how is your landfil bin? ours has barely anything in it

[MrsLargeEmbodied]

we now have a local op with plastic recycling
we have other usual recycling, cardboard, glass
we pay for garden waste collection
we do not have a food waste recycling so that would help even more
our landfill bin has barely anything in it, dog poo is a large culprit, that and vegetable peelings, tea bags

there are only 2 of us in the house now so we are just getting used to it

Always full.

I've seen the soft plastic in at our local co op, what type of plastic can I put in it? Bread bags, torn carrier bags, plastic containers from ham, mince?

@BattledoreAndShuttlecock

Sadly most Uk water authorities tell you not to flush pet poo because their treatment plants can't kill toxoplasmosis.

Not to mention kitchen roll should never be put down the toilet.

Soft plastic bin that should say

MOrT,I think It was called "doggy Dooly" you had to dig quite a deep pit,it came with solution which it said was none toxic to environment pets etc,we had 3, dogs 2 border collies and a toy. None of them 'toilet" on walks,it never biodegraded as it said it would. We used to take it to the nearest doggy bin. Now, it's allowed in general waste. Our council recycle just about everything

It’s empty, it was emptied yesterday
We have 4 bins on a fortnightly schedule
Week 1 is non recyclable
Week 2 is paper/ cardboard
Glass/ tins
Garden waste
There is only 2 of us and it works for us

We only get 2 black bin bags collected a fortnight. We always put 2 out, but they aren't full to the max. There are 2 of us.
Our biggest load of 'waste' by a mile is our plastic recycling and I'm confident most of it ends up in landfill.

In my landfill bin it gets filled up of stuff you can't recycle like plastic film on top of plastic containers.

But tetra pacs and other plastics are now recycled as well as the plastic bags you can recycle at supermarkets.

I also reuse more plastic pots for things - e.g. jelly and rice pudding pots I save and use to make low calorie jelly in.

@Jellycatrabbit

Ours has reduced since the supermarket started doing soft plastic recycling, although like pps I wish we brought less plastic into the house. We compost and use reusable nappies.

Landfill waste is mainly yucky cheese wrappers, ice cream sticks, tissues, pill packs, the odd breakage from the kitchen.

I keep buying proper handkerchiefs but just can't get on with them even though we use cloth wipes for the dc.

@Jellycatrabbit - you can recycle pill packs at Superdrug, just collect them up and drop off when you have a carrier bagful.

I am guilty of using paper tissues rather than a cloth one but I don't do what DM does which is kitchen towel for everything.

I even bought for DM and for me those reusable washable cloths you can use to wipe with.

3 adults here , normal sized bin gets emptied fortnightly and it’s usually about 1/2 full , our recycling bin is always full to bursting after a fortnight and that is a larger bin .

@Ohshitiveturnedintomymother

It’s great that so much landfill is now being recycled, but I think people overlook the fact that plastic recycling is still not great and that the next goal should be cutting back on single use plastics. Is it ok that recycling bins are full of plastic? Surely the aim should be to cut down the amount we use so that it isn’t produced in the first place? Eg bread wrappers etc, yes it’s good that coop etc now recycle these but should bread need to be in plastic full stop? Same with veg bags for fresh fruit and veg. In an ideal world the majority of fruit and veg would be sold loose and we would take our own bags to the supermarket to put these in. Something to think about in terms of waste and recycling etc. We had a period where our council suspended recycling collections and green bins were overflowing with drinks bottles etc that ok were in the recycling but shouldn’t need to be made in the first place! It’s all oil and chemicals being used to make them even if they are being recycled afterwards.

@Ohshitiveturnedintomymother - you can make your own bread or independent bakers often use paper wrappings for it.

A big thing in my area is there are now a few refill shops - but they refill everything from cereal, flour, oils, washing up/washing clothes liquids etc. I've used them a couple of times but not all. It's a shame the local farmer's market is more expensive than e.g. the supermarket for e.g. fruit and veg due to packaging used. I am trying this year though to grow things like potatoes, blueberries, bell peppers, courgettes etc. The larger supermarkets before Covid did an eco friendly bit of selling smaller plastic bags you could put loose fruit and veg in rather than use their packaging.

A few years ago - I recall Fairy washing clothes liquid sold a huge recyclable plastic pouch of their liquid but it was popular for a year or so but then they stopped it. Why?!

www.coop.co.uk/environment/soft-plastics

for someone who was asking

Full as only collected every 3 weeks
We also have a dog as well as not all plastic packaging etc is taken and other general rubbish that isn't taken either

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER your not supposed to put it down the loo and its very different to human

Plus pretty sure our neighbour uses ours as kept all together in a back alley
Mine is a bit more full this week as awaiting a new food bin as mine broke as the men just chuck them

@gonnagetgoing thank you i shall save up my pill packs!

Re bread, I make my own and the only waste generated is the paper bags from the bread. I do wonder though how efficient it is in terms of energy use for me to bake (and freeze) a batch of 4 loaves compared to the supermarket baking 150 (or however many they really do). Dont like supermarket bread though so not planning to stop on an energy use basis.

I like the refill shops but don't have the right sort of bags/boxes/etc to buy lentils, flour, etc so just use it for cleaning products atm. Seems a bit mad to buy hard plastic instead of paper although I guess it would pay off in the long term.

@stairgates

I've seen the soft plastic in at our local co op, what type of plastic can I put in it? Bread bags, torn carrier bags, plastic containers from ham, mince?

www.recyclenow.com/recycle-an-item/crisp-packets

@stairgates
This is the website that had all the local information I needed on it. Our local Tesco and Co-op have collection points.

Interesting about the Superdrug pill packet recycling. Wish there was one near us, so will have to do a search for somewhere else that may take them.

i have just checked and our landfill does actually go to make energy!
so that is good

i thought you could recycle blister packs?

@pigear

We have 3 ferrets cleaned out daily, a chinchilla with a fungal infection so his substrate is being cleaned out more often and can't go in brown bin, 2 cats, one with stage 1 kidney failure who is weeing for England in the cat litter tray and 2 dogs.

So even with the 3 humans recycling everything we possibly can including soft plastic at Tesco, pill packets at Superdrug and toothpaste tubes and toothbrushes at the dentist, we cannot manage with a fortnightly collection. Made worse one week when our bin which i could move to the kerb was apparently too heavy to be emptied so each week i now worry over whether it will be too heavy and won't be emptied!!

Do you have a garden? This is crying out for a compost heap for the ferrets and chinchilla at least, and probably the cat litter (with poo removed) if you choose your litter well ...

I recently moved into a flat with shared bins but there is only general waste or cardboard so I now need to nip to the recycling bit at Tesco with all our plastics and glass, I never realised just how much plastic we got through when all I had to do was Chuck it in a wheelie bin! We are using a big ikea bag to collect all our recycling and it's full after 5-7 days! I already try to cut down on single use plastic where possible but it's certainly made me try to cut down even further!

All 3* bins are full every fortnightly collection

• recycling, general waste, garden waste (additional cost)

According to Terracycle, our nearest recycling point for blister packs is a 20 mile round trip. Our local pharmacy doesn't take them and no-one is allowed in it unless collecting prescriptions anyway. We can't put them in our recycling so it's one thing that has to go in the landfill bin, for now anyway.

[quote worriedatthistime]@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER your not supposed to put it down the loo and its very different to human[/quote]
Yes, it’s due to the risks of toxoplasmosis. By flushing cat faeces, you risk spreading toxoplasmosis parasites into the marine environment.