Council to reduce recycling collections to every three weeks

Whenever I visit London I'm struck by the piles of clear plastic bags cluttering up the pavement awaiting collection. That's the sort of place I had in mind, if at the expense of a few parking spaces.

That's a cool video! Does look like a great idea for city garbage collection. Don't think it would work so well where I live, too hilly with narrow streets. But perhaps would cut down on some of the issues especially in densely-populated areas, although you'd need some way for disabled people to get their rubbish to the bins.

Best bit was the musical garbage collectors in Taiwan, though, like ice cream vans! 😂

Personally I'd prefer the Dutch approach, where one can drop rubbish off at leisure, with no need to remember collection dates and no need to have wheelie bins or kerbside bags cluttering the place up.

Four-weekly landfill here. I'm on my own and it doesn't even come to a fifth of the bin.

I do try to avoid as much packaging as possible.

We are on weekly for recycling and black bags, I think food and garden is less often and not all year round. I now put fruit/veg in a bag for my friends compost heap, and any garden waste I just shove in a black bag. We can't have wheelie bins so can put out as many black bags as we want.

Everyone locally has small size bins (not uk), and I haven’t ever seen bins overflowing or people complaining.
I try and buy loose produce if possible, in summer we grow a lot so no packaging on that. Things like tomato passata and yogurt, milk bottles, any juice I buy in glass (can return most bottles for glass return money here in supermarkets), and the other glass to bottle bank.

This is where british supermarkets are an issue, not british consumers. Loose produce is increasingly less available or much poorer quality than packaged. Yoghurt and milk aren't widely avaliable in glass packaging and glass return money isn't a thing. Im guessing you might be in france.

Our climate & typically tiny gardens mean most people can't grow that much at home.

We are on 2 weeks. Won't everyone need bigger bins then?

I'm very impressed you know what percentage of people in UK have an insinkerator. I suppose I live in a fairly affluent area and obviously a kind of bubble. Now I know!

Around 50% of UK households have a dishwasher and yes we do, it's a fairly common labour and water saving device, hardly unattainably aspirational for most people. The circles I mix in are what most of MN would consider 'a bit rough' and 'people we'd rather not live near or mix with'.

Only about 6% of households have an insinkerator so you'd only have to know a very limited type/amount of people to think everyone had one, probably only in larger houses in rural areas with septic tanks as that's the only circumstances where I'd imagine anyone would have one.

@enchantedsquirrelwood that's a nuance I was unaware of, and explains a great deal!

Hampshire is also proposing this. But of course it would, because IT doesn't need to deal with fly-tipping.

The district councils have to deal with fly-tipping but don't get a say on whether the tips get closed or not.

I've not even heard of them. If you mean waste disposal units, we had one when I was a child, but it wasn't installed. It sat in a box. Maybe my parents got one and then realised it would block the pipes and didn't know what to do with it. My dad worked in the electric industry so maybe he was given it or got it cheap -for a reason-

I agree the supermarkets should take more responsibility - also manufacturers who suddenly decide to use non-eco-friendly packaging - eg Heinz. Beans come in tins which are infinitely recyclable. So why on earth would you suddenly sell them in plastic tubs? The supermarkets should laugh and refuse to stock them! Same goes for fruit in tubs - tinned fruit is fine.

Not sure what you mean by that and give me a break.. have you got a dishwasher? If so what kind of circles do you mix in?

https://cebasolutions.co.uk/waste-disposal-units-guidance-via-ceda/#:~:text=Waste%20disposal%20units%20have%20long,be%20used%20in%20this%20way.

this legislation seems to say food waste disposal systems are no longer allowed to be used in uk

Ours is a 3 weekly cycle.

we have 4 bins - green (food & garden), grey (general), black (glass & tins), blue (paper)

week 1 - green & blue
week 2 - green & grey
week 3 - green & black

works fine, grey (general) bit is smaller than the others.

I'm wondering what sort of circles @ohthejoys21 moves in if she thinks 'everyone' in the UK has an in-sinkerator.

According to Grand Designs magazine (is your DH Kevin McLoud @ohthejoys21?) it's estimate that 6% of homes in the UK have them

https://www.granddesignsmagazine.com/kitchen/waste-disposal-units/

I’ve never known anyone have one. Our kitchen is quite new.

Our blue bin (paper/card) and green bin (glass/plastic/metal) are 4 weekly
brown bin (food) 2 weekly
grey bin (non recyclable) 3 weekly.

been like that a few years now.

This is very odd. Why wouldn't they ban them then in the UK if they clog up the pipes? I've just asked my dh who says lots of houses don't have them, so my apologies.

In-sink erators are illegal across most of Europe unless you have your own septic tank. I actually think they're super popular in the states because having your own septic tank is extremely common. They are extremely uncommon in older cities though, like NYC and were illegal until the late 90s.
The older communal plumbing is just not designed for it. Even in the countryside, most of Europe is plugged into communal plumbing. I'm not saying they don't exist, but its really not that common to have a septic tank now, even if a property relied on one before.
Plus England already has a huge issue with sewage going into our waters. We don't need to add compostable food waste to that too

I'm in the UK and have never, ever seen a modern kitchen without an in-sink erator

Are you sure? I don't know anyone who has one and have never seen one, except on US films/TV usually because someone has had their hand ripped off by one.

They weren't in any of the brochures when we had our kitchen redone a few years ago and I'm not even sure that UK water systems are designed to deal with the kitchen drain being used for food waste - after all we're constantly being told about the problem of fat bergs and told not to put anything except the five Ps into our toilets, which all ends up in the same place.

I don't understand. I'm in the UK and have never, ever seen a modern kitchen without an in-sink erator

Do you live in posh parts? No-one I know has one.