New Recycling Ideas(I CAN? CAN YOU?)

[return of the mac]

It all depends on how rubbish your council is at rubbish.
I have no recycling bins, and none as often as a mile or so apart The percentage of plastics that we can recycle in the uk is ridiculously small, so reusig is definitely a better option for all concerned

[Roy Bham UK]

our local council has had plastic recycling bins at every home for at least 8 years also previously rthere were hge bins every mile or so where you could put them, also on the pallet thing to be honest i havnt seen many plastic pallets, and there people who use pallets alot ho i knwo dont seem to ever use plastic ones.

ok, i do kind of understand this but where are third world countries meant to get 9,000 plastic bottles per family? even town?

It should have read "we don't recycle plastic milk bottles" (rubbish council). Can't understand your post on plastic pallets? and your spelling is atrocious

[adam04]

he he, my speelin is ok when i put my mind to it, but then i lose track of what im saying and its all down hill after that....

on the pallets, i know a few people in trades that use pallets day in day out, building, warehousing etc, but none of them use plastic pallets often at all, they all use wooden ones.

[Roy Bham UK]

What are you on Adam I don't know where you dreamt up the plastic pallets

[return of the mac]

Ok i mentioned the plastic pallets- i have it on good authority that certain businesses are changing to them.

And adam how will you get a level english with spelling like that?

[adam04]

i CAN do it when i try, just takes effort trying.

[jennym]

My partner leaves packaging at the tills when he goes shopping - apparently it's a german habit - most shops don't raise a hair to it and maybe, just maybe the manufacturers will cut back on their packaging. 

  Just picturing the traffic jambs in Asda on a busy Saturday when the cashier says "Would you like someone to help with the de-packaging Sir?"

Blush: I unwrap stuff at supermarkets too. People look at me as if I'm mad. My pet hate at present is Mr.Kipling's Cherry Bakewell tarts. Count the packaging.....

[Roy Bham UK]

My missus will always check her magazines for ad-paraphernalia and shake them out and leave them on the shelf, I prefer to return junk that comes through the post to whoever kindly sends me a return envelope

[Multiveg]

My hubby unfortunately is a throw away type of person - I still remove glass bottles and drinks cans from the rubbish and set aside for recycling collection.

BTW - there is an uproar in parts of Conwy - they are going to collect rubbish fortnightly - not sure how often they are going to collect recycling, but they want to increase the amount of stuff recycled...

[kentishchloe]

Hi recyclers - glad to hear you're all so green-minded

For my part, as well as recycling the obvious - paper, glass,plastic ets... my major contribution to reducing landfill is.....  Cloth Nappies.
Each baby in this country uses enough disposable nappies to fill a skip or twelve large wheelie bins every year.  When you consider that these don't degrade at all and that many children aren't potty trained until 3 yrs old, that's a whole lotta landfill.
Modern cloth nappies are great - they come in so many funky colours & designs these days- my 12 month old son has NEVER been in a disposable - we've even been camping this year. 

This is my own personal passion - i am pretty active in promoting the use of cloth nappies - just thought i'd share with y'all.  Ta for listening x

[JRP]

TREE TOP FARMING.
I've just put forward my ideas on how I would use my system of growing things to start tree top farming in CANADA. As I have a e-mail friend called George who is interested in doing so,as he lives surrounded by forest with no room to grow things in the ground,because of the roots and not a lot of light getting to the lower area in-between the trees,plus the cold weather condistions are a big problem too,but he his going to try my way of doing things as I grow nothing in the ground it's self,which could help the people living in the rain forest too,where they are cutting down thousands of trees so they can grow things to eat and other things too. With this in mind I'm now going to tell you what I told George as you might find it of interest to you,even though I'm sure I will be taken as a fool by those who don't like the way I re-use waste plastic containers and wood now,to be of benefit to those who might use my simple transportable system,made for free to help feed themselves. What I said.
My decking is your platform covered completely in rows of plastic containers,even a poly tunnel system covering the crops would protect them from the snow and the cold winds. I'm sure once the first platform is made up high using block and tackle,and a lot of ropes,you will then go on to link up other tree top platforms areas to each other by the way of walk ways,so you can do things without coming down. What I suggest you do first is to make a small version of what your tree top farm is going to be like,simply done by finding a young tree to work on,or more to represent the way your going to have to do things on a small scale first,before trying to do it on a larger scale up high. For example either laying out your containers on a trunk area you have cut off,or extending it by laying very long lengths of wood down on top of your tree trunk first. Which ever way you feel is safer,remembering the bigger the space the more you can grow. Making a log cabin serves a purpose made from wood,making a tree top farming system from wood will serve even a bigger purpose.
The main benefits of my system is if used,you don't have to cut down any trees,only the top part is removed which allows the tree to keep on growing leaving outer branches all the way round your platform to protect you from the wind,you can also use solar power,wind power if you want too,you can also save water in many ways to make your self even more selfsufficientish.
The only down side would be if there was a forest fire,but if we are talking about very wide tree trunks,I'm sure all would not be lost to start again. Plus you could already have a helicopter landing platform made in the same way to help in a rescue situation or for other things. Plus you will only need a sharp knife once you are set up to do things,like I do now,even re-using the same compost over and over again will give you a crop. There's a thought a tree top allotment plot,but not in the UK. John JRP.

