Recycling

But yeah why there can’t be a standardised UK wide approach I don’t know.

Its surprisingly complex.

Once upon a tim i did the life cycle analysis of Hulls waste streams.

Carry “easily recycled” materials can be pretty poor cost and carbon wise if you need to hoi it into hundreds of lorries and drive it across the country.

Recycling pretty poor in general. Thats why reduce and reuse are so key.

Pain in the hoop binning off courgettes in plastic? Don’t buy courgettes in plastic.

I’m also Sheffield and struggling with recycling.

Wadsley bridge Sainsbury’s now have their plastics recycling indoors as they were suffering from business fly tipping.

Hillsborough Morrisons used to do Tetrapak recycling but it’s been closed for the last month or so because of business fly tipping.

The council paperwork on what can and cannot be recycled in the brown bin isn’t clear enough, pump spray cleaners are yes but pump soap dispensers are no, yoghurt pots are yes but food containersnare no.

Allegedly a lot of Sheffield’s recycling gets incinerated because the council wrote a contract that priorities energy generation over actual recycling.

I have little enthusiasm for any government that cannot just slap a few non negotiables on manufacturers and retailers. . Why just ban anything hard to recycle? Give them a year or so to get their act together then ban.  We will eat the food so it will sell in another package and if we get a little less choice then so what? We don’t need or deserve the choice we have.  Same with most things. Don’t allow a new phone to be sold without an old one being traded in and that must be recycled by the manufacturer. Bikes, tyres, clothes etc can all be dealt with in the same way.

The biggest problem with all this is the selfish consumer who thinks that they have a god given right to what ever they want, not what they need.  Any food stuff that could be produced in the UK should have no foreign alternative allowed and anything really silly, such as flowers flown in should be banned.

Probably doesn’t deserve a new thread, but this kinda blew my mind!

A mate of mine built an e-bike powered by the salvaged contents of the battery recycling barrel at work.

Any food stuff that could be produced in the UK should have no foreign alternative allowed

The problem here is that it’s likely cheaper to grow / make a “foreign alternative” and ship it here than it is to produce locally.  Which is all well and good for the affluent whilst we’re in the midst of a “cost of living” crisis which is showing little sign of improving any time soon.  Plus of course, post-brexit it’s already a dice roll as to whether there will be things like “fruit” in the supermarket without introducing additional embargoes.

Probably doesn’t deserve a new thread, but this kinda blew my mind!

A mate of mine built an e-bike powered by the salvaged contents of the battery recycling barrel at work.

…And now he’s well on the way to blowing his own mind! Or at least his feet ;-)

Pain in the hoop binning off courgettes in plastic? Don’t buy courgettes in plastic.

Not a big deal since I don’t like courgettes but with no grocers in, well bugger knows where the nearest one is, I don’t have much choice for anything else. Does my head in.

Australia- dig a hole and drop it in.
On a serious note though – 3 wheelie bins, 1 medium for general waste emptied weekly, 1 large for recycling (glass, cardboard, tin, aluminium, emptied every 2 weeks, and a large one for biodegradable waste, same as the recycling bin. Although landfill is really cheap, Australia has quite a focus on recycling that started out of the paper industry. This now extends to glass as well, but we behind on plastic with the exception of PET.

Not round here. We have two wheelie bins. General waste – we just put ours out for the first time since the start of August. Recycling – everything but soft plastics – every two weeks.

The bottle and can deposit system began a few years back in Queensland and is working well I think. 10c back on every item. We have a depot where you chuck them on a conveyor and it counts them and gives you money. Some charities/clubs etc have collections so you can effectively donate your rubbish and they make money. They’ve been doing this in South Australia for ages though.