Recycling

SteveL
SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,303 ✭✭✭
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edited January 2016 in General Chat #1

There was a programme on our local news yesterday about how the recycling percentages in this area of the country were below the national average of 44.8% and it set me thinking about our household average. It would seem the percentages are done on weight rather than cubic metres, or compressed dustbin lorries full. I did not know this as I thought with landfill, volume would be more important than weight. Given that it is weight and we recycle everything we can I would think our summer percentage was well above the national average. However, in the winter we have ash from solid fuel central heating and I would think it doubtful we could reach 10%. Just wonder what percentage others feel they reach?

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  • Metheven
    Metheven Club Member Posts: 3,987 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #2

    Our green bin is 'general' and blue bin is 'recyclable, both of the same size. For us at the end of two weeks at emptying time, the green is about 30% full and the blue is nearly overflowing.

    By that 'scientific' view I would say our recycling comes in at around 70% by volume.

  • rutlandwarrior
    rutlandwarrior Forum Participant Posts: 95
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    edited January 2016 #3

    Both our wheelie bins are the same size so going on alternate collections (they are both full) 50/50 on volume. Having said that the recycling bin is always a lot easier to move so on weight about 70/30

  • redface
    redface Forum Participant Posts: 1,701
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    edited January 2016 #4

    In terms of weight my household probably recycles as much as 80%, volume similarly. This is probably because of the large garden we have, 800sq mtrs or so and the green refuse we get from cutting back, hacking down and generally, tidying the flower beds. 
    All that despite running a monster compost heap 2 x 3 x 1.5mtrs. Takes me a week to dig it out and then refill the uncomposted 1/2.

  • statusMoty1
    statusMoty1 Forum Participant Posts: 225
    edited January 2016 #5

    There was a programme on our local news yesterday about how the recycling percentages in this area of the country were below the national average of 44.8% and it set me thinking about our household average. It would seem the percentages are done on
    weight rather than cubic metres, or compressed dustbin lorries full. I did not know this as I thought with landfill, volume would be more important than weight. Given that it is weight and we recycle everything we can I would think our summer percentage was
    well above the national average. However, in the winter we have ash from solid fuel central heating and I would think it doubtful we could reach 10%. Just wonder what percentage others feel they reach?

  • statusMoty1
    statusMoty1 Forum Participant Posts: 225
    edited January 2016 #6

    ooops meant to add comment, do you put your ash in garden recycle bin? We can't do that with oursMind you sister in law can recycle plastic containers and we can't do that either.

  • Metheven
    Metheven Club Member Posts: 3,987 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #7

    We also have a 'brown' bin for garden waste, obviously in summer this takes mostly grass cuttings as there would be too much green for our small garden composter. So the brown bin has only a small volume for recycling.

    Interestingly it seems there is no standard in the colour of the bins throughout the country:

    For us Blue = recycleable: Brown = Garden waste: Green = general waste.

     

     

  • rogher
    rogher Forum Participant Posts: 609
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    edited January 2016 #8

    I put my green bottles in the green bin and brown ones in the brown one, but I understand it’s different in other parts of the country. It all becomes most confusing when travelling around.

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
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    edited January 2016 #9

    and at work ally drink cans go in one bin, vending machines cups go in another & general waste goes in another. Then the cleaners collect all the different bags & put them all in the
    same skip! Sealed

  • rogher
    rogher Forum Participant Posts: 609
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    edited January 2016 #10

    Our green bin is 'general' and blue bin is 'recyclable, both of the same size. For us at the end of two weeks at emptying time, the green is about 30% full and the blue is nearly overflowing.

    By that 'scientific' view I would say our recycling comes in at around 70% by volume.

     

    There’s a small flaw in your ‘rough’ calculation. Ignoring that the recycle bin is more than full, you recycle 100 out of 100+30. Or about 77%, by volume.

  • rogher
    rogher Forum Participant Posts: 609
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    edited January 2016 #11

    and at work ally drink cans go in one bin, vending machines cups go in another & general waste goes in another. Then the cleaners collect all the different bags & put them all in the
    same skip! Sealed

     

    Probably to save three separate lorries having to collect it. Surprised

  • HelenandTrevor
    HelenandTrevor Forum Participant Posts: 3,221
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    edited January 2016 #12

    We have 3 bins, Blue = Recycling, Brown= Garden & food waste, and Green = general waste. Our council wont collect glass though so we have to take bottles to the bottle bank. Our green bin usually only has one, perhaps two bags in it.

