to find recycling centres depressing?

[DeckSwabber]

Seems like people just chuck anything in, regardless of whether it is recyclable or not. In the plastics bin today I saw lots of general rubbish including a lamp shade and some old clay flower pots.

yeah, it's a bit annoying but the skips usually get re-sorted before emptying. I was at our local centre a couple of weeks ago and the guy in front of us was just chucking everything in one skip - a couple of TVs, some paint tins, a pergola frame, all in the 'non-recyclables' skip. My DH pointed out that there were specific skips for things but the bloke just looked at him like he was a particularly nasty insect and carried on. I was chatting to one of the staff about it and he said they always check each skip before emptying as some people get confused, and some just don't give a damn.

It's frustrating though isn't it?

Gosh, that is depressing. Don't mean to brag, but our local one is exemplary. It always cheers me up on Saturday mornings to see organised citizens conscientiously chucking their rubbish into correct skips to be made into wonderful and useful things later.

Sounds like they need more staff. Our one is fab, a trip to the dump constitutes an activity in this house. The men working there keep an eye on what's getting chucked, sometimes keep things out of the skip for others to have a look at and will pull something out for you if it catches your eye! They make sure everyone is using the right bit and even help you unload! They also seem to pull out every gnome that's skip bound and keep them in a wee garden in front if their office!

Ours has a "reusable stuff" section. I spied some nice garden chairs in there a while back and enquired with the staff if I could take them, only to be told that the reusable stuff is "contracted" to a company that takes it away and sells what they can. For their profit. I didn't think that was a particularly good thing - I imagine the rejected stuff then goes to landfill after all?

Wish more people would use Freecycle or similar. I know it can be a PITA though.

That's a shame, Poppywearer. I'm always pleased to have something I don't want go to someone who's going to use it - I don't need to make money out of it.