Topic: New Recycling Ideas(I CAN? CAN YOU?)

[Baccy Man]

I don't have wheelie bins I just have recycling bags for some plastics, metal, paper & textiles & 52 black bags given to me by the council every year. The plastic/metal recycling bag generally take at least 6 weeks to fill usually a lot longer, the paper/textiles bag is not used as all that can be used in other ways. The black bags take months to fill I am still using the roll of 52 from 2000 when I first moved in here. Most waste is either composted or recyclable materials that the council won't collect (certain plastics, glass, tetra-pack cartons etc...) are taken 12 miles by bus to the nearest recycling facilities. I can't see what your problem is when your council is providing a better service than mine yet I don't have any problems dealing with my waste & I also compost several of my neighbours food & garden waste too.

[Emagggie]

I suppose it's ok if everybody recycles as they are asked, but there are going to be many who don't, then there will still be all the smelly bins and health hazzards that Jeannine mentioned. Not every-one has a garden and a compost heap. As for recycling food waste, mine goes in the dog generally. ;D

[Kea]

We're told when we got our extra bins for recycling and green waste that if our lid won't close on the waste rubbish bin then it wouldn't be collected. Fine I don't have a problem with that most rubbish is recyclable and even with 4 of us we often have space in the bin at the end of the fortnight.
However recently we get our biannual letter from the district council about waste and recycling and if you read it carefully you find they've changed the rules. Old clothing can't be recycled now and now the recycling bin won't be collected if the lid won't close. We used to be able to put cardboard boes too big to go in the bin out beside the bin (unofficially that is still happening) so what is the point of a recyling collection because anyone who has space in their waste bin and not enough room in the recycling is going to put it in the unused space in the waste bin or they're going to waste fuel driving it to a recycling centre completely defeating the purpose of the collection in the first place.
As I mentioned they haven't actually followed up their new rule (or at least the bin men haven't) anyway but I guess they will eventually.

[JRP]

Hi ALL, I'm sorry if you can't get your head round my post, the main points I'm trying to make are, Yes it's a new system which is great, but WHY use black bags, when they could have given us another bin, say with a red top to put them in, instead of us having to put the black bags down by the side of our two other bins until they are collected fortnightly, making the area where we live look like a dump. When we have three new waste collecting lorries which did come round on the 23-1-2008, 1 at 6am, another at about 10am, and anther one at about 2pm, all on the same day. The point I'm trying to make is if they can do it one week, on one day, then why can they do it like that every week. If you would like to visit the Council website which cover everything I've been talking about in the way of info it's. Home Page is ok,www.greenwich.gov.uk/Greenwhich/YourEnvironment/RubbishRecycling/Recy... John.J.R.P.

[Jeannine]

I don't buy bags , goodness me, I use bags that other stuff comes in that I have no option to bring home,I recycle everything I can but still the bin gets mucky with some stuff as do my recycle bins.I don't wash my wheelie bin, cos it is bigger than me and I would fall in the ruddy thing if I tried, and me upside down in a wheelie bin yelling for help in an area that no one comes even  if you scream  rape is not a cheerful thought. I could be stuck in there. for good, well 2 weeks anyway till the bin men come.

So I will continue to bag  with freebies,and not clean my bin.

Ohhh the mind boggles, especially as I am usually putting the junk out in my nightgown.

XX Jeannine

[springbok]

Went to look at the website and got the list for the black sack usage!

What to put in your black sack
You should use your black sacks for:

    * polystyrene
    * disposable nappies
    * clothing and shoes
    * waxed food and beverage cartons
    * batteries and electrical waste
    * pet waste (except waste from small pets on a vegetarian diet)
    * cat litter
    * vacuum cleaner waste
    * sanitary towels and incontinence pads (you may want to put them in a sealed bag first)
    * coal and wood embers
    * cotton wool pads/buds and make-up wipes
    * cigarette ends and ashtray contents
    * coat hangers
    * broken crockery - wrap in paper first to avoid injury

Now to be honest, how often does anybody throw the above out!!.. Ok sanitary wear and nappies is not pleasant, but the list isnt that bad.  I cant personally see the street being cluttered with black bags!!.. Or am I reading all this wrong lol.

[SMP1704]

That's a lot of sorting but not the end of the world. 

Over here in Hounslow we have been buying our own black bags for at least the last ten years.  We have a dustbin lined with a black bag, put the rubbish in that and then take out and tie up the sack and put out on the street the night before the bin men arrive.

Makes sense to me and the street only looks messy one day a week.

[Emagggie]

We have the same system but if we put out the bags here the foxes rip them to bits and it's a pain to have to clear up the mess. If we buy our own wheelie bins (we have), the bin men wont take the rubbish out. It has to be in a black bag, so I get up early and take the bags out of the wheelie bin for those poor, poor hard done by dustmen. ::)

[Old bird]

I am getting really good at the recycling thingy - also I have encouraged my work to become involved.  The thing that really Pi**es me off is the houses with only one or two adults and 7 black bags out per week!!!!

It sometimes niggles me so much that if the owner (luckily they haven't been there!) had been there I would have suggested that they look at their recycling options!

