This makes for interesting reading...

[HeyWayne]

- in this country you're lucky if you get past Corrie or the footie scores!

That's it, go on, pick more subjects I know nothing about!

Cheater.

[Paul Wagland]

That is very much in your favour, my dear fellow.

[Pumpkin Becki]

Our council set up a collection for tins, glass, paper and plastic in addition to a central recyling centre (which we regularly make full use of), however, soon afterwards the council withdrew the plastic recycling. Their reasoning was that the environmental impact of transporting the plastic to a centre in Middlesex far outweighed the benefits of recycling it.

We get frustrated with our neighbours, who every week put out five or six big bin bags of rubbish for landfill. They also insist on putting huge amounts of cardboard out for 'landfill' collection. This is sheer lazyness! They are able bodied, middle aged, with capable children. They drive - there is no reason that they couldn't recycle huge amounts of the c*^p they chuck out every week.

...Please stop me if I'm ranting!

[yoanbob]

We wish we could recycle more, the council do nothing to help.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before but it does make me mad! When we moved here we rang the council to ask about recycling, we were told the recycle truck couldnt get down our street, "thats ok" we said "we will take it to the nearest street that the truck goes to", ok they said and dropped off a green bin, which we filled and rang the council to see what day we should take it up for collection. "We dont know" they said, "we only have one truck and it could take 3 weeks", so we took up the bin and checked it every 3-4 days, it was emptied about 10 days later. We filled the bin again, and again took it up and checked it, it got stollen, we rang the council and told them, they dropped off a new bin. which we filled and took up again, 4 weeks later still not emptied, 5 weeks later somone filled it with random rubbish, 6 weeks later it was stollen, we gave up.
we now take glass and cardboard to the recycle point at the tip, there are no other recycling options open to us.
we compost and leave all un nessasary plastic at the supermarket.

Rant over for now.

[Paul Wagland]

we compost and leave all un nessasary plastic at the supermarket.

Do you actually unwrap things at the till and give the packaging back? I've always wanted to do that, but have yet to pluck up the courage!

[deezyb]

Where I am, in Angus, recycling is collected on a weekly basis with green waste/household waste collected on alternate fortnights. It works a treat, well I think so. Some of the weekly waste is not taken away, they mostly take glass, plastic and paper. For some things like yoghurt, fruit juice cartons etc I need to take them to the tip, luckily not too far away. It annoys me that whilst supermarkets are going on about charging for plastic bags, that they freely wrap up already packaged meats or cleaning materials in a mini plastic bag - does anyone else shop somewhere where the checkout operators insist on putting a packet of toilet bloo or a bottle of bleach, or a tray of pork chops in a mini bag? what a waste! I usually take them out and hand them back.

[everdream78]

In my more rebellious days (last week haha) I belonged to an action group in my home town and we used to spend an hour or two every Saturday picking up McD's rubbish, then we used to take it back into the shop and leave it there (well I say leave, more like tipped it out of the rubbish bags lol) - after a few visits from us, they sponsored extra rubbish bins all around the town :-)

[spud57]

Reading some of these posts, I realise we are quite lucky! We have a black wheelie bin and a brown one (for cardboard and garden waste) which are emptied alternate weeks. We also have a box for papers and a box for tins,glass and plastic both of which are emptied every week. The garbage truck even drives down a farm track at the back of our house to collect! After the pitiful re-cycling set up in Northampton, we have moved all of 3 miles - same post code even! - but a different council - Daventry - and what a difference.....

[Anne-Marie]

Colchester is far better than Chelmsford for recycling. We can also get subsidised compost bins and caddies. I did have a 'green box', but one of my neighbours stole it! The council accept paper, tins, plastics and glass in carier bags though so I recycle those that way as well as giving them back to the Tesco driver when he delivers.


ETA that the council aren't collecting any of our rubbish/recycling from our bin store recently as they are in disagreement with the management company for the flats. What kind of discount will I be getting on my council tax, huh?

[ClayGarden]

Interestingly I was talking with a friend about recycling kitchen waste and she was saying that her problem is knowing where to put the plastic/cardboard/glass/tins in her kitchen ( which is quite small) whilst she is cooking.(Her peelings go in a bowl for the compost)
Most of us only have room for a bin ( I am lucky enough to have a utility room and sink ) but most kitchens are not set up with recycling in mind, and in the middle of cooking, nipping out of the back door several times becomes a bit of a pain.
What do other people do to get round this??

Well we live in a small house with small kitchen, and end up just having a lunch box on the bench to put kitchen waste. Then when its full it goes out onto the compost. But with bottles etc, space is really an issue.

[ClayGarden]

But drink-driving, smoking and using mobiles whilst driving have all been legislated against in recent years. Being a bad recycler has not, which is why so few people are getting it right. I honestly think the general public are naturally lazy and you have to force them to do what's in their own best interest.

Also, legislation like this is only unpopular when it is first introduced. Given time it becomes accepted, and people begin to ask for even stronger measures (such as a zero-unit drink-drive limit, or a ban on smoking in all public places)..

I disagree with using legislation to make peoples attitudes change. It just gets peoples backs up. Even mine, and i do my bit. The problem is government could control the waste from households by actually legislating against the supermarkets but they wont. If supermarkets were actually taxed for the waste/packaging they produced it would be cheaper to actually manage, less landfills, less household waste trucks etc.

If gov wanted to do it for being green thats what they should do, and if the council increase our taxes and force people to recycle through legislation and fines, i and many others will just not believe their motives.

Also with these recycle targets, how do they measure my compost bin in my garden?

[The Doctor]

... If supermarkets were actually taxed for the waste/packaging they produced it would be cheaper to actually manage, less landfills, less household waste trucks etc.

... if the council increase our taxes and force people to recycle through legislation and fines, i and many others will just not believe their motives.

If the government taxes supermarkets, who do you think will ultimately pay for it? Not the share holders, that's for sure!

Legislation on individuals, or tax on supermarkets, it really makes no difference. We are the ones who will pay for it in the end.

[ClayGarden]

If the government taxes supermarkets, who do you think will ultimately pay for it? Not the share holders, that's for sure!

Legislation on individuals, or tax on supermarkets, it really makes no difference. We are the ones who will pay for it in the end.

If you use supermarkets you will And if you dont it will just come back down to competition and open markets again. They'll all be taxed for it. It will still come down to their pricing edge and quality of product and service, just like it is now. They'll just have another cost, just like petrol going up like it alway is now

[ladylaird]

I live on the outskirts of a very small village and much as I would love to do more recycling we have no help from our local council. No special containers, no kerbside collections. For me to recycle anything apart from kitchen waste ( into the composter or the chickens!) I have to drive 7 miles to the nearest recycle centre and 7 miles back again. Defeats the object somewhat when I am adding more to my "carbon footprint" by fuel usage than saving in recyclling!!

[percy charlie]

my friend his brother worked for our district council and told us something quite shocking, where on the fortnightly bin system and apparently where the recycling stuff goes often cant cope with the amount so to meet targets they put it in crates and ship in to china where it goes in there land fill, apparently council did deny this but apparently ours no the only council to have done it. so now they have a hunt in your bin every now and then see if they can find you put something in they dont deem recyclable so they can refuse it, also we have to wash all recycle stuff well tiny bit of bean juice talking about a dot size here and they refuse sorry starting to rant bad week see aargh 2 burst pipes. now composting waste bin not as full so thats a bonus.