Reply to: Will the EU force you to separate rubbish into five containers?

[Gittins Gal]

In some of the European countries in which I've worked rubbish and recycling has been collected from a central collection point. Each street or block normally has one.

I'm not totally against this - it wold stop my driveway from looking like Steptoe's yard what with all those different coloured boxes.

I'd expect a pretty hefty reduction in my council tax for all the extra legwork though.

[Sysman]

We have general rubbish that we pay for per sack, with free recycling of bottles/jars, cardboard, paper, metal and compostable material. In order to reduce costs, you naturally recycle, but you're not forced to.

Seems like a good approach to me - but then we're not EU.

Someone calculated that, since much of our general waste is incinerated and electricity is generated from that, if we didn't recycle paper and cardboard, our electricity bills would be reduced by more than the cost of paying for the disposal.

Did you mean increased there?

[NotAllThere]

We have general rubbish that we pay for per sack, with free recycling of bottles/jars, cardboard, paper, metal and compostable material. In order to reduce costs, you naturally recycle, but you're not forced to.

Seems like a good approach to me - but then we're not EU.

Someone calculated that, since much of our general waste is incinerated and electricity is generated from that, if we didn't recycle paper and cardboard, our electricity bills would be reduced by more than the cost of paying for the disposal.

[SueEllen]

When recycling was first brought in many London boroughs I quickly noticed that a lot of my friends' who lived in some blocks of flats had loads of recycling bins.

So due to the inflexible and stupid rules of the various councils I lived in, as I bothered to separate my recycling if missed a collection it would often be put in the boot of my car and put in their recycle bins.

What amused me more is that 90% of the time the flat recycling bins were in the borough I also lived in.

As other people in houses nearby had started to do this all the flats found a way to fence off and then lock their bin areas even if they were basically open to the elements. This stopped when the councils sorted our their recycling schedules to reflect how much of the various waste people would generate.

[Sysman]

I believe I have a bin in the kitchen for non-recyclable stuff which gets put into another bin somewhere out the back of the house, a yellow bag for recyclable stuff which gets taken out and put in a big wheelie bin somewhere out the back of the house, a big wheelie bin somewhere out the back of the house for paper and I believe that there's a bottle bank somewhere down the road. I have a toilet where I flush my food down.

The south facing kitchen caught me out my first summer here. My under the sink bin had a separate compartment for organic stuff like orange peel, coffee grounds and veg peelings, and I'd empty it the day before the green bins were emptied. That was a big mistake once the weather got warmer. I got home one day to find the kitchen full of fruit flies, so thereafter put that stuff straight into the bins outside either straight away or next morning on my way out to work.

Mind you we do seem to have bin men down the road nearly every bloody day including early Saturday mornings We also have a shouty man on Saturdays who collects old ash and old iron and we can ring up the council who will come and collect all types of junk we leave outside although you have to tell them how much there is and you tend to put it out late at night otherwise most of it gets taken or other people add to it...

Old ash goes into the green bin here. Old iron collections are but twice a year. Big stuff like furniture you buy one or more stickers for (each sticker valid up to certain dimensions, a sofa will need two for example) and leave it out for bin day (only once a week).

I did quite well at my first apartment because folks down my street would leave firewood out either in the paid for bags or with a sticker on. Free wood for lighting the fire and free bags / stickers too!

Actually I'm not quite sure which bin is which and what for so if I can't work it out, it all goes in one bin which tends to get me whacked around the head a bit

The Swiss Way is to fine you, and I find that concentrates the mind. I solved the problem of them finding the wrong things in the rubbish bag by making sure that I never left any trace of my address in any of the bags. The shredder at work is a useful tool in this quest. Beware the plastic covers that magazines from health insurers come in, for they have your name and address printed on them.

[Sysman]

We have multiple bins:

Newspaper/fliers
Paper/ cardboard
Plastic/packaging
Tins/metal
Clear glass
Coloured glass
Organic waste
Garden waste
And finally one for any other waste

When I first saw them i thought Wtf?? But it's very quick to get used to, in the house we have 3 bins under the kitchen sink, "Any other waste", "recyclable waste" and "organic waste", when one gets fairly full it goes outside to the outdoor bins and if its recyclable is sorted with 2 mins effort. Not much to ask IMO.

It's a bit simpler in my bit of Switzerland (I say "my bit" because being a democratic place each area gets to vote on its own policies here, and they do vary).

Non-recyclable rubbish goes in plastic bags which cost about a quid for a 35 litre bag (the size you use for a bin under the kitchen sink), larger bags are more expensive. Apparently when "pay per bag" was introduced it did reduce the amount of rubbish generated per household, so it seems to work. I cannot resist contrasting a quid a week with what I used to pay in the UK for rates to get my dustbin either ignored or have its contents strewed up the driveway.

My apartment block has green bins for organic stuff. Not all places have these but you can get your own mini bin (at a cost per year) or chuck your organics in with your non-recyclable stuff, but of course you are paying for the bags.