I think the Council's ought to be a bit more strict and only collect on bag per household and ensure that offenders are advised of the recycling facilities that are on offer - if they decide they don't want to use them then make them pay!

We are talking of the destruction of life as we know it - and people can't be bothered with sorting out their rubbish?!!

I am speaking from Minehead where we, possibly, don't have as much going on as city folk!

Old Bird

 >:(

[star]

I totally agree Old Bird, trouble is when so much rubbish is generated by one household, and lets say we are only allowed to put out 1 bag a week. There are those that will just dump it anywhere.

We have so much fly tipping as it is already, its like these people do not give a toss for the planet they live on........Shoot 'em!! >:(

[MPG]

we have 2 bins in the hastings area 1 green, 1 black, they get collected on rotation every 2 wks, once a fortnite black one goes with house hold rubbish and so on and so forth, our family consist of 4 children 2 adults, we dont have our rubbish spilling everywhere with seagulls ripping it to pieces, we are lucky if we fill the bins, i buy whatever fresh food i can with hardly any packaging, or the biggest packs so they last alot longer, all my plastic waste ie milk cartons or deep things that say cakes or biscuits come in i reuse these as much as i can, mainly for planting things,
cardboard like cerial packets i either hand in to the school for the children to build things with or we cut it up for ours to draw on but anything i can use for garden or lotty i get first digs ;D . but what i have noticed is if you have money to buy junk then the junk/rubbush you create is doubled if not trippled, i just hate the thought of the stuff going to landfill if there is anyway it can safely be re used.....

[Emagggie]

Well said MPG. ;)

[Trixiebelle]

:( Hi ALL, VERY SAD NEWS for me, after me getting a long awaited reply from Miss Ann Widdecombe. It's turns out after many years of trying to get my life saving ideas used, at last some one on behalf of the lovely lady has taken the time to tell me the reason why I haven't found any one in power to champion my cause.

Sorry, I hit 'post' before I had a reasoned argument lined up!

[floraldi]

Just wanted to say that Monty Don in India (repeat showing tonight) visits the MOST AMAZING garden made by a truly avid recycler.  You must see this programme if you have not seen it already.  Di

PS Not quite figured out the empty four pint plastic thingy. We use this size but our council does recycle plastic.

[JRP]

 ;DHi ALL, I say what we need is a WASTE REVOLUTION in the UK, to take place now, because I believe we need to think and handle all our waste as a asset, and at no time should it go to landfill sites. I'm sure every thing we produce can be reused again in one way or another, but I believe because there is so much money involved which comes from our Council tax or Rents, which can be spent by people who are not really accountable for their actions on behalf of the people who actually pay the BILL, which is most of us at the end of the day, Governed by just a few people who all have their own ideas on how to deal with our waste PROBLEMs, with a end result of some Councils are doing a good job, and some are not, even our own Greenwich Council has started a New collection Service, but they are leaving it to the people to sort it out as time goes on, rather than having every thing in place before they started, for example not having enough blue top wheelie bins, or bin liners.
With this in mind I'm now in the position of being The Voice of our Coldharbour Estate, SE9,  C.T.R.A. Waste and Recycling Team, which I intend to use, to help REDUCE as much of our waste as I can going to our landfill sites, with the help of others living on our estate, and with the backing of our Greenwich Council I know we can make a BIG difference, simply done by us all working together to help SOLVE any PROBLEMs, that's not going to go away over night, but with some of my outside the box ideas I will be putting forward to every one, we could change the way we do things over night, if used.
May be you want to be a voice for your estate too, and join me in my REVOLUTIONARY thoughts.
For example below is a copy of a C.T.R.A. Coldharbour, Tenants, Residents, Association, meeting paper I gave to our Greenwich Council representatives, to help me know more in the way of 20 questions. What I want at the end of the day is a service that's good value for money, and it deals with our waste as a asset not to be thrown away, but REUSED, I have so many ideas on how to make this come about, but only time will tell if I've been wasting my time or not, so I invite every one to watch this space, as you might find it of interest to you, as I try to change lots of things in my own way, with the help of others, now that I'm in the SYSTEM.
Power to the people who are doing their bit, in their own way all over the world to save our planet for future generations to come.
May you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John.J.R.P.