[moonbells]

This is my own personal passion - i am pretty active in promoting the use of cloth nappies - just thought i'd share with y'all.  Ta for listening x

I read not that long ago that the environmental impact is about the same, since you have to expend energy washing the terry nappies at high enough temperatures to kill bacteria.  But yes I agree with you. There's another benefit of terry nappies -  babies know they're damp and so potty training is faster. I was apparently dry at 18 months.  Trouble is, if you have to use a childminder or creche, do they object to doing cloth nappies?

moonbells (no sprogs yet - not quite been hitched a year !)

[kentishchloe]

creches & childminders seem to be fine with them - most modern types are shaped just like diposables and fasten with velcro so no difference except that you don't chuck them away.
The study that suggested that the two types of nappy were of equal environmental impact didn't actually consider landfill at all - concentrated on production methods and costs. also their research was flawed as they didn't take a wide enough sample of cloth users and got a lot of their facts wrong. I believe the report may have been recommissioned, but i could be wrong about that.

[joji]

We have a local firm that makes car parts. They just throw away big blue barrels and wooden pallets. We go there 3 - times a week to take the pallets and blue barrels off there hands to use on our lotti once it is all sorted out. The blue barrels will be used to collect rain water and for growing things in like strawberrys. The pallets will be used to make compost bins, fencing, and path boarders and also furniture for the lottie.

[kentishchloe]

ooh - we've got two or three engineering-type units on the industrial park nearby - maybe they'll be as rich in lotty pickings as yours - excited now, will go and investigate when son & heir wakes up from nap.

[joji]

Kentishchloe

Let me know how you get on

[kentishchloe]

joji - went for a little jolly in my audi estate yesterday and came up trumps! found a distribution centre that had a huge pile of tasty looking pallets next to their bins, also found some handsome young men sitting around in the sunshine so i gave them my broadest smile and asked if i could have any - they were only too happy to oblige! i now have enough to make my planned coldframe ( i did have to do two trips, dropping little boy off with dad so i could put seats down & get bigger pallets in car)
thanks for the tip

[joji]

WOW great news Kentishchloe. Glad I could help. Deffo a gret money saver.

[JRP]

I thought I better write some thing as my topic is now at the bottom of the list. It's great to read about other people doing their own thing to help reduce waste that can be re-used to be of benefit,instead of going to landfill sites. Keep up the good work,together we must be making a big difference in our own ways,power to the people.
I also thought I better write something about what I've been doing otherwise you may think I have given up.
Whilst we have had a lot of rain laterly I've still been putting my bits of potatos into my container system,after taking out my crops of potatos to eat.
I've also just finished picking my tomatoes which were sown on the 7-4-2005,in total 345,even though I stopped them from growing to high,with no cane supports to fit into my sections,and having chicking wire over them to stop ?
I'm still picking French beans sown on the 15-2-2005.
I've even got strawberries growing on my old plants which I thought had finished flowering.
Lots of my old onions,spring onions,leeks and carrots are still alive sown on the 12-1-2004,5-5-2004 24-5-2004,which proves to me mother nature will grow things in my containers better than if they were left in the ground to be eaten by what ever,instead of being eaten if they were not harvested.
May you all live long and happy. John.JRP.

[JRP]

RECYCLING IDEAS TO MY OLD SCHOOL.
 :)I've just been in contact with one of my old class mates who is now chirman at my old school in Eltham. I've asked him to ask the children if they would be interested in my re-using of waste ideas,to have as a school project,to help reduce some of our waste going into landfill sites in the UK,as we were both not very good at the 3Rs ourselves when we were at school.