To inwardly rage against people who won't recycle

[siblingrevelry]

My dad told me that his neighbours either side have told him they 'can't be bothered' to recycle as per the new scheme in the area, and will just continue putting everything into their main bin.

It pisses me off that people are seemingly allowed to opt out of this public duty. I am very environmentally aware, although i realise that scraping shit off babie's nappies is a step too far for lots of folks, but why should I and many others bother washing tins, squashing plastic and taking out the recycling when others don't?

I appreciate that the jury is still out on global warming, but there is no denying that the physical space this stuff takes up in landfill affects us all.

Lazy, lazy, lazy!

It makes sense to recycle food waste - there were areas locally that they couldnt build on for years because of methane from an old tip.

I line the bottom of my kitchen caddy with kitchen roll then put a sprinkle of this which you can get in the pound shop.

I do think more thought needs to be given to cutting down on packaging at the production end though - things like biscuits sitting in a plastic tray, celophane wrapped and then in a box too...bloody ridiculous. Someone near us used to abandon all the excess packaging in Tesco car park, can't say I blamed them.

Its not cheaper to recycle, that's bollocks and the council confirmed that for us. we asked the council how much it was costing to recycle, 1.7million, and that's just in our city alone.

Were not entitled to wheelie bins either, so were expected to recycle and store it in our homes because if we put our bins outside they get ripped open. After getting fed up of having to clean up my garden once a week, and rubbish that had blown into it, I now have to store my bins on the bush, which is wrecking it.

also what really fucks me off - I mean REALLY is that we are given tiny fucking recycling bin and fuck off black bin

I have the opposite problem. recycling bin is huge black bin isn't.

Now I live in a house with space outside and in, I recycle. When I lived in a small flat I didn't. There were recycling bins down the way, but I had nowhere to store it all and they were often full because people who didn't live there would drive up in their volvo estates and fill the rather than driving to the dump.

I wish my council offered a garden waste bin though. They seem to think everyone has a car to drive to the dump and they wonder why people fly tip.

I line the bottom of the caddy and the actual collection bin with newspaper (dp gets the odd Sunday paper anyway - it only takes a few sheets to do both).

Every now and then they go in the dishwasher.

I remember flats reeking of that special mix of rotting scraps and black plastic not so long ago, but now the food waste goes into a lockable caddy and almost everything else is rinsed and thrown in a recycling box, the rubbish fits in a carrier bag and there's no need for a large kitchen bin.

I'm a bit evangelical

Here in civilised Tottenham, it couldn't be easier. One bin for all the recyclables, collected weekly. Also weekly, a bin for food waste, they give you a small bin to keep in the kitchen too, and a sack for garden waste. One bin for landfill, collected fortnightly. If I fill a carrier bag with landfill waste in 2 weeks it's unusual, as so much can now go to recycle.

However - why can't people just do it? Every walk down the road is invaded by my despair at the fuckwits who fill the landfill bin with cans and bottles. How difficult is it to sort into two? And the new people in the upstairs flat don't do any, they stuff the bin to overflowing. I don't want my first interaction with them to be crazy old lady rant, but....

.

In Brighton + Hove, at least in the bits I visit, there is no doorstep collection of landfill waste - they have crates for the recycling, emptied weekly. Every few yards along the road they have big paladins, and all landfill rubbish has to be taken there - ie you have to walk a few yards back towards the shops you got the rubbish from in the first place.

I believe this is one of the few countries which does a doorstep collection of rubbish, others have bins in the street, sorting or otherwise. When did household dustbins and handing over responsibility to others, start?

So, explain to me why we have to break the glass bottles in order for them to be recycled?

And why nothing from the tip can be removed? Surely that would be recycling, if I saw something there that I could use?

And why it is so expensive to repair household goods and instead I have to replace them?

I think the recycling situation in this country is a total farse.

sleeping how much did they say landfill cost, out if interest?

Sleeping that figure is what it costs. But how much does it bring in? The council sell on what is recycled which means the cost is offset.

mameulah I wish we could take stuff from the tip too, there's so much great stuff I'd have in a shot.
Not sure what you mean about breaking glass bottles? Glass is broken before its melted down for reuse, but do you mean you are asked to break them before putting them out??
But again, just because things could be better, it's not a reason to stop doing anything, is it?

my friend threw out and replaced her fridge because the plastic salad drawer cracked!!!!

I have it now - replaced the salad drawer when it fell to bits, you can get proper parts online easily...

I just could not believe the reason!

It is not the fact that people shouldn't recycle though - the thing is that people recycle and then think it "lets them off" from buying stuff with less packaging, from repairing, from making do with something a bit scratched, from reusing an old vest as a duster. Because they are sooooo green for putting some bottles in a green box....

