Rubbish/recycling
I see there have been a few comments around on this lately , I know we all pay different council tax prices (I have NO idea what we pay for ) ..
Fortnight alternative weeks
Black bin all rubbish but in bin , odd bag taken ...if smiled at
Green bin (2) have to pay for 2 nd ..all garden stuff. Recycle day of tins/cans /bottles (don't use recycle box as never got one and they don't take plastic or cardboard...collect own in utility in crates and take locally .
Fortnight alternative weeks
Black bin all rubbish but in bin , odd bag taken ...if smiled at
Green bin (2) have to pay for 2 nd ..all garden stuff. Recycle day of tins/cans /bottles (don't use recycle box as never got one and they don't take plastic or cardboard...collect own in utility in crates and take locally .
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I have no rubbish collection, it's optional, if needs be there are places which would let you leave 2 black bags for €6 In town with a family you probably would need a bin collection from one of several services.
For me it's simple enough burn or recycle glass can go in glass recycle bins and cans in another everything is washed out so no stinky rubbish. I eat fresh or frozen generally so recycling only comes round every couple of months. I also prep and freeze vegetables. Get them out of the sweaty plastic as soon as possible. Simple for me. Heating is usually wood blocks cut by chainsaw and chopped with an axe. Currently my cottage has a pretty inefficient open fire by next winter there will be a cast iron woodburning stove in it's place.
It's around 10 miles to town and 30 to the city for me, but I have to get shopping anyway so it's no real bother to put the little i gather into the boot of my car. (honestly I use around a carrier bag full of cans and I have only needed to recycle twice since july).
If I head for cork then shopping would be part of that trip rather than going out specially. You'd probably like my electric bills i use about 2 kw electricity a day in summer and currently 4 kw in winter/ spring. It helps my fridge and freezer are A++ rated. Lights cfl 10 watts, netbook typically 12 watts Tv/sat is around a 100 watt but i try to avoid too much of that sort of thing more interesting things to do. I want to get a solar water heating project on the go.
No option here, don't own a car so have to rely on council collections, its glass, plastic, tins/cans, foodwaste & landfill week 1, then its paper/card, cardboard & green waste i.e. garden waste on week 2 (but they only collect garden waste from 1st week in April - Oct). Although, we haven't had our paper bin collected for 6 weeks now, it's due this weds coming and if they don't take it this time then I will either burn it all in the street or just put it into land fill.
Rubbish collection is in crisis, really. Councils, under pressure to save money, reduce the number of collections and make charges. They have spent money on recycling systems, only to find that there is nowhere much to recycle stuff now that the Chinese are not taking as much. People who can't be bothered to sort their rubbish or who won't pay for services resort to illegal dumping. It seems to me that the answer is really - as blackest has exemplified - greater simplicity of lifestyle. I'm taking your example to heart, blackest!
I know this isn't about rubbish collection in the UK, but I thought you might be interested how things work here. All supermarkets have bins at the exit to dispose of excess packing and most have a large container to dispose of plastic bottles (PET). In our village, newspapers (bundled) are collected every two months, the proceeds go to the local school sports fund. A recycle yard next to the local primary school is open for 2 hours on Wed. evenings (in summer) and Sat. afternoons, where you can deposit glass in a skip, sorted by white, brown and green, and skips for metal, aluminium and carton. Rubbish collection is once a week either in wheely bins or black rubbish bags (both need a label stuck on them which can be bought at the local shops, the price depends on the size of the bag/wheely bin). Garden waste every Mon. morning (labels here too). Twice a year in spring and autumn you can order an industrial shredder to come by to shred larger garden waste such as branches etc. This is free of charge (well, I guess we've paid for it in the local taxes). We use the shredded material to mulch the flower beds.
Well, I hope I haven't bored everyone to death, just thought you might be interested.
I guess we have a lot to learn in this country
We are provided with black bags (refuse), green bags (cans, glass, paper, card, tin foil) and pink bags (plastic), a small and large green caddy (food waste) with biodegradable bin liners and 2 large white bags for garden waste (collected right throughout the year) . Week 1 is black bag/pink bag/green caddy and week 2 is green bags/garden waste/green caddy.
It's a brilliant system - I'm really pleased that I've reduced my refuse to 1 black bag a month
Ordinary refuse once a week-this is guaranteed for the next 5 years -thanks to a grant from somewhere
Recycling once a fornight
Green waste is just about to be charged for-which is probably a fairer system -not all use it-once a fortnight
Tip is 5 minutes away
The recycling thing here has been handled very poorly by the council - for many years after the advent of wheelie-bins we were told that although almost everyone else had them, those of us who live down this lane could not. The reason was said to be that the lane is too narrow for the lorry. So, whilst others had their wheelie bins, we still had to leave our waste stuff out on the lane in plastic bags - by 7 am on collection day - and the bags were, of course, raided by foxes and crows/magpies etc long before the council lorry got anywhere near. Recycled stuff (not glass) was collected on alternate weeks. We had to take any glass either to a bottle bank or to the local tip ourselves. Three years ago the council suddenly changed its mind and, although the lorry was the same one and the lane the same width, we were supplied with three wheelie bins per property. This time we were able to recycle glass too, and this was collected on alternate weeks.
All seemed to be going fine - until last year when it was announced that Everything Was Going to be Changed. The council said they would collect and recycle the old bins (which to date they have not) and would issue each household with a new wheelie bin, two lidded re-cycling boxes and a "caddy" for waste food which - they say - is going to be turned into bio-fuel. They won't now allow us to put plastic bags in the re-cycling bins, nor dark-coloured plastic food trays - even though they have the "recyclable" symbol. So, I have to take plastic bags "to the nearest large supermarket" but I can recycle (via the new system) mobile phones, computer printer ink cartridges and spectacles. Some idiot somewhere in the council offices presumably thinks I have loads of those items to recycle each week and don't have any recyclable plastic bags at all..........
So - I now have four wheelie bins, two re-cycling boxes and a "caddy". My council tax has gone up again. Wonder why................