Local bottle banks and tin can recycling points within walking distance of most places, and containers for old clothes and shoes etc (the latter being run by charities or other recycling agencies).

Newspapers collected once a month. In my area this is done by schoolkids and sold to paper recycling merchants, profits going to the annual school trip.

The local rubbish collection centre has a gazillion categories of stuff it takes, but is well out of town and a pain to get to if you don't have a car.

You'll find containers for PET (plastic bottles) inside/outside most shops and takeaways that sell drinks, and in offices too.

The local skip has around 30 categories of waste which is bloody confusing but the up side is the city imports waste from the uk and are paid well by the uk for it, the waste is sorted in one of Europe's top recycling facilities and provides discounted heating and electricity bills for residents in the city. No noise or smells as the site is 20 mins out of town.

They built a new recycling plant in about 2001. Prior to that the local supermarkets had their own recycling counters, and recycling points for razor blades, bottle tops and light bulbs, but those have all disappeared now. I'm still not sure what to do with light bulbs, so they get dumped at work

Ah yes, the office. If you work at a large corporate, they will have their own set of recycling bins so you can get rid of a lot of stuff there :

Prior to about 2003, getting rid of electrical goods was a real sod. Want to get rid of a video recorder or computer? You were supposed to hand those to the retailer when you bought a new model.

Yeah. Right. If I saw a bargain when I was out shopping I was going to go home and collect the old item first????

If you weren't buying something new the retailer generally didn't want to know (a mate got quoted a hundred quid to recycle an old laptop, so he took it to Australia on his hols to get shut for nowt!).

What happened in reality was that folks ended up with piles of electrical stuff in the cellar waiting to be recycled. Fortunately the law was changed to put a recycling surcharge on new electrical goods and pay retailers for accepting stuff for recycling. From that point on you could take your old kit into any electrical retailer and they'd gladly take it off your hands.

[mudskipper]

We have
Black bin for rubbish (collected fortnightly)
Blue bin for mixed recycling (collected fortnightly)
Box for glass (collected fortnightly)
Green bin for garden waste (collected fortnightly at extra cost)
Compost bin (which never gets used and has been overcome by brambles)

[darmstadt]

I believe I have a bin in the kitchen for non-recyclable stuff which gets put into another bin somewhere out the back of the house, a yellow bag for recyclable stuff which gets taken out and put in a big wheelie bin somewhere out the back of the house, a big wheelie bin somewhere out the back of the house for paper and I believe that there's a bottle bank somewhere down the road. I have a toilet where I flush my food down. Mind you we do seem to have bin men down the road nearly every bloody day including early Saturday mornings We also have a shouty man on Saturdays who collects old ash and old iron and we can ring up the council who will come and collect all types of junk we leave outside although you have to tell them how much there is and you tend to put it out late at night otherwise most of it gets taken or other people add to it...

Actually I'm not quite sure which bin is which and what for so if I can't work it out, it all goes in one bin which tends to get me whacked around the head a bit

[hyperD]

We've got about 10 bins, containers and bags. As I mentioned last year or so, I just recycled all of them into my big black bin which I now use for everything (apart from wine bottles). Far simpler!

[DodgyAgent]

Emergency, Emergency, send for .....The Troll Patrol!



EU Spends £2 Million on Trolling Online Eurosceptics - Guy Fawkes' blog

We already have PJ clarke as our AGW troll

[chef]

We have multiple bins:

Newspaper/fliers
Paper/ cardboard
Plastic/packaging
Tins/metal
Clear glass
Coloured glass
Organic waste
Garden waste
And finally one for any other waste

When I first saw them i thought Wtf?? But it's very quick to get used to, in the house we have 3 bins under the kitchen sink, "Any other waste", "recyclable waste" and "organic waste", when one gets fairly full it goes outside to the outdoor bins and if its recyclable is sorted with 2 mins effort. Not much to ask IMO.

The local skip has around 30 categories of waste which is bloody confusing but the up side is the city imports waste from the uk and are paid well by the uk for it, the waste is sorted in one of Europe's top recycling facilities and provides discounted heating and electricity bills for residents in the city. No noise or smells as the site is 20 mins out of town.

[d000hg]

So no, the EU won't force you to use five containers but your council might.

WHS

[Flashman]

The question remains. What's the rate?

[Mich the Tester]

Emergency, Emergency, send for .....The Troll Patrol!



EU Spends £2 Million on Trolling Online Eurosceptics - Guy Fawkes' blog

The question remains. What's the rate?

[doodab]

I have 5 bins.

For once, I actually think Europe is right. What concerns me is that the French, Italians, etc. will just ignore this ruling leaving the UK spending extra and so at a competitive disadvantage.

Actually Italy and France aren't far behind us when it comes to recycling and other Northern European countries are quite a way ahead. Given that the most recycling friendly countries are all fairly successful one might wonder if increased recycling is in fact cost effective and gives one a competitive advantage.