General Chat

Took them a loooong time to realise about contamination, cynical me thinks it is more likely to save money, shame they don't pass savings on to customers.

:-D :-D :-D@ Rose

Ah guess it makes sense re the colours but yes we have spent years looking the bottle tops so now will have to look at the label. Old habits die hard though!

:-D :-D :-D

I expect it's just me, but I keep trying to pour the milk without noticing that the white lid is still on :-S

I’m getting used to looking at the label rather than the top. Annoying when we’ve all spent so many year identifying the milk by the bottle top : sivlver, red gold etc.

Yes, clear or white bottle tops don't 'contaminate' the recycling, as coloured tops are harder to recycle into food-grade plastic. Thus the tops don't have to be separated for recycling.

As this thread is about recycling etc, thought i would post this question here rather than start another thread.

Can anyone think of a reason why the milk bottle tops have all changed to white? With different coloured tops, it was easy to identify the milk you needed however my Tesco delivery person said it was something to do with the recycling centre??

Florence in the hebrides

Rambling, Are you rambling rose? I’m back :-D so nice to see you here like the old days of GR.

I don't have much food waste, cat food, lemon peel and bread mainly , which seems to go off more quickly, partly due to being short dated when delivered. Most other things go in the compost bin.

Names, yes that can happen although they do look in the bins before taking them to the bin wagon. If you say have put glass bottles in the organic bin, they will not take it and can fine you if you repeatedly put the wrong things in the wrong bins.

ArgyllGran, I can see your reasoning behind your thinking but there isn't any rhyme or reason, its baffling tbh.

It's a job in itself sorting it all for the various bins. In my kitchen, I have a blue canvas bag for the recyclable things another for carboard/thick paper, the food waste caddy and a bin for non recyclable things.

I think there are a lot of "lazy" people who cant be bothered to sort anything but that spoils it for the rest of us who are trying to make a difference.

I do wonder if here they will run out of land where the non recyclable stuff is dumped? What will happen then?

Yes, OK, I take it back!
No rhyme or reason to it.

Florence, if your area expects you to sort into groups and someone puts the wrong thin in then the whole load can be rejected and go into general waste.

Argyll gran, I am in a remote rural area and we have 4 bins including one for glass. so I am very surprised our percentage isn't higher as all I ever see are blue recycling bins overflowing so we as householders must be doing something right.

I wouldn't have any 'food waste', as all my vegetable waste goes in the compost bin - along with eggshells, and crushed mussel shells.

I also eat everything on my plate!

Ours was 56.2% in 2021-22, it went up from the previous year. We've got a number of bins/boxes but it's all collected each week, apart from general refuse which is every 3 weeks. I put less in general refuse than I used to at our previous home.

Not sure how you come to that conclusion. For example, In my largely rural area, with lots of bins, boxes, bags etc we get around 50%.
Son doesn’t live in a rural area and theirs is around 30%. This is an area that puts all the recycling in one bin, although houses also get a good recycling box.

From the small sample reported here, it seems that, in general, towns and cities, with more and different kinds of bins provided, have higher percentages than large rural areas with fewer options.
Which is probably not surprising.

The recycle rate here is 49.5.

So with all the recycling we do, shouldn't it be higher?
Maybe its the recycling centres that don't maybe sort it properly?

Rambling 354 tonnes of food waste? Imagine how many starving people that would have fed? 55 % is pretty good and the best so far I think.

This week, we have been eating out the fridge and freezer using up everything that has been lurking so nothing gets thrown away. Our fridge is actually nearly empty.

In our borough it is around 55% at the kerbside, and there are two recycling centres also which are very good for bigger loads, household, everything really.

Collection is fortnightly, one week ordinary the next recycling so we have an ordinary bin, a bin for bottles/cans and recycleable plastics, a bin for green garden waste, a bag for cardboard and a small food bin ( borough recycled 354 tonnes of food waste last year).You can also bag up batteries & clothes and put those out on recycling bin day.