So, all of you who recycle everything...

[Gobbledigook]

...a few questions

What do you recycle?
Where do you store it?
What do you store it in?
Where do you take it?

Am trying to be more 'green' as only currently recycle glass simply because we have a box for this and the bin men take it.

TIA

Moondog... love the idea of leaving the unnecessary packaging in the supermarket. What sort of comments do you get?

Our council collect (fortnightly) glass, tins, plastic, papers. I take clothes to clothes bank or better stuff to charity shops. Books go to Oxfam book store. Magazines I take to work (hospital) and put on waiting room tables.

Moondog, have they ever said anything?

Paper - binmen take 1 x fortnight
Tins - Same
Glass - Same

Compost - all fruit/veg waste, used loo/kitchen rolls
Cardboard, including cereal packs etc - take to supermarket recyling centre when I go.
Foil - same
Plastic bottles - same
Old clothes that can be used again go in the charity bin if not go in the textile recycling bin at supermarket
Shoes - same
Christmas/brithday cards - get made into gift tags and whats left goes in with the newspaper recycling
Wrapping paper - goes in with the newspaper recycling along with any of ds more scribbley pictures
plastic bags - I have a big shopping holdall and 2 x bags for life - any other plastic bags go back the next week to be recycled - Sainsbury placcy bags are sooo shite they are only good for one shop!
Toys/childrens clothes in good condition - I sell twice a year at a nearly new sale.

I really want to do composting of food waste etc - but have been warned that it will entail......fly larvae (can't bring myself to say the "m" word - MAJOR, SERIOUS phobia" If anyone knows of any way I can avoid them and still do composting of food waste, peelings etc, I would be really grateful.

At the moment we recycle bottles, plastics, paper and old clothes, and give away outgrown stuff (car seats, etc) on freecycle.

Greensleeves our wormery has no flies, it's not supposed to get any in at all. It did - just after we started it it got an infestation of fruit flies which we had to treat with organic fly killing stuff and by hanging fly paper inside it - it took about two weeks. Since then - none. I am really careful to clear all peelings into a sealed tub now as I cook and have had no probs since - the peelings all get taken out to the wormery once a day.

Thanks for all your replies - I'm coming back to this later for tips as I am truly embarrassed at the amount of 'rubbish' we throw away.

Can you recycle metal jar lids with tins? I feel bad throwing them away. They are useful for paint though.
Melksham has a recycling directory which is fantastic and tells you where you can recycle all sorts of things (not jar lids though!)
Perhaps all councils need encouragement to produce something like this.

This link will show you how to make a cheap wormery. They are much much faster than a normal compost bin once they are up to speed. You can put tumble dryer fluff and hoover bag contents in the wormery. I also add shredded bank statements.

I have two bins in my kitchen, which actually stack but lakeland don't do them anymore. All normal rubbish goes in one, and all recyclable rubbish in another. I then sort the rubbish outside so it doesn't take up too much space inside. Council take glass, foil, tins, paper and card. I take plastic bottles to the bottle bank.

No Moondog I'm not Heather?!? If my dh reads the packaging thing he's gonna start on that too, he already complains like mad to them

We don't get any probs with flys and use the canoworms system which is easy to clean out empty etc, they provide you with gravel and worm treat which keeps it all nicely balanced and fly free.

You musn't add cooked food craps that can cause problems though.

Ah,a wild guess HM! (Heather was a perfectly pleasant woman on the website.)

That link is good too Pootle.Very clear,even for (low) technophobe like me?

Do they say anything when I give the packaging back?? Lol No!!!

Obviously I don't hurl it at them screeching 'Don't fob your fucking crap onto me lady!'
I smile politely (hard to imagine I know) and say
'Have you got a bin for this.It's really unnecessary.'

They always oblige,but if they didn't I might have to change tack.

we also shred anything with our address on and put that on the compost heap too.

paper shreddings and torn cardboard make the "nest" for the worms so we get rid of tons that way.

Yoghurt pots make great plant pots for thinning seedlings.

So do egg carton cups, sorky. My dad does his seedlings in them - we don't have a garden ourselves - then he just plants them just like that b/c the paper in the carton breaks down in the mulch.

Ooh good idea but my parents provide with eggs from their chucks every week so I don't get the cartons. Been thinking of getting a couple myself actually. Wonder if the LA allows it. If the neighbours can let their dog out at 6.45am everyday then people can't complain about a couple a chucks surely. Wouldn't get a cockerel or 'owt.

Paper- recycle box in yard council collects
cans- ditto
glass-ditto
material-ditto
shoes/tin foil/plastic- recycle bays at supermarkets keep in plastic bin in the kitchen foil in a box on top of fridge
books/clothes/toys -charity shop
Batteries- tin in the kitchen/bin at the tip