Who else finds recycling in England impossible?

Question

Buying food brings alot of unecessary packaging, papers and plastics etc. My area still has waste collections weekly. No one has told me of any local sites or anyone that collects, paper, plastics, cans etc...and I don't have a car. That waste collection every two weeks is unhygienic and the council only want to scrounge money for their cheif executive fat cat salaries.

Answer 1

spend less time moaning and conjouring up conspiracies and more time thinking of the environment

if you dont know what to recycle and where call your council...and why are you moaning about 2 weekly collection after your saying your still weekly. it does work if the people can be ar*ed people like you aim to make it go wrong to moan some more

Answer 2

Lots got green bins round me in Leeds,after Emailing

refuse department saying then had missed me and a few more,told me in eight weeks i would get one, 7 months

later still no poxy bin,so i will still put all rubbish in black

  bin without  a second thought.

Answer 3

I think it's a great idea, and I definately try my best with it, but I live in a family of 4 and the amount of recyclable waste we produce cannot be contained by the boxes they give us. We've called up the local council on a few occasions and asked them to get some more boxes out to us. They've told us that they were on their way several times, but we still haven't had anything. We then bought another crate of our own and filled that up, but when we put it outside on collection day, the councils crates were emptied, but they didn't touch ours. I got back on the phone to the council and asked them why, and they said that the bin men weren't insured to handle anything other than the blue council bins. Rediculous. As much as I try my best, the council seems to want to make it as hard as possible. Feel like just smashing the crates up sometimes, and putting everything in the bin!

Answer 4

I think it varies by local authority.  With us everything can be recycled.  But I agree about the unnecessary packaging.

Answer 5

I recycle via the council-supplied bin everything that falls within their guidelines. The trouble comes because they make it so complicated; this type of plastic but not that, catalogues and directories, but not yellow pages, remove labels, (plastic) bottle lids and so on. Although I persevere, I feel sometimes that it is too much trouble. We have no trouble with hygiene, and the bins are collected by a contractor

Answer 6

I agree.  I never actually recycled until I moved to Canada - I once threw a plastic bottle in the trash and my GF, who is far from green, chastised me like a small child!!!  

The difference is that because people aren't used to recycling over in the UK, the mass mindset isn't strong enough for change.  Until sorting recycling becomes something that is done as force of habit then people just won't bother doing it.

Answer 7

I agree that there may be problems in councils, just as there are in all organisations.  To me, a collection every two weeks makes more sense because it means less wear on the vehicles, fewer vehicles and less fuel is used, all of which seems a good thing to me.  Also, if there is a health risk from less frequent waste collection, that is a reason to produce less waste.  It would help not to buy products that use excessive packaging, and this can be done, although plastic film seems to be a major problem here.

Thinking about buying food, well, i go to local fruit and veg shops and the market and buy food with no packaging at all, but i do buy pulses, cereals and other products in large plastic bags, which i find really annoying, and i buy oil in plastic or glass bottles, which is as bad.  There is also the occasional jar and margarine carton, which i tend to reuse but not always.  The worst thing i do is buy tinned food, partly because my son refuses to eat anything but baked beans.  Paper i reuse as toilet paper to some extent, but it also sometimes goes in the compost and i plan to make it into bricks for burning when we get the fireplaces sorted out.  It's also possible to melt some plastics into blocks in the oven if you know what you're doing.  That should probably be the next step.

Answer 8

No, fortnightly recycling works for me. I put out my crates of glass/cans/textiles and paper and they are collected by the council. The only problem I have is that the council won't collect plastic or cardboard.

You will find that most supermarkets will have some sort of recycling facilities.

Answer 9

I find recycling easy, we have a recycling box that is collected every two weeks by the council and is recycled. If the box gets full before then we take it to our local supermaket and use the bins provided there.

I don't have a car but since I'm going to the supermarket anyway I take a bag or two with me on the bus, and I find it's good excercise.

Answer 10

its not in our area

they concerntrate to much on recyling

we have three wheelie bins

a green one ofr household waste

a brown one for garden waste that can be decomposed etc

and a grey one for recyling plastics, paper, cardboard, glass etc

it all seems to much and apparently they want to bring more bins in

Answer 11

EVERY council collects recycling from your doorstep - either on a weekly or fortnightly basis - newspapers, cars, glass jars and bottles.  A list of what they will take is available from them upon request.

A lot of the big supermarkets have big recycling bins in their car parks for newspapers, glass and tins.  Ask a friend who does drive if they will give you a lift every couple of weeks with your recycling.