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How many dustbin bags per person per week in your household?
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How many dustbin bags per person per week in your household?
1/4
38%
 38%  [ 14 ]
1/2
33%
 33%  [ 12 ]
3/4
11%
 11%  [ 4 ]
1
16%
 16%  [ 6 ]
Total Votes : 36

Author 
 Message
culpepper



Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 638
Location: Kent
PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 05 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

we do compost loads.All paper,cardboard,kitchen waste,grass,leaves.
Reuse plastic bags for freezer,reuse carriers for bin,recycle postal envelopes and packing. Ive just started washing and collecting tins as Ive discovered a steel tin bank near us,we only use about 3 a week.
Recycle glass jars for jam.There is a glass collection every two weeks but ours only goes out about once in 3 months as we dont drink.
We dont buy a lot of new stuff so dont have packaging.
I like to buy loose fruit and veg as you can see what your getting.
I now make our own bread so dont have the bread bags but I still use the old bread bags (till they run out).
We do have a collection of old car oil bottles sitting out the back though filled with old sump oil as we cant think of anything to use it for.
Always seems a shame to throw useful things away.

Mrs Fiddlesticks



Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 05 3:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

see we do ( at least some of ) that and yet we still seem to generate rubbish. We burn cardboard on the plot ( helps burn the couch grass roots) or put on the compost bin, recycle glass bottles ( I save the jars) plastic milk cartons, paper, tins. Give clothes and unwanted other stuff to jumble sales, compost or feed to chickens any scraps. I save carrier bags and either re-use or put in recycling bin in supermarket when I go, save plastic pots for the garden. Not sure what else I can do really... Though I think your secret may be in the way that you shop in the 1st place. We still have the odd frozen pizza...

Our council lets you put out garden waste but only in special green bags that are 65p each from the library or Post Office. Its really for woody prunings etc that won't compost.

Lloyd



Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 05 3:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The council can probably advise on where to take the engine oil for recycling. There's a bloke I know in Hamphire that converts old chip fat into diesel which he then sells under Custome and Excise license from the pump at half the price of normal diesel.

Gervase



Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 05 5:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We fill about a third of a bag a week with three of us - mainly meat waste and stuff the recyclers don't like, like waxed cardboard cartons. All the rest goes for recycling or compost.
Thankfully our council here in West Wales is very hot on recycling, and encourages everyone to bag their paper and plastic separately.
As for the engine oil, nearly all council waste centres have a tank for dumping the stuff. Same goes for anti-freeze - never pour it down the drain as it's lethal (especially to cats and dogs).

moogie



Joined: 02 Feb 2005
Posts: 525
Location: Near Bridgend
PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 05 6:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I try and recycle as much as possible, and of course the composting too, but no green bins or recycling schemes in my area. Have to drive it to the tip. What is a green bin? I've never heard of one of those before?! Shame on me! May have to lobby the town council to get something started!

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 05 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

moogie wrote:
May have to lobby the town council to get something started!


Good idea, but I'm surprised they don't have a scheme in place already, they have governmet set targets to meet.

Pilsbury



Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex
PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 05 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We are down to about 1 black bag a week and 1 recycling bag for the 2 of us, could be better but it is down.
I would love to do some composting but dont have any soil to but a bin on so until i can find an enclosed bin I will have to wait although I keep hearing about Wormarys for kitching waste....... anyone got any pointers?

wellington womble



Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands
PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 05 9:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

How? HOW?

Reducing waste is my project for this year. There are two of us, and I reckon we produce between 1 - 3 bin bags most weeks. All of our glass and paper is collected. I take plastic to the recycling bank. We do bin a few tins, but himself is in charge of dog food and I'm trying to phase in gradually so as not to spook him. I'm saving veg trays and plastic tubs for seeds in spring. Anything usable goes to charity shops. So what is in my bin? the only things I put in are the odd tin and plastic wrapping from junk mail (have now registered with MPS) and vac packed meat and stuff.

Green waste is still a problem. My worms are just not hungry enough, and I have a choice between a compost bin or a rhubarb plant. I like rhubarb.

I know the sensible option is to think before I bin it, but it's not just me who bins stuff (and himself humours me, but is not particularly interested!) I think fiddlesticks has a point about trying to buy less waste in the first place

Any and all tips welcome!

Lloyd



Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 05 9:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Most paper packaging, old envelopes, etc I use as fire lighters. Rubbishy wood goes in the grate too. Cans to can bin, bottles to bottle bank, likewise clothes and old novels. plastics are recycled when poss. Veg waste on compost heap. Dog poo in cess pit!!

wellington womble



Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands
PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 05 9:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Pilsbury wrote:
although I keep hearing about Wormarys for kitching waste....... anyone got any pointers?


yes, wait till spring. the little buggers are just all curled up in a ball in the middle trying to keep warm! Although they did sulk in the sump for a while, and try to escape out of the lid. I will shortly be doing a 'how not to do it' article, and in the summer, I'm going to make another one, as I think we'll need more.

I bought one because I thought that it would be easier for a beginner, but the kit is quite simple, so I think it would be quite easy. I am going to insulate mine with bubble wrap, and maybe get a heat pad of some sort in it to kick start them a bit. Can you get battery/solar powered soil warming cables or propagation mats? that would do the job.

mochyn



Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales
PostPosted: Tue Feb 15, 05 11:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Why isn't there a slot for 4 a year? Mind you, there's only two of us and we buy very carefully so as not to bring much real rubbish into the house. Apart from the things already posted here, wood ash goes to the garden and ash from the Rayburn gets used to surface paths. Good plastic carriers go to the shop where I work, and there is a recycling bin for bags etc. in the town car park. The cats eat any meat waste and some of the cooked veg waste (not that there's much of that). There's a whole bunch of cloth carrier bags on the kitchen door and one almost always comes along when I go anywhere.

cab



Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

PostPosted: Tue Feb 15, 05 11:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We get through less than a binbag per week, with three adults in the house. So that rounds up to one bag in the bin, most weeks, except if we're laden with lots of excess packaging.

We can compost nearly anything organic in the council composting bin, but in reality that means bones, scraps of meat, and things too woody for our own compost bin. Plastic bottles have to be taken to the recycling centre at the supermarket down the road (short walk), and glass, carboard, paper, tins and the like get picked up for recycling.

We can't recycle plastic waste other than bottles here, so we try to minimise that best we can.

Bec



Joined: 28 Nov 2004
Posts: 71
Location: Newquay, Cornwall
PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 05 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Unfotunately where I am living at the mo I can't recycle (do my best by visiting the bins etc) as they don't have a scheme otherwise most of my rubbish can be recycled!
Bec

cab



Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 05 4:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Bec, that's a shame. Can I reccomend that you might get somewhere by badgering your local council about this? They've all been given recycling targets by central government, so pestering here is really appropriate.

Mrs Fiddlesticks



Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 05 4:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

This week I've worked much harder at reducing rubbish, but that which I can't do anything with I've squished down more, therefore taking up much less room in the bin. As such I may be on target to put out only one bin bag's worth - Have I cheated?

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