TOT household rubbish

[Richard]

Ah. So the collection is somewhat earlier than mine. No problem dumping my bags on the pavement when setting off for work.

[dennis]

No way am I getting up before 7:00 to put the bins out for them to collect at 7:05. Just as well they have hybrid collection trucks and they are running on electric at that time, they might wake me up if they are running engines.

[dennis]

I don't eat cauliflower stalks, the greens of the carrots, chicken bones, etc. even if you do.

I have three compost bins but I usually fill them with leaves from the trees and they take months to compost so the food waste gets composted by the council.

[John Rumm]

Our green bin is food and garden (by default, they no longer charge extra for garden waste collection). The only snag is, I could probably fill it half a dozen times just with grass clippings!

(although its a good height to direct the output of the chipper into - and it will take a few branches worth)

[John Rumm]

There also seems to be quite a variation in what classifications of stuff each bin will take. Our recyclables bin is quite flexible - glass, plastic, card, paper, tins etc. It now takes the bulk of the stuff that gets put out. (when the scheme first started they could not handle things like window envelopes, but now apparently those are ok as well).

[alan_m]

Grass clippings will compact to a least a sixth of the volume by themselves within a few days in the summer.

[S Viemeister]

We have just two bins - one for landfill, the other for paper, tins, and plastic. Alternate week pickup.

Most other stuff has to be taken to the local recycling place. The council will pick up a maximum of three large items, booked and paid in advance - freezers, furniture, etc. Last time I used that service it cost about GBP17.

No garden waste bins, but it's a rural area and most people have compost bins/piles.

[Richard]

Bins preferred. Piles are a pain in the arse.

[soup]

Mea culpa, didn't read it properly . Saw the comment about 240l of food waste and the "five or more.." bit and typed, didn't look properly. Sorry all.

[soup]

Hee bloody haw. :O)

[Andrew]

I'm afraid that means nothing.

In Horsham, Green is normal landfill rubbish Brown is garden waste Blue is mixed recycling.

We have no separate collections for food waste or electricals, the council assume people are going to somehow travel to the various Viridor sites and deposit their old fm radio or hair curlers in the correct skip - if only.

[Andrew]

In Horsham if the garden waste is contaminated with any sort of food waste, it is just scooped back up (at the composting site) and taken to landfill.

Food waste could contain meat remnants, including pork and that was what caused the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak.

If people were careful enought to separate uncooked veggy remnants from cooked food waste then it wouldn't be an issue but people are lazy (and not generally very clued-up).

'Food Waste' means different things to different people.

[Andrew]

In Cardiff, the bin police will fine you :-).

[Andrew]

I'm amazed that the efficient Germans haven't persuaded the EU to 'harmonize' bin colours. It might be good idea.

[Andrew]

Except that it isn't food waste, much of it is uncooked veggy parings (which contain most of the vitamins anyway). All this can be composted at home.

Anything containing bones, fat or protein, whether cooked or not needs to go to landfill.

[Andrew]

Only if you put grass mowings on them. They take years to compost unless you build up layers of scrap cardboard in between mowings, with some compost accelerator added. Also helps to have big bit of old epdm or pond liner to cover it and keep the heat in.

[Andrew]

The first two are compostible. Bones, fat, meat remnants and other stuff of animal or fowl origin cannot be composted. This is why pig farmers no longer collect 'swill' from schools. The possibility of another foot-and-mouth outbreak is ominous. This sort of food waste must go to landfill.

Unless you grow your own carrots (which means you have space for a compost heap or bin anyway), where are these 'greens of carrots' coming from ?. You only need to chop off the top 1/4 inch. How can you end up with 240 litres a week ?.

[Robin]

Do you have authority for contradicting the advice from my council (and umpteen others) on what can be composted[1] in their facility?

[1] You can recycle all raw and cooked food waste: vegetables and peelings fish and fish bones fruit cores and skins bones bread, rice, pasta meat (raw or cooked) teabags, coffee granules egg shells plate scrapings cheese

[NY]

I agree. It would be a very good idea if there were standard colours for specific types of waste, and standard items that can be collected at the roadside and/or recycling centres.

Moving from one area to another means learning a new council's rules - in some areas, normal waste is a black bin, in others it is green. In some areas they will take tin cans and paper (as opposed to cardboard), in other areas they won't.

Some councils charge extra for garden waste at the roadside, and rubble / broken plant-pots etc at the recycling centre.

I'd like to see a national standard for bin colours and what is collected, with no additional per-load charge for items that are taken to the tip (ie all covered by council tax),

I'd also like to see weekly collections of normal waste. Many times I've had to make a special journey to the recycling centre to take packaging etc which will not fit in the normal-waste bin, or even to take additional cardboard boxes. tin cans, glass etc which will not fit in the very small crate and even smaller bag for cardboard. Having to dismantle and rip up and fold carboard boxes to make the fit in the bag is not acceptable: the bin should be large enough to take these without putting the householder to the hassle of making it fit.

It is fine to encourage people to recycle more, but all households generate a certain amount of waste on average, and it all needs to be removed - whether in the normal bin or the recycling bin. There seems to be a school of thought that we should magically produce less waste, even of the recyclable type.

[Andrew]

Try horsham.gov.uk website. They have told us that the brown bins for garden waste must not be contaminated with food waste. Who is right ?.

I don't suppose your council has an incinerator by chance ?.