General Chat

Does anyone else squash all plastic bottles down to next to nothing size.Everything that can be squashed gets that heavy hand and the noise drives me mad. lol Annie

Grandson likes that sqashing job.

If we don't flatten the bottles they often bowl down the street on a windy collection day.

Gwyn

I used to squash down cans and plastic bottles, but Hubby doesn't.
He says there is enough to do without that.
And believe me he is right.
He has so much to do even before recycling, which we whole heartedly agree with, but he can't do everything.
Deanna X

Yes I wash and squash, one of the frist to have recyling been doing it for years now.

kc

We don't squash cans / tins....I reckon that could be dangerous.

Just plastic bottles get the treatment at this house...You get them into the box( like a child's toy box ) more easily then.

Gwyn

OH gets the plastic bottles to squash. His top tip is to fill them with hot water first which makes them softer to squash.....don't forget to empty the water out first though! lol

Jeanette - filling plastic bottles with hot water completely nullifies the excercise. The energy wasted producing the hot water far outweighs the green savings in plastic recyling !!!!!

Lol Jeanette.

Gwyn

We have been recycling for a few years now.

We used to take the plastic, and glass down to the bank.

Then we were given a yellow box, for paper, glass and cans... so the only way you could get them in was to squash them.

washing goes without saying, although a few people I know had theirs refused because they had put them out dirty!!
It's like putting a dirty milk bottle out to the milk man, isn't it?

NOW... we have three huge bins in the garden.
BLACK FOR HOUSEHOLD RUBBISH.

BROWN FOR CANS, PAPER AND PLASTIC(but only bottles!)

GREEN FOR GARDEN WASTE, AND CARDBOARD!

The glass now has to be taken to the bank.
We have been promised that we will get another bin for Glass... please... we wont be able to get into our homes!!

Deanna X

But they have to be washed out anyway Bernard so the council tells us!

What's even dafter in our area is that all tins and bottels, once washed and squashed, have to be tied up in a plastic bag before being put in the recycling bin. Now that's not exactly green is it!

Like you Deanna, we used to take bottles etc. to the different banks around the estate...

Having recycling on the doorstep saves the petrol taking things to the bank....

I do not squash bottles or tins......and now we have been given a little brown basket for the glass.....great....

You are kidding??

A basket for GLASS?

I love the fact that we have been told to ..... put our household waste in plastic bags!!

I just don't understand their thinking.

Deanna X

Snap Deanna! LOL

I bet it was a man that thought of that! lol

Deanna, it is a plastic basket, not a wicker one.....with a little handle, like you would get in a supermarket.....and brown,

I did wonder if the kids would take a shine to them, but so far so good....

OH........ Silly me.... ;-0(

I really thought you meant a basket basket!
what kind of an idiot am I? please ladies... no answers!

But even the plastic baskets are not a great idea, and as Jeanette said.... bet it was a man who thought it up!!

Probably cheaper than the boxes...

Deanna X

It's surprising how the areas differ in collecting recycling, isn't it?

Glass, cans, tins, plastic bottles all go into the small black box here...hence the need to squash to make enough room.
On collection day a man collects box from the roadside and hand sorts each item into the correct compartment on the side of the lorry. It's not very busy here but nearer town this causes traffic holdups, while the sorting is done.

I wish we could recycle other plastics. I see the recycling sign on yoghurt pots for example and although many go to a children's nursery and therefore get re-used, I still feel more could be done to recycle that type of plastic.

Gwyn

Yes Gwyn, I wish they would do more about recycling food packaging. So much room is taken up in my bin with it. I do try and buy things like tomatoes and mushrooms loose at the supermarket, but even there they give you plastic bags to put them in (apart from mushroom bags) which kind of defeats the object. I do get odd looks from the checkout girls when I send my broccoli and parsnips through without any wrapping! lol

I too get angry that we are not allowed to recycle ALL the plastic.

We used to have the boxes too, and they had to hand sort them at the van...

And I also get annoyed at the extra, and stupid packaging in the super markets.

Whose idea was it to plastic wrap a CUCUMBER ??
Deanna X

We have to take plastic bottles to the recycling centre - only glass, paper and cans are collected, so NO I don't squash them as they go in a big skip which squashes them anyway!! There is a separate bin for all the plastic bottle tops too.

Yes Deanna, and I have to use my veg knife to cut the plastic on my cucumber, it is so tight.....hard luck for those with arthritis then....

In America, years ago, we used to get large brown bags to put the food in at the check out and I thought it was such a good idea, and hoped it would be taken up here......recycling and all that.....but no......when we went back a couple of years later, all the supermarkets we went to were using plastic carrier bags.......talk about taking a step backwards....