If you didn't *have* to, would you still recycle your rubbish?

[JoySzasz]

I live in the US,in my small town it is not (as yet) the law to recycle anything!

I used to be very organized,all our 'trash' was correctly placed in the correct recycling bin.

Now I don't life has got way too hectic,and I noticed that all of my paper and plastic would end up strewn all over the lawn.

I opted to just do glass.

From friends and family back in the UK,I have learnt that there is no option -one must. Many of them hate all the various different bins etc...and have confessed they wouldn't bother if it was not the law.

So,if you didn't have to ...would you still bother?

Honestly ...?

[chicletteeth]

that you own the planet

(you certainly don't speak for me and not for many other people either)

[colditz]

To be utterly completely honest - probably not.

[chicletteeth]

jasminetom, how on earth you get from any of my posts that my views are narrow, I'll never know. I'm not the one throwing up words like fascism and referring to recycling as bollocks..

Saying however the you own the planet.... well that's a balanced, well-thought out point of view isn't it?

I am glad you avoid the UK quite frankly you wouldn't get on well in much of Northern Europe either (where they are much more ecofriendly) so best stay well clear

[Want2bSupermum]

oh and I forgot about the garden waste. You have to put it in special paper bags which are biodegradable. They will collect up to two bags a week of 'green waste' during April-August and then we have leaf collection from October-December. Leaf collection involves raking leaves into a pile on the street 2-3 days before scheduled collection. You can pick up free compost and mulch from the recycling center.

[Want2bSupermum]

We live in the US and in our town recycling is strongly encouraged. We recycle cardboard, paper, glass and tins. It doesn't take much effort.

I was shocked to learn that where I grew up now has bin collection every two weeks. We pay $280 a year for our rubbish to be collected twice a week, the recycling center and household waste removal (you drop off whatever you want to chuck at the recycling center and they take care of it). We throw out two small trash bags a week, as do most of our neighbours. I have to say I prefer this system as we never have smelly rubbish festering in the dustbin and it keeps the rodents away.

[fifi25]

forgot about the dark green bin collected fortnightly for all garden waste

[fifi25]

Yes we just have 2 bins, green for rubbish blue for recycling. Paper, glass, tins, cardboard and aerosols go in one bin with a seperate bit for newspapers. This bin is collected fortnightly. This leaves more room in my green bin which is collected weekly. Before i had the blue bin i frequently started the next week with 2 black bags allready half filling the green bin as the bin men dont collect loose bags.

[JoySzasz]

I should not have used the word "law" :) but if councils are refusing to collect incorrectly placed recycling,it could not be classed as guide lines could it?

It certainly feels like the law when your rubbish is ignored, and has angry lettering all over it!

[jasminetom]

It is fairly obvious who my post is to. Really...

[jasminetom]

clever

[FabbyChic]

I never recycle, I can't be arsed.

[TheFlyingOnion]

jasminetom - wow, you've met everyone in the UK and they're all horrible, are they ?

[jasminetom]

I am delightful thanks, just because I don't share your (rather narrow) values does not mean you are in a position to judge. I honestly do not care about recycling when it is not really going to change anything. I totally respect other people's choice to do what they want with their trash. And for all your raised eyebrow and patronising tones, the thought of having to meet people like you face to face leaves me cold and is the reason I avoid the UK whenever possible.

[handsomeharry]

I don't recycle. I have a paper bin, garden waste and just a 'normal' bin. Everything goes in it. I don't have strong feelings about it, I've just never done it.

[wordsonascreen]

Mind you a lot of MN consider Dubai to be one giant dumpster.

[wordsonascreen]

I live in Dubai where theres one giant dumpster outside on the street.
The schools tend to have recycling facilities so I have to do the walk of shame (with clanking bottles) during the school run.

After a party it can get very embarassing

[Stangirl]

No. In fact I don't now, our household only recycles because DP does it.

[chicletteeth]

Wow jasminetom you sound delightful

What's ecofascism got to do with anything.

Plenty of people recycle because they don't want it to go landfill if it doesn't have to.

It's really no more complicated than that.

You feel the earth is yours to ruin and stuff our children, and their children etc...?

Really?

[trixymalixy]

Yes, I did before we had to. I was responsible for getting recycling bins at work as I just could not put my plastic bottles in the bin.

[nannyl]

Yes

have recyled everything possible since before we had to.

Also its not a LAW, just the councils wont collect their bins if they contain the wrong type of rubbish. You wont got to jail for throwing away a jam jar or a news paper.

I recycle everything i can and am lucky that glass is collected here. (not collected in my old house)
We have to pay extra for garden waste to be collected (not allowed in domestic rubbish) although we compost ours
We compost everything compostable, recycle everything recyclable, buy most veg fruit / veg from market so it comes in paper bags that we compost, and i do try to avoid buying heavily packaged stuff when i can and to re-use carrier bags.

[BeeMyBaby]

Still optional for us, and we do just because we therefore get more bin space overall de-cantering some bits and pieces into the separate recycle bins.

[onceamai]

We don't have to recycle where we live - in Wandsworth - where to be fair the bin collections are superb. But of course I recycle, it's the right thing to do and it's very little trouble. I just wish manufacturers would cut down on the packaging and that we could have things refilled.

[mrsbiscuits]

I think the most frustrating thing about the whole recycling thing is storage. Our council only collect certain stuff and issue 2 small orange boxes per household to store it in. On top of which they only collect every 2 weeks. I live in a small terraced house with nowhere to store rubbish and so it lives outside my front door with the general rubbish wheelie bin ( which is also only emptied every 2 weeks) and looks horrible. So if I could have 2 wheelie bins to just throw everything into at the moment I would. However, if we had weekly collections and or a recycling place close by that we could easily walk to then I would defo recycle even if I wasn't encouraged to ( we don't have to in our town by the way, it's not compulsory and no one checks our rubbish)

[jaggythistle]

yes, i don't like the idea of just chucking it all in a big hole.

our council have just given us another bin (4 wheelies now) and we can recycle so much that the general waste one (now the smallest) is nearly all nappies! we also get a food waste caddy with free degradable liners for plate scrapings etc.

this includes taking glass to recycle point ourselves which we already did.

we actually bought stacking boxes to separate waste, had to put them in the hall though as no room in kitchen.

[iscream]

Of course.