General Chat

Our recycling bin is always full - however the refuse bin is nearly empty (usually one sack of rubbish) but have just received new and larger recycyling bin - with space for the 'bug' - have rung my city councillor and told him that if ever a bug is fitted - I stop recycling - this Big Brother has gone so far it is frightening - we have no rights anymore. Ann

I know I am going to be a lone voice on this thread - but where do you think all your rubbish goes It doesnt vanish into thin air once it's on the bin lorry. The Councils don't want to do this - its the EU, who will fine Councils punitively if they do not REDUCE their total rubbish, and do not INCREASE their recycling. I live in West Cornwall. All our land-fill sites are now full and Cornish rubbish has to be taken over the border into Devon to a land-fill site there. Can you imagine how much that costs??We have been told that even this space will be full in less than two years, no one wants an incinerator in Cornwall, so presumably we will all soon be buried under a pile of rubbish of our own making. My local Council recycles glass (used locally for making road surfaces) paper products and tins. We have a once-a-month collection of garden waste and cardboard, which are taken to a nearby farm to be turned into compost. This scheme has produced a take up of more than ten times what the council expected it to do and they are considering increasing the collection to once a fortnight. They can weigh my wheelie bin - I don't care. I recycle everything, I have a compost bin and a Green Cone food digester. I doubt if the contents of my wheelie weigh more than about 3 kilos a week, if that. Neighbours with six kids don't recycle a single thing and that is disgusting in my opinion. I agree that the Manufacturers of waste, such as plastic packaging etc should be heavily leaned on to find biodegradable alternatives - but doubt if this Government will do it. Plastic carriers are banned in many other European countries and it's time they were banned here. We don't NEED them. OC

On the point of nappies I used the nature baby range stocked at Sainsbury's that are made from Maize so they degrade. Only cost the same as pampers at the time. I agree with recycling but I find the obstacles put in the way are ridiculous.

We are in Crewe, we have a black bin for normal refuse, a silver bin for plastics and cans and a green bin for paper.We've not been informed about it, son has a chip in his bin and is not too happy about having to pay more for his rubbish collection. I don't how putting these 'chips' in bins is going to help us recycle more.Or am I missing something. Heather x I

I could recycle 50% more IF only they would empty the bins into the lorry , instead of dropping it alll along the street, this week(yesterday) my bin was STILL half full of recyclable stuff....maybe WE should charge the councils for clearing up, after the binmen........also perhaps we should insist on seeing the calibration certificate for the weighing equipment... Bob.

In my area it would be more helpful if they issued different bins for different waste like they do in lots of surrounding areas to us, we have only a small wheelie bin for everything and a little green box for glass jars etc, other places have one wheelie bin for household rubbish and one for gardening rubbish aswell and boxes for this and boxes for that, and I think we must be one of the last councils to have a wheelie bin we only got ours two years ago and yet when I lived up in Lancashire I had one issued 20 years ago. Not everyone can get to the recycling bins that are dotted around the towns and not every one lives near a local tip. So if they did issue more bins to people and had the larger ones placed local to the estates where people live Im sure more people would use them. Marie: )

Hal, doesn't the Human Rights Act only work if you're a criminal?

Due to the layout of our village (properties are off-road) the binmen won't take wheelie bins or empty dustbins and won't collect from individual properties. We take all our bin bags and recycling bags to central pick up points used by several households - in our case about 15 houses use the same spot. I can't see how they would identify who is who if they wanted to charge us per household or identify what each of us is doing. Angela

I wonder if this contravenes the much vaunted,'Human Rights Act' and an 'Invasion of Individual Privacy'?.Or does that no longer count where Government or Local Councils are involved. Hal.

Hi Trish Yes, that's exactly what happened. She has said she wouldn't mind so much if it was being recycled but it's not. She has offered to take it herself if she can recycle it but they said no!!!

Hi Margaret, the small shop owners pay business rates but still have to pay extra for rubbish to be disposed of - it's not fair at all is it? You can't even take it to the tip yourself as the people in charge there soon get to know you and say you're not allowed to do it any more.

My daughter owns a local shop. She has a lot of cardboard to dispose of and started taking it to the local disposal site herself for recycling. She was stopped from doing this as they say they cannot except trade waste. WHY? She has had to pay for an extra large wheelie bin to put the cardboard in and now the bin men collect that and it presumably goes into a landfill site. It is NOT taken to be recycled as she asked that question. Margaret

Jeff is right. It's all the packaging you get with goods that creates so much waste. Perhaps the big stores and supermarkets should be targetted.

Well They have to get their money from somewhere!! There are fewer smokers,so not as much tax there. Imigrants are flooding in, this is only the begining;-))

I agree this is totally out of order. We pay massive amounts of rates already, we don't need to be charges more for something that is included in the rates. BUT when we go shopping, after paying for the goods, perhaps we should the take everything out of all the packaging and put it into our own containers to take home, leaving the shop with all the unnecessary packaging.

flytipping has really got out of hand. We live in a country area, not far from town and the amount we find dumped in the hedgerows is alarming.It's not just bottles and takeaway rubbish anymore, its whole bin bags of the stuff. The council doesn't help by puting up a height barrier at the tip. More people have bigger vehicles these days and are banned from entering. They are obliged to park outside and walk it in. It really doesn't encourage people to be more responsible.

Here in Northern Ireland we have THREE wheelie bins...A brown one for Garden Waste, A Blue one for recycling ( paper, plastic, tins etc ) and a black one for everyday waste....... why can't this be done elsewhere in the UK? far cheaper and easier than a chipped bin I would have thought!

Being a bit daft, I thought we paid our rates for these to cover such things as refuse collection.... but there we are, I'm wrong again! They started this weighing of bins quite a time ago in parts of Ireland. We are only two people in our house and we do recycle, but our bin is still full at the end of the week. We have a half sized bin. Come Christmas, we have more rubbish as do most homes. If we have to start paying for it by weight.... I really pity the young families with 2... 3... or more children. I had four so I know how easy it is to fill a bin!! Deanna X

Jeanette I agree. ..The councils do give mixed messages. At one time, we could recycle plastic bottles outside a nearby supermarket. Then the bins went and I was told it was not cost effective and whats more, the plastic had to be sent to China for processing. Next thing we know, we have a doorstep collection which includes plastic bottles, glass and tins.- collected weekly.

I think there will be an increase in fly-tipping. Since the local council started charging for the collection of fridges, freezers, washing machines etc. we regularly find such items dumped in the lanes. Heather