    Our council has a good record on recycling.Smile

    Edit: Our bins are collected fortnightly,one week general, one week recycling & garden/food waste.

  • rogher
    rogher Forum Participant Posts: 609
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    edited January 2016 #13

    I’m rather unsure as to how well any council is doing with their recycling. I fear they are merely “ticking boxes”. I asked mine how it was all going after a year and was told it was going wonderfully well. They don’t want the ‘wrong’ kind of plastic, nor
    window envelopes (for some reason) and I cannot believe that there isn’t a lot of contamination in what they collect. There has been no feedback to help improve matters so I can only conclude that there’s no measurement going on, or it’s still going into landfill. 

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,046 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #14

    The tendering process is the worse thing about our refuse collection. It can change each time it happens. I would like to think we do quite well on recycling though:

    Black bin, general waste. This is collected weekly for us, as garden waste collector cannot reach us, lorry is too big for our road. We are allowed to put garden waste in here as well! But we don't, we compost it, or I put it into a green bin we have acquired,
    and trundle it fortnightly to where garden refuse lorry can reach it! Green waste collection ceases mid November until mid March anyway. (Which as any gardener will tell you is possibly when there is most to clear!Undecided)

    Glass and tins fortnightly, never full, we don't drink much!

    Paper and cardboard, fortnightly. We use most for lighting stove, so usefully recycled. If it gets too much, I have been known to dump packaging at supermarket. Let them deal with it at source, most things are over packaged!

    Plastic is our problem, doesn't get collected so we have to take to recycle centre.

  • Metheven
    Metheven Club Member Posts: 3,987 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #15

    Our green bin is 'general' and blue bin is 'recyclable, both of the same size. For us at the end of two weeks at emptying time, the green is about 30% full and the blue is nearly overflowing.

    By that 'scientific' view I would say our recycling comes in at around 70% by volume.

     

    There’s a small flaw in your ‘rough’ calculation. Ignoring that the recycle bin is more than full, you recycle 100 out of 100+30. Or about 77%, by volume.

    Nooooo! there's a small flaw in your interpretation of my calculation. Out of the 100% volume of what we take to our bins, it is separated 70/30.

    This is the trouble with some posters on this Forum, what starts as 'Recycling' changes into mathematics, no wonder newcomers go away discontented when an attempt to change the topic is made on the first page Undecided

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,303 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #16

    ooops meant to add comment, do you put your ash in garden recycle bin? We can't do that with oursMind you sister in law can recycle plastic containers and we can't do that either.

    No it has to go in the general waste. In this  area you have to pay for a garden waste bin and it is for just garden waste. 

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,303 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #17

     The top document of the link below has a map for England on page 9 which shows percentage recycling by area. I presume there will be similar for Wales and Scotland somewhere. 

     https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-collected-waste-management-annual-results

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #18

    We have four bins, two for different types of recycling plus clothes and shoes, collected every week. A wheelie bin for non recyclables, never really full for the fortnightly collection and a scrap food bin for recycling (but we usually compost veg scraps and rarely have anything else  left over.) We could have a green wheelie bin for garden waste but we don't need it and put everything on a big compost heap and anything hefty that we don't want we trailer to the composting bit of our waste depot.

    Thinking about it we probably have more cardboard and waste paper than anything else, mostly unwanted fliers and food packaging. Sometimes I put that on the compost too! Smile

    edit I see that the paper and cardboard match the stats on SteveL's post.

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited January 2016 #19

    We don't recycle half as much as we could and it appears to be down to political will and locally negotiated contracts. There doesn't appear to be a centrally co-ordinated policy. Equally I know just from the bins on a CC site that there is a significant
    sector of the population just can't be arsed to do it properly anyway. We are probably destined to drown in our own detritus.

  • KjellNN
    KjellNN Club Member Posts: 8,670 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #20

    The council here are keen on recycling, though I don't know how well we are all doing.

    We have a herd of 6 bins sitting outside, 3 green garden ones, a black general one,  and 2 for recycling, one for paper and cardboard and one for glass, plastic and tins

      Each is emptied every second week, thogh we had a letter to say they will be changing something soon, must try to find it!

    The recycling ones are half size, so they are usually quite full, the general one is full size so it takes us at least 4 weeks to fill it.  There is also a little food one but we never have anything to go in that.

    There seems to be so many different schemes, it does get confusing .

  • huskydog
    huskydog Club Member Posts: 5,460 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #21

    Just looked at the government website for recycling and it seems that a large proportion of waste plastic is exported to China , is that really being " green" ????

