Is it a green act to drive to a recycling centre?

Question

Can't you have your own bottle bank outside of your front door,Kimmy - no-one would notice I'm sure!

Answer 1

I walk past the recycling bins in our local supermarket's carpark on a daily basis and there is usually someone there unctiously greening away. The odd phenomena is that while they are doing that they always leave the car engine running.

Answer 2

mine is a very good walk so you i drive

Answer 3

It would be GREENER to limit your trips to the recycling center or to go with a neighbor (car pooling).  Obvisouly, if you do not have curbside pickup , you have to drive to it!  However,  Instead of going every week -try going every other week.

Good question!  Shows your thinking about your whole footprint.

Answer 4

i recycle in  a very green  way    , they  collect mine on the same day as  my rubbish ,   easy  peasy  , however   people still won't  do it  ,its   just  sheer  laziness   , they should get  fined  for not recycling  x

Answer 5

I do not think it is,but wait for it. I know one local authority which  

officially anyway will not accept people on foot at their recycling depot. Fortunately the staff have more since than the authority

which I will not name in case some wally after a promotion tries to put a stop to it

Answer 6

I've often thought about that and thankfully I live a few miles from our recycling center. We also do not have trash pickup in our neighborhood. I take it about once a month plus any items I am putting in the "community share spot". I know I could pay for a service to pick up my trash/recyclables once week, but how much gas would that waste (for them)? Also, a few of us neighbors load up trash and make one trip for about 3-4 houses. This doesn't always happen but we try as often as possible.

Answer 7

you don't suggest we walk there, do you?

Answer 8

depends on the drive you are thinking.... but yes it is

Answer 9

LOL. Can I take that and use it against hippies?

Answer 10

Haaaa Haaaa...good question Joan...I had never really looked at it like that...but I could never carry all the wine bottles to the recycling bins...so I have to go in the car...and I usually do it under the cover of darkness...so people cant see how many I ACTUALLY have.......

Answer 11

Depends on what kind of vehicle you drive there in.

Answer 12

if your car runs on  biofuel yes.

Answer 13

Hardly but I guess if you took a real car load it would help. Our local authority in Exeter is very good at helping with recycling garden waste it costs £20 per year but is well worth it and saves a few car trips to recycling. They then compost the whole lot.  They are pretty good at taking away small items too. It is worth looking into.

Answer 14

Well if you have curbside pickup there is only that vehicle polluting.I would think that it would be almost impossible to get to a recycling centre without the use of a vehicle.So one vehicle  for curbside pickup  vs. many cars for indiviual drop off, I guess the answer is a definite maybe.

Answer 15

Probably not, but how else are you goning to get there?

They are always out of town. Even if there was public transport there I can just imagine the reaction of the bus driver when you try getting on with the last month's worth of empty bottles and paper.

Answer 16

we got our own one in the village gets picked up once a month.

Answer 17

Not really but many people don't have a choice.  I guess if you are already going to where you can recycle it's greener than making a special trip.  I do my recycling at the supermarket and take it all when I got to do my grocery shop.

Answer 18

Charis is quite right - don't drive miles (or anywhere) with a small load, whether or not your car uses bio-fuel, the latter is may be better for the environment but there's not enough land in the world to grow enough bio-fuel to replace oil in any case.

Best of all, go to a local Council meeting & ask what they are doing about collecting green waste, plastics, cans, paper - basically anything that is not collected now. There are some things that would be too awkward (e.g. used motor oil, bulky items etc) but most every-day items should be collected regularly.  Our Council takes all of the above, I only have to take glass to the local bottle bank once every few weeks (when passing anyway, of course).

In Europe (incl UK!) all Councils are being forced to reduce the tonnage of waste going to landfill, or our Council Tax bills are going to go even further through the roof. Whether you vote in the Local Elections or not, go & hold your Council to account - in the UK you'll find District Councils (they're the ones responsible for collecting the waste) will allow members of the public to ask questions at their meetings.

Answer 19

Lol, good question. Yes, usually, as long as you are sensible and don't drive miles just to take one bag full. You can make it greener by:

Make more use of it. For example take old magazines with you and donate to the Dentist or Doctors or hospital so that they can be read again.

Don't buy it in the first place.

Stop all junk mail by writing to mail preference service

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/

Finding a recycling centre that is somewhere already on your route to somewhere else. Many supermarkets have recycling facilities in the UK.

Collecting a lot of items together before taking them to be recycled. So fill your boot rather than taking one bag.

Recycle more! We can now recycle lots of things from old spectacles to disused oil. Even old clothes are taken, if they can not be resold then they are recycled . The fibres are shredded and can be made into new clothes.

Answer 20

Depends how much energy you're using up (ie, how far you're driving, and in what vehicle) vs. how much you're saving (how much material you're taking to the centre in that trip, and what kind).  You can save up your recycling and/or carpool with another recycler so that the trips are more efficient and green.

Answer 21

lol.  good question.  the act of driving there is not green.

Answer 22

Ha Ha joan...guess not really.  I'm lucky where I live coz my council are really hot on Recycling and we have bins for all sorts of things which are collected on the same day as the normal non recyclable rubbish

Answer 23

no it wouldn't be - they collect our recyclable stuff weekly but only empty the bins fortnightly

Answer 24

PMSL, my fella says exactly the same thing, we recycle paer/cardboard at home, we have a bin that the council empty, same with harden waste, I walk with any glass to the glass recycling centre up the road, plastic and cans are another story though, we have about a 10min drive to the nearest recycling centre for them, though to be fair I try to get these recycled when we have to go in that direction anyway!