Recycling, FAO Ria or anyone

[JoM]

We seem to be going backwards with recycling around here. We currently have a blue bin for cardboard, paper, glass and cans but the two neighbouring councils are now going back to using bags for recycling cardboard and paper. That was what we had when we first moved here 11 years ago and not everyone bothered because the bags inevitably blew away once emptied.
The blue bins will just be used for cans and glass and I think it’s just a matter of time before our council start doing this too.

Not sure what it means for the number of collections, whether on recycling day the lorry comes around three times - once for anyone who’s paid for garden waste, once for the blue bin and then a third time for the bags….or will they just come twice as now and empty the blue bin and bag into the same bin lorry (which wouldn’t surprise me).

[JanB]

We take ours down to the bar, as they have two each for glass, paper and plastic. There is also a couple of oil one's in Ourique (chip oil)

Anything else, we either leave down by the bins and either some-one will take it, or the council will, if you ring them.

[Workingman]

It is strange here.

We are allowed one overflow bag on black bin days, left next to the bin. However if you have slightly too much in the bin, not enough for a bag, and its lid is not closed they will not empty it.

The other thing about the bags is that during the night (we have to put bins out before 06:30 - the rule), the foxes, gremlins and goblins rip them open and spill the contents.

[JanB]

I should also say that our council, Ourique, is top of the league, locally, for recycling.

[TheOstrich]

We have two brown food caddies, Gal, both provided by the council. There's a very small flip-top one for internal use; we keep it under the sink and put fresh peelings / food waste into a compostable bag in it. When that bag's full, we transfer it to a bigger caddy with a large anti-fox locking handle (it's big enough for 4 compostable bags) in the shed, and that is what we have to put out kerbside. The collections are weekly here in Dorset. We do fill 2 or 3 compostible bags a week, but it's all potato and vegetable peelings, banana skins and apple cores and the like, very rarely "food" waste. We daren't overfill the bags because they're a bit flimsy, TBH.

Dorset have this year invested in a new fleet of bin collection lorries. They're much smaller, may be electric (they're very quiet) and we get two of them on collection day, one for food waste and t'other for recycling or household, whichever it is fortnightly. The fortnightly collection for garden waste is on a separate day of the week; we have to pay for this, and as it's the first thing that gets cancelled because of Covid in the workforce, they've missed two pickups this year, for which we'll get a discount on renewal next year.

[Osc]

Ria, I bought silicone straws a couple of years ago. They are great, soft on the mouth and they go in the dishwasher.

[JanB]

Oh, and we have a compost heap, so all peelings, egg shells get chucked on there and then, eventually, onto the veggie plpot.

[meriad]

I'm a fiend for recycling (as you may have gathered ). I have one large bin for household waste, one for recycling and then two garden waste bins. My recycling bin is usually full whereas my general bin generally has one, maybe two small carrier bags of rubbish that I accumulate in a 2 week period. Once in a very blue moon I'll have a half full or full bin. Food waste either goes to the allotment compost bin or into the food recycling bin (depends what waste it is).

Cat food pouches and crisp packets etc and anything that can go into the tetrapack recycling is collected separately and I'll be doing a once a month trip to Tesco. Anything that's plastic and can't be recycled via the recycling bin or the tetrapack recycling) scheme I take to work as Westminster Council incinerates whereas where I live general waste still goes into landfill . Separating everything has become such a habit that I don't even think about it anymore

And I've become a lot more aware of what I buy and go plastic free where it's feasible.

[miasmum]

Great Ria, a lot of us have which is what is so sickening about the lateral flows

[meriad]

Great Ria, a lot of us have which is what is so sickening about the lateral flows

they're a right pain I know. I know that I'm really lucky in that I have the option of getting them to my work so they can go in the waste there for incineration; but not many do. A gardening forum I belong to is promoting that the test strips be used as plant labels; split them in half and use the solid half; and the silica packets that each test strip comes with can be used for keeping seed storage containers dry - but still; that's just such a minimal impact isn't it

And it's not just the lateral flows, the disposable masks as well