Can you recyle everything you use for a week!!?

Question

i was wondering if any one has tried this as i was appalled to see that i had 10 black bags of rubbish this week for the bin men. and i told my wife that we HAD to reduced this, so apart from essentails we will recycle everything we can. obviously nappies are being binned but not much else.

let me know if anyone knows of anything that cannot be recycled as i will stear clear.

give your thoughts and any suggestions on how else to reduced household waste.

Answer 1

Do you compost too?  We find that most of the stuff goes to recycling, and the rest of it in compost, our main waste is fortnightly and we find we'll only have one bag of it, maybe one and a half.

Find yourself a nice little compost pot and it'll make you feel like a total eco-warrier!

Answer 2

Everything can be recycled it`s just that the local councils haven`t got the sytems set up to do it.

Answer 3

Surely the most obvious way to ensure maximum recycling is to legislate that every form of packaging that is used in the UK must be made from re-cycle able substances. If we hope to address the environmental issues then responsibility must start from the point of manufacture, not passed on as a responsibility or expense to the consumer.

drippub

Answer 4

Agree with the prodigal son - I do my best, but there is simply no facility with my local council to do so.

Answer 5

Although its not possible to recycle everything, (eg certain types of plastics, perhaps cooked food waste), we can all do more to increase our recycling rates. I put out one bag for landfill every fortnight.

Paper, glass, cans and plastic bottles (polymers 1, 2 and 3 - see base of container for no.) are collected. Cardboard, green rubbish, wood, etc has to be taken to the bulky household refuse site 2 miles away. I always make sure I have a full car load.

Answer 6

I would recycle most things too. Except the recycle men don't take plastics yet, and its a trouble when we buy cartoons of juice etc with a plastic lining in them! But everything else is recycled.

It's pretty easy doing it once you get into habit of thinking which goes into the recycle bin.

Answer 7

My 2 kids & I throw out one black bag a week, max. The rest is recycled. I'm horrified that you threw out 10 bags of rubbish so yes, please, try to recycle as much as possible.☺

Answer 8

you cant recycle everything because there are materials that cant be recycled.

Answer 9

ALL FAMILIES ARE DIFFERENT. MINE CONSISTS OF ME MY WIFE AND A 17 YEAR OLD SON. WE ONLY PUT OUR WHEELIE BIN OUT EVERY THREE OR FOUR WEEKS.

ALL CANS GO INTO THE CAN CRUSHER AND BAGGED. PLASTIC AND GLASS BOTTLES KEPT SEPARATELY AND NEWSPAPERS PUT IN THE HUT. WE ARE LUCKY TO HAVE A CAR AND MY WIFE CALLS AT THE RECYCLING PLANT WHEN SHE DOES OUR WEEKLY SHOP. IF YOU HAVE A LARGER ,YOUNGER FAMILY WITH NO CAR IT MUST BE HARD TO DO ALL THIS.

Answer 10

I recycle most things but what my rubbish bin is always full of is plastic wrapping. Whether its from wrapped junk mail or wrapped food from Tesco or from around toys after Xmas, I really don't know what to do with it.

Answer 11

Your answer will depend on how you define "recycle".  First, a lot of people confuse reuse and recycle.  Multiple reuse can be even more effective than recycling, but in the end, recycling is God's plan.  Look at the Earth - everything is made to recycle - we breathe air the dinosaurs breathed and drink water they drank... and processed!  People gum it up by thinking of things as disposable, which is a somewhat of a joke.  The only things we've truly disposed of are those things shot out into space.  Everything else sits here and rots and disintegrates (sometimes very slowly) and sometimes poisons things around it as it does so.  So anyway, back to recycling: 1) We don't yet engineer everything to be recyclable, therefore many things aren't.  But possibly they can be reused and at least reduce their impact on the Earth.  2) Even things that are supposed to be recyclable aren't.  For example: If there isn't a nearby glass factory or other industry using cullet (broken glass pieces) recycling glass will not be cost efficient, and therefore not happen, even though glass is just about the perfect recyclable material.  3) Even things that are supposed to get recycled don't: Ex. You put your newspapers out in a curbside bin or your kid's school dumpster for recycling and it rains - newsprint becomes close to useless once it is wet.  Therefore, a lot of things that people think are getting recycled, aren't - they simply get dumped in a landfill in a backdoor kind of way.

So, if you define recycling as you participation in a curbside program you may or may not actually be recycling.  Depends on if the waste hauling company can make a profit on what the citizens are sticking in the bins and whether or not it is more profitable to recycle it or just dump it.

Keep trying, though.  Recycling is truly the only way to live.  If God planned things that way I can't see any way to make an improvement on the process!  And DO compost as much as you can - especially if you have a large lawn and are OCD about keeping it mowed.  See if there is a way to recycle those clippings back into the Earth where they belong.

Answer 12

Speaking honestly I really do try my very best,

But there are some things that are just not practicable.

Thank you :)

Sal UK I have that problem too there's no facilities.

Anything and everything that can be recycled is in my house.