Recycling and the environment

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Fiona1986
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Recycling and the environment

Post by Fiona1986 »

Inspired by the book-binning talk on another thread.

There probably wasn't a huge amount of recycling done in Blyton's day (apart from returning bottles for money) but there also wasn't the huge amounts of waste produced like there is now.

Blyton was big on protecting the environment though - especially about not littering.

We recycle as much as we can - paper, plastic, glass and metal. We have big bins in our street for it all. We've also got a food waste bin.

A filter jug instead of buying bottled water,
Washable breastpads instead of single use ones,
No single use carrier bags even when we get shopping delivered,
Try to donate/give away as many items that are in good condition but no longer used,

Still feel like I could do more, but it would help if everything didn't come with extraordinary amounts of packaging.

So what does everyone on here do?
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by Daisy »

I can remember the "Pig bin" which was put out for weekly collection in the late 40s into which all kitchen waste went. Nowadays in our area that goes into the garden rubbish bin. We have a recycling bin which takes tins, glass, plastic and cardboard which with the garden rubbish and a separate bag of waste paper is collected fortnightly. On the alternate week the general rubbish bins are emptied. We often only need to put out the general rubbish bin once a month.
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by Courtenay »

When I was back with my family in Australia last month, I found out that our local shire council now has a three-bin system — organic waste, recycling and general waste. The first two are collected weekly, the other every second week, whereas it used to be general waste collected every week and recycling every second week. We've always kept our fruit and veg scraps for compost, and still do, but the good thing about the new organic waste collection is that they'll also take scraps of meat and other things that will decompose but aren't suitable for the compost. Overall, it does mean we have less going to the general waste (which ends up in landfill) than we used to.
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by Fiona1986 »

Our general bin gets emptied fortnightly but its rarely full - even with six nappies a day going into it!
"It's the ash! It's falling!" yelled Julian, almost startling Dick out of his wits...
"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.


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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by Katharine »

Tut tut, not using washable ones? :wink:
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by KEVP »

Of course in Enid's day, most everything was biodegradable. There was very little use of plastic. Plastic pretty much HAS to be recycled.
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by Rob Houghton »

Our regular bins are still collected weekly - while recycling is collected fortnightly. We always have a lot of recycling - and would have more if things like black plastic trays etc were recyclable.

However, I dislike the fact that nearly everything in a supermarket is packaged in plastic - apples, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, salad, carrots etc often come in plastic - not to mention plastic wrapped swedes, cucumbers, etc. :evil:
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by Katharine »

Our bins are collected fortnightly. Recycling ie, paper, tins, plastic in one bin and garden waste in another one week, then 'rubbish' the next week, so 3 wheelie bins in total. A couple of years ago I was asked if I'd trial a smaller general rubbish bin which I was happy to do as we never even filled ours half full, even now it's no more than half full.
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by Jack400 »

On the subject of plastic waste, I can't help thinking of the times that the council changes the recycle bins from one type to another. We are then "invited" to find another use for the "old" recycle box and 'save the world' with the new wheelie bin.
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by Moonraker »

Aren't recycling bins recyclable? :?
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by Jack400 »

Moonraker wrote:Aren't recycling bins recyclable? :?
They didn't want it back. :lol: :roll:
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by Rob Houghton »

If the recycle boxes were anything like ours in Birmingham, I don't think they were recyclable, as they were the wrong type of plastic!
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by IceMaiden »

Here in Wales we get a 'blue box' which is emptied every Saturday. In this goes everything recyclable, plastics, card, paper, tins, glass etc which you have to sort and bag up ready or they won't take it (if you put the box out and left everything in it ready but unsorted they'd just leave it on your drive). There's also a 'food caddy' which basically looks like a baby wheelie bin that is collected weekly, but we don't bother with it as it's so small it would fill up in a day, instead we put it in the main bin collection that comes around every three Saturdays. You're only allowed three bin bags in the wheelie bin though, a bag a week, so it can be tricky at times if you have a lot of stuff. We also have a recycling facility across town where you can take everything to provided you sort everything out into all the different skips.

I think that a lot of plastic could be cut down on if they went back to using brown paper bags and card containers for things, nearly all the cakes and fruit in shops are in a plastic tub, and in the case of cakes, there is then another moulded plastic tray inside. I don't know why they haven't got rid of these. All the fruit and vegetables in the local shops are wrapped in polystyrene and cellophane and then they go bad quick because they've been sealed up in unbreathable plastic. All new appliances also come in too much plastic. I was brought a new freesat box this afternoon and although it was in a cardboard box, inside the device was in a separate plastic bag tied with various plastic bands. The instruction guides were individually wrapped in cellophane, as was the remote control and all the cables, which were all wound up with plastic ties. Ridiculous. It's all well and good encouraging people to recycle but what about companies not being made to make their packaging the same and boxing thousands of cakes, pastries and fruits in totally unnecessary packing for all the country's supermarkets? Or technology companies wrapping everything individually when it's all in the same box? :x
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by Courtenay »

Talking of recycling, here's a video from the BBC interviewing a man who's doing his bit for the environment in a different way — "I fix umbrellas to save the world"

Among the other videos available on the same page, too, there are two about "repair cafes" in Leeds and Malvern, where volunteers fix all kinds of items that would otherwise be thrown away — also really worth watching ("They fix the things you can't — for free" and "Coffee and brains on menu at cafe"). It's good to hear of people who are challenging the "throw-away" mentality and encouraging others to do so as well.
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Re: Recycling and the environment

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Thanks for letting us know about the videos, Courtenay. I enjoyed watching them. It's lovely that the man who repairs umbrellas gets to hear customers' stories about why a particular umbrella means so much to them. I also like the remark by the man at the Leeds Repair Café: "It's not just that people bring stuff and we fix it for them - it's that people come and learn with the fixer." Passing skills on is vital if we want to encourage people to mend damaged items rather than throwing them away.
Fiona1986 wrote:We recycle as much as we can - paper, plastic, glass and metal. We have big bins in our street for it all. We've also got a food waste bin.
We have a good recycling service in Essex too. We don't have big bins in the street but everything is collected weekly. My dad and his partner, who live in France, have big recycling bins at the end of their street.
Fiona1986 wrote:A filter jug instead of buying bottled water...
I've always lived in places where the tap water is drinkable so I've never needed a filter jug or bottled water.
Fiona1986 wrote:Try to donate/give away as many items that are in good condition but no longer used...
We've always done that in our family.
Fiona1986 wrote:Still feel like I could do more, but it would help if everything didn't come with extraordinary amounts of packaging.
I agree about the packaging of many goods. I suppose the main purpose of it is to protect products during transportation.
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