOL. Confusing it is :-)
So many councils across the land, all running about headless with the notion of they must do something green - and individually experimenting with what should be the standard method of doing things.
Harrow did such an experiment (read: lost money) before the current scheme, by giving out 'green boxes' - a smaller version of the recycle bin that was picked up by a van with segregated compartments, which the crew distributed the contents of the boxes into. Now this happens back at the depot - or somewhere else. Hopefully closer than China.
All of this is calling out for a national body, staffed by experts setting standards and making recommendations*, and deciding the colour of waste bins and collection methods... and due to those standards - then able to run national campaigns so that everyone knew what they should be doing in what bin etc...
Who ran 'Keep Britain Tidy'?
then the council comes alon and empties it...
No, sorry, it was in a mag. at work, so >=20 years ago.
Yes please!!!
I'd be happy with just two bins - mixed contaminated muck and stuff useful for the waste authority. They can use magnets and stuff to pull steel and aluminium out and lasers and wotnot for plastics.
Our council is currently circulating a questionaire. It's impossible complete the online one without lying.
None of the above, please.
Sorry, not allowed. You must select one of the above options.
None of the above, please. I want to continue minimising my waste //and// minimising my recycling.
The whole "residents must increase recyling" is butchering the english language. I have no use for scrap steel and paper. I can't recycle it. All I can do is pass it on to the waste collection authority and let //them// recycle it.
-- JGH
Same here.
But it takes two wagons to collect the recyclables - one for paper and one for plastic bottles/tins, the latter two in one bin.
Adrian C coughed up some electrons that declared:
Ah right.
So that's as near to perfection as I think is possible, given the councils won't sort at their end from one bin.
I don't think it could be much simpler: Compost, all (practically) recyclables and crap.
So, AFAIAC, the best solution ("only" 3 bins, minimised work for the resident) appears to be that employed by Harrow - and having established that, there is now no further excuse for random councils inflicting worse (4,5 or more bins) systems with a greater amount of faff for the resident on people.
What happens when you have a scheme that's too troublesome, is people can be bothered.
We had a pilot a bit like that for a year with a blue box. It would take bottles, cans, paper, but not card (which was a big limitation). They hand sorted it into a green compartmentalised bin van. You could always tell where they were from the noise of them tipping boxes of bottles into a large metal container - it was deafening!
(I think they worked out it was a bit cumbersome in the end - not least because some of the blue boxes had no holes in the base so they filled with water and became hard to lift. Some had holes, so they deposited their water all over your feet when you picked em up ;-)
I expect part of the trouble is that the value of the recyclable materials varies around the country - making collection of the same things not possible in all places. Apparently many councils are stuck with huge stock piles of stuff they have collected which has insufficient value in it to make it attractive enough to give away at the moment. Hence hangers full of paper and glass etc.
Point was trying to make is there is a heck of a push for people to install the things with very little being done to deal with the waste, which whatever way you cut it is a lot more unpleasant than expired tungsten filament lamps.
Adam
they no doubt can sort some stuff fairly easily, but compostable cannot be told from landfill, can it? Can a machine sort paper from glass , plastics and metals?
makes sense, our bottles and tins are in one bin. I notice Cumbria dont do recycling at out of the way spots, presumably because its inefficient to send three or four wagons to a remote spot. In town it probably makes little difference if 4 wagons are going round getting everything or four wagons specialising.
that could be an idea :-)
IIRC they cant do toughened glass
Since so many of us are describing what our local council is doing, here's a report for (parts of) Halton Borough (Runcorn & Widnes)
Black wheely bin for landfill Green wheely bin (garden waste) collected fortnightly between spring and autumn. Blue small wheelybin for paper, card, metal, glass, plastic collected fornightly.
Low-cost compost bins available online (we have 2)
Nett result is that we usually have about 1 carrier bag full of waste to go in the landfill per week, with everything else being composted or sent for recycling.
killers for these sorts of lamps.
Upright, with no shade.
Sure. Heat it enough and the glass and metal goes to the bottom, and the paper goes up in smoke.
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