how much waste does your household produce in a week?

[Divastrop]

in terms of bin bags/recycling boxes(?)full?

i am just wondering as i have no recycling boxes yet,and we currently fill our wheelie bin 4 days after the refuse collection.i have seen the boxes though and they look pretty small,so i cant see the superfluos bin bags(which get ripped apart by seagulls)issue being resolved.

but i am willing to listen to waste-reducing advice as long as it doesnt involve cloth nappies

[Tiggerish]

lots less since we started composting

[Frizbe]

Do we count as a family of 5?
We have compost bin for fruit, veg, the odd egg box, garden waste, teabags, coffee grinds, and some egg shells.
Cardboard goes in a bag
Paper goes in a bag
Tins and Foils in a box
Glass in another box

and the rest in the big normal wheelie bin (nappies and plastic) The big bin is usually chocka with plastic and tetra pak at the end of the two week period, so it does encourage you to try and shop more locally (ie meat from butcher in a small bag, rather than tray from supermarket)

[Divastrop]

should have mentioned that we dont have a garden so composting is not an option.

[WendyWeber]

Well until the binmen apparently recycled our old dustbin (just a little green one, it vanished one bin-day, I don't know what it said to them) we managed quite well just with it, and that was with 5-6 of us (no babies any more though - if we still had one in disposable nappies we would generate a lot more)

We recycle paper, cardboard, glass, plastic & aluminium. In theory we compost too, but we only have a little concrete yard and the weather last summer didn't lend itself to planting so the compost bin has been full for months, but anyway we only generate the equivalent of one small black binbag a week...

[LaComtesse]

My parents generate a sack of rubbish every day near enough and this is with two recycling boxes for paper/glass/plastic bottles. I'm not sure how they do it - I don't have nearly as much rubbish. If our borough took cardboard from the kerbside, I'm sure this would go down a bit more plus if Mum remembered to recycle tin cans instead of binning them.

[Divastrop]

i think the majority of our waste is nappies and cardboard food packaging.maybe tin cans as well as we have 2 cats.

i imagine it will be better when dd2 is out of nappies,at least there will only be one lot of nappies then.

dh says the council never collect the recycling boxes

[sorkycake]

We are a family of 5 who use cloth nappies and have a bokashi for food scraps. Recycle most things and throw away one bag of rubbish per week.

I'm constantly on the look out for ways to reduce this but it's proving pretty hard.

[HuwEdwards]

Family of 4

We compost (carefully to deter rats )
The council gives us boxes to recycle plastic milk containers and galss and paper

Our wheelie bin is never full - about half full each week.

[SoupDragon]

You can recycle the cat food tins for a start!

[SoupDragon]

Even with BabyDragon still in nappies and SoupKitten eating us out of house and home, our bin is never more than half full.

[LyraSilvertongue]

Family of 4.
1 50l bag of rubbish.
At least two recycling boxes per fortnight.

[sorkycake]

cardboard can be recycled and takes up quite a lot of room in a bin

[Aero]

Family of five

Today was our rubbish/re-cycling collection day and we put out one black bag and two blue recycling boxes full of paper, foil, tins and plastic bottles. We also are given blue bags for extra recycling if we fill the blue boxes.

We regularly take glass to a recycling point.

[maidamess]

I am ashamed at the amount of rubbish we produce (5 of us) and we recycle loads. At least 7 bin bags outside my house on bin day .

[137wallis]

family of 7, we have fortnightly collections, and an extra large bin, as we have two in nappies, although we use cloth part time! and we easily fill our bin every fortnight, we also have a wheelie bin for recycling, which we also fill every fortnight, we sometimes have extra blue boxes of recycling also.
we are lucky as we can recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, foil, tins etc and we have a green waste wheelie bin too, and a composter, it does make me cross when food is overpackaged though!

[ListersSister]

Family of 5, one in disposable nappies.

We have the smallest-size wheelie bin - generally use about 1/3rd of it a week - ie about 1 bin bag full.

We compost in the garden.

We pay to have a company take our recycling weekly. We fill 2 boxes, as they take paper, cardboard, glass, tins, foil, tetra packs, plastics, plus odd things like batteries.

Our council does fortnightly recycling but we just don't have space to store it all for a fortnight.

We certainly produce less rubbish than our neighbours who have smaller households, so we must be doing something right - altho I am no lentil-weaver I have to admit

[chopchopbusybusy]

maidamess is that per week?

I suppose it depends what facilities your local council provide. I think ours is good. We have a bin for cardboard, all food waste and soft garden waste collected weekly. Newspaper, glass, cans and plastic (bottle shaped only), collected fortnightly and normal bin bags for everything else, collected weekly.

[Miaou]

Family of six, two in (washable) nappies. We fill half a bin once a week (I forgot to put the bin out one week and by the following week we could still close the lid!)

Tins/paper recycled in a box, which takes us about three/four weeks to fill. Glass we take to the bank ourselves - mostly (ahem ) wine bottles ) - once a month or so.

Our secret - don't buy much packaged food, no takeaways, washable nappies, read newspapers online

[narkymum]

I was proud to put out half a bag this week was shocked to see students next door put out seven!!!!!!!!!!! we do all the above fill fout boxes only thing is because i childmind i have other peoples nappies i do offer a discount for using washables was thinking of sending their used disposables home with them

[narkymum]

good on you riven

[sweetgrapes]

Family of 4:
1 always in nappies, 1 nappies night time.

2 black bags. (Half a wheelie bin)
1 recycle box of cardboard/paper
1 recycle box of tins

Peelings etc in the compost.

[Divastrop]

hi sorky

riven-thats a good idea!sometimes the amount of packaging is stupid.i will be more aware of what is over-packaged when i am shopping next week.

ive never thought about any of this before,its only because weve been having the seagull problem that its become an issue.i suppose caring about the environment immediatly ouside my home is a start...

i am remembering more bulky things,such as the 6pt milk containers(we get through 4-6 pts milk a day).the only glass i use are coffee jars.when i used to drink wine i took the bottles to the bottle bank(there were usually lots).

[ChopsTheDuck]

Ive got four boxes and a recycling bin. We are allowed to order extra for free.
I fill 2/3 boxes with cardboard and paper, 1/4 of the bin with bottles and cans and one full green bin with waste a fortnight. Bottles and glass go seperately.
I still have one in nappies day and night, and one for nightime only. I'm not sure where the bulk of our rubbish comes from, I recycle everythign I can, and we don't have barely any food waste.

[Loshad]

Family of 6, compost/feed to animals all food waste/peelings. Glass/tin/paper recycling boxes always full at end of fortnight. Take to tip when passing milk cartons and juice tetrapaks, so wheelie bin is usually under half full.