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Original poster

Please come here for very boring recycling questions!

17 replies

gorionine · 31/10/2009 10:57

I am jumping with joy since we received our wheelie bins for recycling! (probably the only one to but I am easily pleased)

When you recycle enveloppes with a little window, do you have to take off the window before?

Some cartons of juice have a plastic bit on the inside of the carton, do I have to open the carton and take it off or do i just squash the carton and leave it as it is?

It says no brocken glass but I have a few jarres that broke as I was dropping them in the recycle bin, should I take them out or not necessary?

OP posts:

Prosecco · 31/10/2009 11:24

RE. the glass, we have a separate bin for that. Our blue bin takes paper, cardboard, tins and plastic. If you check there is usually a little triangle sign on these things if they can be recycled. We also got a booklet to tell us what to out in and what not to. For the first couple of months though, people were out asking the refuse collectors and I actually phoned to ask about something

I put in envelopes , even though at work we are not supposed to (something to do with the gum- but that bin is purely for paper). Inever take cartons apart.

Ours is considered a clean bin so I never put takeaway pizza boxes as they have food on them.

If they don't like the look of what is in the bin, they don't take it and send round a scavenger lorry later. Happens infrequently now as we have had bins for a few years.

HTH. Now, apologies for hijacking but- who knows how to recycle batteries?

Original poster

gorionine · 31/10/2009 11:30

I wish I could help you with that but I hace here a big box of flat batteries (collected for years) and I still do not know what to do with them!

The booklet says enveloppes without any other comments but I was wondering as the window is clearly not paper. I have cut all of them of this time and will ask the binman tomorrow if i shall continue to do so.

Thanks Prosecco.

OP posts:

Prosecco · 31/10/2009 11:36

If it says envelopes it will be fine. It would be if it said NO ENVELOPES as mine does at work.

Pleased to see I am not alone in housing dead batteries since I got a conscience and stopped binning them.

callmeovercautious · 31/10/2009 11:40

Batteries - take to the tip, they have a special bin for them. Or sometimes Currys etc collect them. Although I found they were a bit grumpy when I took about 30 in at once

We can chuck window envelopes in. No tetra pack type juice cartons though.

Broken glass is a no no I think.

SquIDGEyeyeballs · 31/10/2009 12:19

We can't put any glass in our recycling bins - have to take all glass to the bottle bank.

Tetra paks ie juice cartons can't be put in our green bin, nor can yogurt pots, margarine tubs and similar.

I put envelopes in whole whether they have a window or not - probably not supposed to!

cat64 · 31/10/2009 12:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster

gorionine · 31/10/2009 12:54

We have received:

1 green bin for gardening waste

1 blue bin for paper, cardboard, juice cartons

1 brown bin for glass, tinand cans and plastic bottles

Does say on them what you can put in in a very general way (IE enveloppes, does not say about windows on them or not)

callmeovercautious, I know that I am not supposed to put brocken glass in it ideally but it was not brocken before I put it in, it broke when it landed at the bottom of it (deep bin), do you think I shoud really take it out? I am not sure it will be really safe for me to do so (I am clumsy and WILL cut myself).

OP posts:

ImSoNotTelling · 31/10/2009 12:57

depends on the council for eg you can put batteries in our recycling box.

no broken glass is presumably to avoid the handlers getting injured - they wear thick gloves but it's still a risk I suppose.

With ours if you put stuff in that they don't like they just leave it and you sling it in the normal bin instead.

They take envelopes with the plastic window still attached.

Ours won't take tetrapacks or plastic food containers.

Have a look on your council website they may have a FAQ section. Don't worry though if you do it wrong they're not going to tell you off or anything - they just won't take the offenscive article

Original poster

gorionine · 31/10/2009 13:00

The thing is they are these big bins that they just load on a lorry to empty them. I do not think they are going to go through it to check and I would hate a entire lorry of recycling to be "contaminated" by things 'i haveput in thinking it was 'ok when it is not IYSWIM?

Does any one have any idea hoe the sorting is done when they bring the lorry load back to the recycling plant?

OP posts:

ImSoNotTelling · 31/10/2009 13:48

They must sort it by hand at the plant then surely?

And if it's big wheely bins which automatically get dumped into the trucks then I don't see why glass shouldn't be broken - it's not going to hurt anyone and it will break when it goes in the truck.

But then how do they sort it?

You know what, council people are fallible and these things often aren;t thought through as well as you might hope. There may be reasons behind their thinking, they may have just copied their leaflet from another council and not read through it properly...

nannynick · 31/10/2009 14:03

My local council (Surrey Heath) have started a new scheme and it's great... we can recycle all sorts of things - including TetraPak cartons. No idea on the window envelopes though, the scheme accepts plastic and paper, so currently I rip out the window and then put both in the green sack. Not sure if the plastic is recyclable though, depends what sort of plastic it is (hardly as if it says on it!) - the scheme does not accept Cellophane but how do I know if it is Cellophane or not?
Given all the things we can put in the sack - list here for those really interested - I do wonder how they go about separating them all out. Wonder if they get sent to another country for sorting.

nannynick · 31/10/2009 14:19

For anyone in Surrey Heath, just found a webpage on the council site that says WE CAN recycle window envelopes - Recycling FAQ

AngelaChase · 31/10/2009 19:16

I take my dead batteries to the library as they have a special recycling bin there.

schroeder · 31/10/2009 20:36

Our morrisons has a box behind checkouts for batteries.

ChasingSquirrels · 31/10/2009 20:45

they sort it all into one big container, and ship it to China.

Our library van takes batteries, I assume the branches do aswell.

callmeovercautious · 31/10/2009 22:54

I guess if you have a bin for glass then broken would be fine as they just tip it in - I was thinking in a bag - we have to put ours into a carrier bag. We don't have Wheely bins.

dreamteamgirl · 01/11/2009 13:06

We live 10 mins down the road from Surrey Heath in Rushmoor and have had recycling for about 10 years, but we STILL cant put tetra packs in. Most annoying is that the tetra pack can be recycled 10 mins away but not here

Ours also says no carrier bags, but I tended to keep a carrier bag inside cupboard door which I fill up with recycling then take it out each evening. Council have said thats fine, they just dont want great handfulls of bags going in.

I never could figure out the glass mixed in with other recycling either- they do it in Woking where my sis lives too and it does seem potentially dangerous. We now have blue baskets for kerbside collection of glass, but they just tip it all in and it gets broken which seems odd with it all mixing- I thought you had to keep the colours seperate?

OP did you get the cooked food bin too?

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