To stop recycling plastic bottles and cardboard.

[BornToBeRiled]

I genuinely am not sure. My house feels a mess at the moment, and is getting me down. The pile of cardboard and milk bottles gets out of control, but we can only get to the waste centre at weekends, because they close at five. I have recycled faithfully for years, but I've had enough. I try to avoid over buying of packaging but can't avoid it all. WWYD?

Is it worth asking the council to ask public houses/supermarkets/public car parks to put in the recycling "skips" - can't move for the buggers round here. Everywhere has them, and Sally Army ones for clothes and small electrical appliances.

Just a thought.

I have to say recycling doesnt make the street look pretty anymore, everyone has over flowing containers for this, that and the other which blow away in the wind sigh. Forever retrieving half empty boxes and the contents.

YANBU. If your council do not take them as recycling then I would put them in the general waste.

I'd be damned if I'd make extra journeys to the tip - think of the fuel cost. Supermarkets do have the recycling bins so I would perhaps take it there when I did the weekly shop but I agree that the storing of it up to that point would drive me mad. You could perhaps get some of those plastic tub things with lids that you see in supermarkets or Poundland etc. At least it would be dry and you could pop in the boot of the car when you go to the supermarket.

aviatrix - Blimey I couldn't put up with general waste in my house for a week - think of the stink!

YANBU

YABU. I don't believe that you can live somewhere in the UK without either kerbside recycling of plastic bottles and paper/cardboard OR local 'bring banks'. Every supermarket in my town has them. The community centre has them. They are on street corners. 24/7.

By the way the only tetrapak recycling centre operating at the moment is in Scandinavia, as the one in Scotland closed. There's no UK market, presently.

Our kern side recycling is paper, glass and tins only. Everything else goes in the bin except large cardboard boxes that pile up in the shed until I take them to the tip.
In theory plastic recycling would be great. In practice finding something to put it in outside that won't blow about is less great. Despite being in the porch paper recycling escapes the councils open boxes.

linerunner Rural communities won't have the resources to facilitate recycling in the same was urban areas manage it. The Op has said she lives in rural scotland.

The OP asked what would I do. I would recycle at the available places.

Shove it all in a bin-bag - stick on the kerb & wait for the bin-men to pick it up - your guilt will dissipate in the 30 second it takes you to remove it from the house.

My nearest recycling is 20 mins drive away & we have no kerb-side removal - so I say a big fat fuck you to the naysayers - it only going to be incinerated anyway - you know that don't you?

Incineration (Eneregy Recovery from Waste) is a hell of a lot cheaper than landfill - and will save you lots of council tax - and is much less damaging to the environment.

Recycling can also save you lots of council tax depending on the current market for what your council can sell on. At the moment metals and glass are getting a good price.

Linerunner- our only option is the tip. No kerbside or supermarket ones for card/plastic. Our council is also closing tips in very rural areas so they will just be binning it all.

Troisgarcons, it was me, not the op who vented at length about rural Scotland and recycling , I was hijacking the thread a little! I am much vexed by my bins!

Spiderlegs, if you are in and area with wheelie bins, such as ours, you CAN'T just put it in a bin bag and forget about it, the binmen WILL NOT lift bags, only what's in the bin, and they will not empty the bin unless the lid of the bin is COMPLETELY closed! If your landfill bin is full, you have to drive to a special council operated Dump/recycle centre (11 miles away in our case) as the small local centres/supermarket recycle bins only take recyclables, and not "rubbish".

Linerunner, yes, I agree re incineration.

Well if you physically can't, then you can't.

It's a shame if there's a perception if incineration being some kind of local toxic bonfire. Energy recovery facilities are enclosed operations monitored by the Environment Agency. The recovered energy provides power and heat.

Unlike nuclear plants, they seem to have a good safety record.

Although I'm always open to persuasion. I don't like the idea of an easy get-out when prevention of waste is the only real answer for the future.

HARRIETJONES, your council is closing tips in rural areas??? God, I hope not here.
Supermarkets don't have plastic recycling bins usually as they can't sell it, market is limited (much recycled stuff ends up incinerated). Usually councils will have local facilities at village hall or church hall.

Yes. The least used ones in the county. Only proposed at the moment

here

The three suggested are 30-45 mins away from the next one

I have nothing against incineration, it's probably the lesser of all evils, my point being, if you chose a lifestyle that generates waste (as we all do unless especially pious) the waste has to go somewhere, be it landfill, incinerators or China.

Just because we shove it in politically ascribed hole doesn't make it vanish - we're all pissing in the wind if we live as we do (& I do).

Yes, miss.

OP, if it's getting you down, burn the lot.

Really.

Make a big, fat fire in your garden & torch it.

Feel no guilt. Why should you?

The government wants us to consume, needs us to consume, then makes us feel guilty about the products of that consumption.

You can't have it both ways.

& neither should you.

You need to put pressure on to your council to provide more kerbside collection. Our council collects: cardboard, garden waste, plastic bottles, cans, glass bottles and paper, plus household waste of course

It costs a bloody fortune, though, for materials not currently at the profitable end of the market.

Hence the Cumbria money-saving consultation.

But what is kerb-side collection other than a wiping away of our sins of consumption - a purging of our foul binging on food, stuff & things? The postman & delivery man pour 'stuff' into our unquenchable maw, we open wider & take more & more & spew more & more out.

& then the bin-man expunges & takes our sins away.

Actually spiderslegs, if you decide to get serious I'm in there with you.

Recycling targets are all about taking away the mess we've already created.

I feel for you. We have 7 different recycle bins, bags and boxes and it gets on my nerves. The cardboard and paper bags get sodden and heavy. I wouldn't mind but they are mostly full of junk mail that I dont ask for anyway . I have to keep the plastic bottle bag inside as it blows away in the wind.
You can always tell when the recycle lorry has been round as there's rubbish strewn all over the road .