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
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    edited January 2016 #22

    The answer to most of our waste problems is incineration, and use the heat produced to drive whatever. But we're a nation of NIMBYs so it won't happen and we'll continue to have a multitude bin waggons drive up & down our streets consuming fuel at 5 or 6
    mpg (at best) and as above send our plastic pop bottles to China to be made into pastic 'stuff' & then shipped back here. The rest of the recyclable stuff that doesn't go to land fill counts as credits to your local council

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,303 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #23

    The main problem I see is one of complexity and inconsistency. In our area we only have two main bins, one for General rubbish and one for recycling, everything bar glass and green waste. Glass is collected separately by a charitable organisation and you
    can have a green waste bin if you pay extra, or take it to the centre yourself. At my mums they have 5 bins, one for general, one for glass, one for card and paper, one for plastic and cans and one for food waste. They are all different colours but not the
    same colours as ours in this part of the world. 

  • volvoman9
    volvoman9 Forum Participant Posts: 1,053
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    edited January 2016 #24

    The current rate of recycling where e live is 57% which we are informed is among the best in the UK
    Happy i put this down too the system used by our council of 3 bins only.  All recyled items go in one bin and are sorted at the recycleing
    plant.We have one bin for landfill and one for garden waste which goes too a locol farm to be made into fertiliser.The bins are on a 2week emptying cycle.

    peter.

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #25

    When I looked at the details for our area, the highest general refuse weight came from "struggling families" and "prudent pensioners" and it was sadly mostly food waste. Frown

  • EmilysDad
    EmilysDad Forum Participant Posts: 8,973
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    edited January 2016 #26

    .....  All recyled items go in one bin and are sorted at the recycleing plant. ....

    A 'clean MRF' Wink

  • Nuggy
    Nuggy Forum Participant Posts: 512
    edited January 2016 #27

    Our Council gives a figure of 70% being recycled. We have four bins, green, black, blue and brown. Our Cul de Sac has about 35 houses so on the week when three bins are being collected there are over 100 bins blocking the pavements.

  • paul56
    paul56 Forum Participant Posts: 937
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    edited January 2016 #28

    We have 4 bins plus one white plastic bag (for paper) which are collected fortnightly - grey general water one week and the recyclables the following week.

    Except the green bin for garden waste which is not due to be collected until March 8 as nothing grows during the 'cold' winter months! Hmmmm....

    I am staggered to be honest just how much we do recycle and I hope it is recycled correctly. The bottles and tins should be really easy as should the cardboard (Aldi boxes!)

  • volvoman9
    volvoman9 Forum Participant Posts: 1,053
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    edited January 2016 #29

    I did a quick calculation and 75% of what i throw out goes into my recycle bin which just shows how much can be recycled.I do make sure that everything that can be recycled is recycled.

    peter.

  • Bakers2
    Bakers2 Forum Participant Posts: 8,195 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #30

    We recycle everything we can and in our area we have a good record of recycling.  Mind you it is a tricky business putting out rubbish, as you have to REALLY concentrate. 

    Black bin general rubbish very little for us, green food waste bin always full, not because I waste food but things like melon skin etc takes up a lot of room.  These bins collected weekly.

    Brown bin, we have 2 for garden compost certain times both can be full depending on the amount of hard wood pruning going on.  Green box for cans, bottles and textile, this must be bagged for some reason, and we can also place small electrical items in there
    too,  A sack for cardboard, a sack for paper and a plastic bag to place plastics in, this includes all plastic bottles, lids, yougurt pots, flora type containers, fruit cartons and plastic bags.  These ones are collected alternate weeks, week one brown bin(s)
    cardboard and cans and the following week plastic and paper.  Our brown bins are collected through the year, good job this year with grass cutting still having to be done and there's always plenty of cutting back going on.

    I would say we recycle 85% or more of our household waste at home.  However, because one is never sure about recycling whilst out and about this probably drops.  I always feel that details of what is recyclable on sites should be included clearly in site
    info leaflets so that you can get to grips with what is and isn't required asap as how you collect and store whilst on site is vitally important before your first trip to the bin area.

  • Bakers2
    Bakers2 Forum Participant Posts: 8,195 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2016 #31

    Forgot to add that at work paper and cardboard is recycled.  In the staff room we operate a recycling system as per our home collections and those who drive in, and are lucky enough to have a car parking space Surprised take it home and put it with their household recycling.  So I'd like to think we try our best.

    Good to see our area is in the 50% plus sector Laughing

    I do agree with cyberyacht about club sites and people not bothering to make an effort.