The Household Waste Thread

[Dowbocop]

Been thinking about this thread for a while and inspired by GG and Frankenstein over in GGC.

What's the waste situation in your house/local area like? I make an active effort to try and reduce the stuff that goes in my general waste and I think I do a pretty good job. My purple general waste bin is usually only half full every fortnight whereas my recycling bin is more than full. I have a separate bathroom bin for recycling bottles and I try and use bars for sushi soap ( ) and shampoo when showering. I've actually had to separate out plastic and glass bottles and then go to the tip a few times recently because my recycling bin is so full I had a backlog. I've now brought my Soda Stream out of retirement to try and reduce my plastic bottle use.

My area doesn't have those little brown bins for food waste so I made a small wormery to try and deal with that in a more eco-friendly way. Surprisingly my kitchen doesn't stink!

I do my best to separate out e-waste and batteries. I'm fortunate that my work have one of those battery bins so I can use that fairly easily.

Plastic bags are an issue. I mildly annoyed my wife a couple of years ago by creating a new waste stream for plastic bags. Took them all to the tip and got told to just throw them in general waste - has anyone actually seen one of those recycling points "at larger supermarkets?!"

I've seen a service at Pets at Home where you can wash out pet food pouches and take them in. Anyone do that? I don't but I probably should. I've resigned myself to just throwing away cat litter - I once bought a bag of eco friendly paper litter and the cat retaliated by doing a gooseberry fool in our washing basket

[Rex Kramer]

Most of our local Tescos have a soft plastic waste recycling point which accepts pet food packets, carrier bags, crisp bags etc. We also separately recycle tetrapaks. Everything else goes into either the general waste or recycling bins (aside from the separate glass bin and garden waste bins). Oh and there are a couple of e-waste bins at a local leisure centre so that's handy.

[poshrule_uk]

We still recycle everything but part of me wonders where it all goes. I remember seeing a BBC programme a few years back where it was going to Asia and just being dumped!!!

[rinks]

I’m trying to work out how Dowbo uses sushi when showering.

[Dowbocop]

I’m trying to work out how Dowbo uses sushi when showering.

It's hard to get into all the crevices unless I'm bento ver...

[jawa_]

At our flats we have shared bins for general waste and recycling (glass, cans, paper). The general waste bins are used pretty well by most people but there are a few who put, say, a TV or something in there every now and again. The same with the recycling bins; most people are fine but some just put any old crap into them.

I take plastic bags/film/packets and batteries to my local Tesco store for recycling.

[Moggy]

I’m trying to work out how Dowbo uses sushi when showering.

[SandyCoin]

In general I try and separate everything and double check the symbols etc to make sure it can be technically recycled. The system here in Hamburg is quite good and convenient, with most everyday plastics, including clingfilm, collected. Most houses/apartments have specific bins outside (Blue - paper/ yellow - plastic,tins etc) and a general waste bin. Some have organic waste bins too but you have to pay extra for those and my apartment doesn't have that. There are also lots of public bins scattered around the city, with big containers for bottles/glass, plastics, electrics, paper and whatnot. For larger objects like TVs you would have to take them to a specific site, though people often just dump this stuff by the smaller electrics bin. We also have the Deposit Return Scheme in all supermarkets, which means the recycling rate for PET bottles and beer cans is pretty good.

But yeah, while I do try my best to do it properly I'm very much aware that millions of tonnes of waste are exported to places like Turkey and Malaysia for "treatment" where it is usually just tipped out into the environment or burned. Yet this still counts towards recycling targets

[KK]

Technically I have 5 bins, but I only make use of 3 (standard waste; glass, plastics, cans and cartons; textiles, paper and card). Garden waste I either put in with the general rubbish or pay the dustman off to take it, and I wasn't paying for the food waste bags or putting up with the smell/maggots that manifest from the food bin. I have so little food waste anyway it was just a hassle. From what I can tell only a few houses down my street bother doing it any more anyway.

Electricals I either sell off or take to Currys. Batteries to Sainsbury's. They're supposed to recycle it on your behalf...but who really knows! Same with all recycling, really; could all be one big con, but I'm doing my part.

Would be in favour of plastic bottles being gradually phased out again and replaced with glass - take them back to the supermarket and get paid 10p or whatever in return.

[Ironhide]

I once bought a bag of eco friendly paper litter and the cat retaliated by doing a gooseberry fool in our washing basket

Cats don't care about being eco friendly (or anything other than sleeping, eating and mutilating mice/birds for that matter).