How Can I recycle more?

[backtoschoolmummy]

A thread on chat about the amount of rubbish people have per week has shamed me inspired me into coming here and asking this.

Very embarassed about admitting this! We get through one/two black bin bags of rubbish a day, DH has to go to the tip every sunday to get rid of it all.

Our bin is collected every two weeks and is usually overflowing. The only recycling we have is our brown bin for garden waste, food and cardboard and the blue box for paper. Oh and a black box for glass but it's tiny!

Any tips on how we could recyle more?

DH says recyling is a total waste of time but I am working on him!

I've tried the whole "Don't you care about your children and your fututre grandchildren?"
His response:
"No, i'll be dead by then" Is he a lost cause?

[Scootergrrrl]

When your recycling box is full, do you just put it into the main bin?

[throckenholt]

if you are going to the tip then surely you can separate out stuff for recycling there ? We are only allowed one black bag of general rubbish at the tip each week.

You should be able to collect glass, times, tin foil, cardboard, paper and envelopes, some take tetrapaks etc

Have you sat down and worked out what it is you are actually throwing away ?

If you collect it all up and take it to the tip when you are passing once every few weeks that should help.

[Takver]

What is most of your rubbish (IYSWIM) - any way of avoiding getting it in the first place? Could you play it to your DH as saving money if there were things you could avoid buying?

[ChopsTheDuck]

I don't understand how you can have 1-2 black bags a day of rubbish if you are recycling food, paper, card and glass?

You could also recycle plastic bottles, tins/cans and tetra packs, save milk bottle lids for charity, reuse plastic containers as much as possible. (e.g. I save yoghurt pots for seedlings)

If he is going to the tip every week, he might as well take recycling rather than rubbish to landfill. Would your council supply extra bins if you asked? Ours will happily supply extra green boxes.

[AMumInScotland]

Is it plastic bottles making up the bulk? If so, you should be able to take them to the dump to recycle, or possibly a recycling centre at a supermarket. We found they made a huge difference to the volume of rubbish we were generating.

Obviously, the better answer is not to buy things in plastic bottles, but I haven't managed to achieve much on that front!

If you look around and find out what you can recycle easily in your area, then hopefully you'll be able to make a change with a minimum amount of work. You may need a second bin or container of some sort in your kitchen to make it easy top separate out the recycling - we have a thing with 4 wire baskets, which is easy to use.

[backtoschoolmummy]

DH did a tip run this morning on his way to work and now I am starting a new week and a new mindset. I am going to recycle as much as I can!

throckenholt - No idea what tetrapak is

Today so far I have recycled:

• Food waste from lunch prep

I have binned:
The coffee filter I used for my coffee - No idea if I could recycle this or not

• The empty sachet of cat food from feeding the cat
• Dishwasher tablet little package it comes wrapped in

[throckenholt]

tetrapak - milk cartons, fruit juice cartons etc.

[AMumInScotland]

Tetrapak is like juice cartons or milk cartons - some places can recycle them.

Coffee grounds and paper filters (I think) could be composted in your garden, but I'm not allowed to put them into my garden waste bin so I think it varies by area whether they take them or not.

Sachets - not usually recyclable, ditto most plastic wrapping.

[Takver]

25 kg bag of dried catfood? (Cheaper brands usually paper sacks so can then go in recycling.)
Big tub of dishwasher powder?
Is your coffee filter made of paper? If so, it can go in the compost with food waste.

[SkaterGrrrrl]

That is a lot of rubbish. Try to stop putting food waste in the rubbish - compost it or get a food wste bin from your council. Makes your bins less smelly too.

We only put out one bag of rubbish a week.

As for your DH, make him watch "An inconvenience truth"!

[SkaterGrrrrl]

inconvenient

[backtoschoolmummy]

Thanks for advice everyone.