"Oh I fly off on holiday - but I do recycle......", "I drive the kids half a mile to school, but I do give their clothes to the charity shop" so of course they think they are doing their bit.....

Why recycle some bottles, and then get rid of a fridge because the drawer is cracked...... she was going to send it to the tip because that way it gets recycled.... yes - but it didn't NEED recycling, just fixing..... or putting up with.... at least the recession is helping cut down that sort of thing...

Supermarkets could give you the option of putting fruit and veg in brown paper bags which can go on the compost heap. Hate those big clear plastic boxes they use.

yes it is annoying when there are facilities and it is easy to do. Where I live we have recycle collection every week and we can mix the bag. I have 1 bin in the kitchen for recycled stuff and if it gets full, I can stick it in the garden.

I do sympathise if it is made difficult and you have no where to store it. I have always tried to recycle. I try to repair and reuse things and use old textiles as dusters etc.

I do go abroad on holiday though and I drive to work but would rather go by train but it isn't an option for the work location ITMS.

I would like to recycle but I have no idea where to take it

I can only find green bottle recycle bins in our tesco car park

and clothes bank next to a wee shop the other side of town

Supermarkets could give you the option of putting fruit and veg in brown paper bags

It's not remotely straightforward.

trinityfucker where do you live? Does your council have any info on their website about how to recycle?

Years ago, in Germany (I think) there was a thing where people unwrapped their over-packaged groceries at the checkout, leaving the rubbish there for the supermarket to deal with.

I phoned our council three times for a food waste caddy and have still not received one.

It's frustrating,but I'm not completely sure I need one really because between the compost,dog and chickens there's not a lot of waste!

I find it annoying that our collection point isn't outside our home - it's a short walk.If the rubbish collection day and the recycling collection day were the same it would be so much easier than having to traipse to the collection point on separate days with each.

jenai
that is still the law in germany. the supermarkets have to provide recycling bins (they have a mixed recycling scheme for all dry recycables) for all additional packacking. so if you have a box that contains individually wrapped things you can leave the box at the store.
also many people don't use plastic bags (they cost 20c or so each) but reusable crates.

I hate recycling because it's so ruddy messy. We have four different sodding bins cluttering up the front of our house. And the council keep changing the rules about what can go in with what. AND my dh is a massive hoarder who is obsessed with recycling, so for him it's an excuse to hang on to stuff that should be chucked out. He's never happier than when he's got a pile of old milk bottles (the big plastic ones) by the kitchen bin instead of in them (I bought him a kitchen bin that has different compartments.)

My old council, in Wandsworth, just gave you one bag. Stick all the paper, tins, whatever in there and presumably the recycling company sorts it at some kind of depot. MUCH easier and I was quite happy to do it.

I resent being made to spend lots of my time separating rubbish. I resent having to remember whether it's a recycling week or a normal rubbish week. I resent having to hang on to rubbish for a fortnight. I resent all the confusion with bank holidays, which makes it 10 times worse.

I'm really pissed off because I'm a vegetarian, I don't drive so I walk to the supermarket, and I re-use and recycle my carrier bags (the supermarket has a recycling bin for carrier bags) yet I'm constantly nagged by sodding councils and campaigns who want to make my life even more difficult.

If you walk to the supermarket, ordinary plastic bags are perfect. Bags for life are too big - and if you don't fill them, the contents shift about. I have a shopping trolley but often nip into the supermarket on my way home from work, when I don't have it.

I may be particularly grumpy because of hoarder dh and because my employers have a campaign about banning plastic bags, the buggers.

edam, something like an Onya bag could answer all your problems, just like that. They dont have to be so branded therefore expensive, I got two from Ik*a for 50p each and they're just always in my bag somewhere.

Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't. I'm not a bin man.

our council is very good. weekly collections and bags to put recycling and textiles. I always recycle as much as I can.

I do understand if you have no space etc but I think we should all try.

We have 7 different recycling bins or boxes given to us by the council that are collected on different days of the week or different weeks. It's like a puzzle trying to find storage for all of these and also like a puzzle trying to get the right one outside our house n the right day.

What's worse is having all this space taken up with these boxes and us segregating it based on the council instructions n the day that two are collected at the same time, they are put in to the same space on the same lorry and mixed back up again. But is we mixed it up in the box and put them out we get fined.

I haven't read the whole thread, but just wanted to correct the OP on one thing.

The jury is NOT still out on global warming.

There is massive consensus among the scientific academic community that climate change is happening and is caused by greenhouse gases from human activity.

And i also agree with recycling.