What do YOU recycle?

Question

I recycle Plastic Bottles, Glass, Metal, Tin Cans, Paper and Compost my veg waste. This is not because I'm enviromentally concious but because we have to pay for refuse collection by size and weight. I live in Switzerland, it took an old git like me 3 years for it to become second nature. Why dosen't England follow suit. Also any shop selling electrical appliances have to take back old appliances even if not sold by them. C'mon England stop dumping it all in one bag. Oh yeah note no spell check in this section so, if you see an error Piss Off.

I did leave London 6 years ago and even my hippie friends didn't recycle plastics.

Answer 1

I'm in the UK. Our largest bin is a recycle bin now however our local council will only take one(!) type of plastic , no glass but will take paper, cardboard and aluminium cans. I compost our food waste and shredded paper (personal data).I also take reusable shopping bags to the supermarket (still in the minority there). The UK is poor at recycling and has still not implemented the European WEEE directive fully. I feel this is because of government AND voter buck passing, too much difference in policy between local authorities and the power of the supermarkets and corporate business who I feel are the main cause of a lot of our household waste. There is a culture of having little personal responsibility in the UK -a curious knee-jerk reaction dislike of any government control in Brit culture ,even if it's for the long term good ("how dare the government tell me what to eat, drive, do etc...") that means the buck gets continually passed and why the triumph of short-termism (a mainstay of Brit politics) will always win out and recycling will be tackled not at source (the producer) but at the consumer end and innevitably via taxes.

Answer 2

I try to recycle glass, tin cans, aluminium cans, newspapers etc, although I would like to recycle more things, like plastics, packaging etc, but don't know where to take these to be recycled. Fortunately where I live (in South England), the council have brought in "black boxes" where we can put things like glass jars, cans, paper etc for recycling and have it collected every fortnight. However, this only enables a small number of things to be recycled, as there are lots of things that can't be recycled in this way, like plastic and cardboard.

I completely agree that we need to take more action in looking after our environment, but think that the government/councils need to have more recycling schemes to give people more opportunities to recycle, rather than to charge for refuse collection when are not enough recycling facilities. However, if there were plenty of opportunities for people to recycle and yet they still refused to, then I think it would probably be a good idea for us to be fined for not recycling.

Do the shops which have to take back old electrical appliances have to recycle them? If so, I think it is a wonderful idea, and I just hope that shops in England will start having the same environmentally friendly policies.

Answer 3

You recycle because it's relatively easy in Switzerland. UK could take a tip. Most supermarkets have containers for plastic bottles, and bottle banks and containers for aluminium (beer cans). Paper waste is collected by the local authority, every now and then, depending on where you live there is a special metal collection for those tomato and baked bean cans and that rather nasty frying pan.
Paying for rubbish bags makes you think what goes where.
And yes, suppliers of electrical goods are obliged to take back old appliances - but there is a surcharge when you purchase them which covers future disposal.
There will always be people who try to get round all this. I remember a German couple living in Switzerland who had a house in France which they visited regularly. They took their rubbish there to avoid paying for rubbish bags in Switzerland!

Answer 4

I recycle everything the Council will allow me to in the way of paper, plastic, tins etc:.
They will not accept potato peeling etc being added to garden waste for some reason so these are trashed.
Both these collections are at two weekly intervals at the present time.
What I do not understand is why they suspend the garden waste collection in Winter and replace it by collecting the recyclables at weekly instead of fortnightly intervals although on average there can only be half as much.
I can only think that they do it to keep the men in a job but it is hardly 'green' to run that lorry for a reduced pick up.
IDIOTS!
RoyS.

Answer 5

Our local council give us 4 bins. 1 for domestic waste, 1 for glass, 1 for paper and 1 for garden refuse. They also provide a bag for tins and aluminium foil. The don't, however, provide recycling facilities for cardboard (!) or plastic bottles, so they just end up going in the main bin. I'd like to recycle everything, but it's simply not possible.

Just an additional thought. My daughter had her birthday at the weekend and the amount of packaging from her dolls, accessories and other small presents meant that we completely filled out bin by Tuesday! We must put pressure on manufcturers to reduce the amount of unnecessary packaging!

Answer 6

I have a compulsion about recycling - currently there are thousands of plastic shopping bags in my house [they compress really well], waiting to be sorted by store so I can return them to all the different places. Giant would probably take Safeway bags - I think - but can I risk having them reject my thousands of bags, after I've spent so many years saving them? And clearly the CVS bags are a different kind of plastic, much thicker - can those be recycled at all? What about stains - will I need to check each bag individually, to make sure that they are clean? Will I need to rinse and dry all of them first?

Oh yeah, I regularly recycle plastic [but not milk / yogurt containers - the bacteria makes them unsuitable for recycling] and aluminum cans and glass and newspapers / magazines / junk mail [though that pile is also huge, awaiting sorting, to make sure I don't put in any window envelopes OR any mail from credit cards OR that might contain personal information that could result in identity theft].

And cardboard. I have many boxes from all the eBay purchases I have made, awaiting a trip to the recylcing center. But I think I need to remove all labels and tape and all trace of stickyness from them first, right? Then break them down and tie them up in bundles no larger than some specific dimension, the exact figure I still need to find again, I've printed the rules out a few times but keep losing it among all the recyclables.

Answer 7

I live in central London and we also recycle all of the things that you have mentioned,we have a weekly collection on a Friday,we also have different colored boxes for our recycle,A green box for all paper waist and a purple box for plastic tin glass,i also have a compost wormier for all my kitchen waste,we have been doing this for the past 5 years so just because you have not heard this don't be so judgmental In the UK we care about our country.

Answer 8

Things are improving in Britain. Most local councils are rolling out recycling bins, with chips built in for the weighing of rubbish.

People have been heavily fined for placing incorrect types of rubbish in the wrong bin. This seems a bit harsh when it is a genuine mistake, as it will take a little time to become accustomed to the new system.

Another initiative the government is introducing is putting pressure on supermarkets and their suppliers to package goods more efficiently i.e. use less materials and make them biodegradable.

As for spelling, you could always purchase a dictionary, or if you want to be environmentally friendly, use one at your local library.

Answer 9

I am in the UK and our council supplies us with boxes and bags to recycle Glass, Plastic, Paper, Cardboard, Garden waste and tin cans. Have been doing that for a few years so we are not that backward!
I also take household electrics to the local tip, clothes to the charity shops and have a water butt in the garden along with a compost heap.

In Hampton they also supply you with a waste food bin!!
.

Answer 10

I live in the UK and recycle as much as you. The Government is also considering councils to charge for waste collection by weight.
In principle I agree with this if the element of waste collection is deducted form our council tax bills AND our recylcing is also weighed and then offset against the waste, giving a net weight which we are then charged for.
My next door neighbours recylce absolutely nothing and it pisses me off, I think they should pay for using far more landfill space than I do.
However, I know this won't happen, it will simply be yet another tax.