C.T.R.A. meeting held on the 27th February 2008, is where people living on our Coldharbour Estate SE9 can have their say, and it will be acted upon in the future.
Here are some questions I would like answers to in regards to our New waste collection service started on Wednesday 21st  of January 2008.
(1) Will our Greenwich Council Tax be going up tp pay for it?
(2) How much does it cost to deal with one GREEN TOP WHEELIE BIN?
(3) How much does it cost to deal with one BlUE TOP WHEELIE BIN?
(4) How much does it cost to deal with one Black Bag?
(5) How much does it cost to deal with one DAYs WASTE?
(6) How much does it cost to deal with one WEEKs WASTE?
(7) How much does it cost each person living on our Coldharbour Estate to have their WASTE collected?
(8) How much does it cost each person living on our Coldharbour Estate to have their STREETs free from rubbish?
(9) How much does it cost each person Living on our Coldharbour Estate to have their LARGE waste collected?
(10) How much does it cost each person living on our Coldharbour Estate to have their CONTAMINATED Wheelie bin dealt with?
(11) How much waste does our Coldharbour Estate produce over all?
(12) How much waste has been put into the GREEN TOP BINs and collected?
(13) How much waste has been put into the BLUE TOP BINs and collected?
(14) How much waste has been put into the BLACK BAGs and collected?
(15) How much waste has been put into the wrong PLASTIC CONTAINERs and collected?
(16) How much of our waste goes to landfill sites?
(17) How much of our waste gets REUSED?
(18) How much of our waste gets RECYCLED?
(19) How much would it cost to supply each person who has a WHEELIE BIN, with a Large Clear Bin LINER?
(20) How much would it cost to have our own Coldharbour Recycling Bank?
These are just some of the questions I will be asking The Greenwich Council waste representatives to night.

Which did turn out to be a very good presentation by our Greenwich Council Waste Service People, which I'm sure you could get arranged to where you live if you try.
Did you know if you are a home owner living in Greenwich you are charged £4 a item to have your bulk waste taken away, but if you are a Council Tenant you are not charged, This to me is DISCRIMINATION between peoples waste, and I've accused Greenwich Council and others of it. and I've said I want this to stop straight away or there's going to be a Big PROBLEM in the future, as we own our own house like so many others do, and we pay our Council Tax to cover this already, so WHY should we pay more to have the same type of waste removed?
These are some more of my ideas I'm putting forward.
We must do away with using Black Bags to help prevent people CONTAMINATATING their waste before it goes into the back of the waste collecting lorry.
We must have FREE BIN LINERS, and BAGs.
We must have enough Wheelie Bins for what we throw away.
We must have Free bulk household waste collection.
We must have all our wheelie bins made from clear recycled plastic.
We must have one way of dealing with our waste, to cover the whole of the UK.
We must all try to do our bit in a positive way to reuse and recycle our waste starting from a early age.
We must get our waste PROBLEMs sorted out as soon as possible, otherwise we are going to have a BIG PROBLEM IN THE FUTURE.  John.J.R.P.

[JRP]

HELP is this  8) a Computer Virus, because I did put the number 8 down.

[Baccy Man]

HELP is this  8) a Computer Virus, because I did put the number 8 down.

No not a virus you just have to disable smilies (checkbox in additional options) if you want to write 8) as that is the code for the 'cool' smiley

[JRP]

Hi Baccy Man,  thank you for putting my mind at ease.
May you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John.J.R.P.

[JRP]

 ;D Hi ALL, our GREENWICH COUNCIL Waste Management is RUBBISH at dealing with our rubbish, I say this after trying to get our waste delt with in a posative way, to help reduce it going to landfill sites from our Coldharbour Estate SE9, done by trying to make sure every one has a Blue Top Wheelie Bin to use, to help recycle more, and to help reduce the risk of CONTAMINATION, which does happen if  some people have only a Green Top Wheelie Bin to use.
I believe this could have all been sorted out years ago, if the Council had said to every one living in a Council House or their own homes, that we must all have a Green Top Wheelie bin supplied by the Council, to use for just food and Garden waste only, with some paper in them for food to be wrapped up in, and they should have also said that we must all have a Blue Top Wheelie bin supplied by the Council to, for what ever else can be reused or recycled, and then maybe adding another one later to cover what ever else was left.
But no they decided to start a New collection service this year, already knowing they would not be able to cope with what should have been already in place, which was Blue Top Wheelie Bins, and clear recycling bags, and a nappy service as promise, and a Management Team of people who actually new what to do.
I have spoken to a lot of our dustmen and people living on our estate, and they say the Greenwich Council Waste Management have not got a clue, they sit in their offices giving out work to be done by each man, not knowing about the job them selves, which of course they will claim is not the case, and saying we will sort things in the future.
For example when someone has taken the time to phone in to tell them they want a Blue Top Wheelie bin to use for example, they get told, they will get one A S P, which could take nearly a year going by some of the people I've spoken to, as each one is dealt with as they are entered down on the list to be ordered. So what happens is someone might want one in Eltham, someone might want one in Woolwich, someone might want one Greenwich, Someone might want one in New Eltham, then someone might want one in Lewisham, and so on, what then happens is a vehicle then travels from one house to another in that order until each one is delivered, that's why its's taking so long, instead of doing a bulk delievery when they have enough to fill one lorry brought in from Germany, to cover a lot more people in one go, who are living in a certain area, and then move on to the next one until we all have our bins to use as a way of life, instead of some Councils supplying boxes,bags,sacks which all have to be picked up at some time with what ever weight they have inside them, where as if we all had the same type of wheelie bin no matter where we lived, this I believe would cut down on our dustmen being injured trying to do thier job, oked by someone who's working in a office who has more than likely never done the same job them selves.
Once upon time the dust men worked a job and knock system, and made sure that all our rubbish was removed, as they were seen to be doing a good job if no one complained. But now they have to work certain hours to make the management system work, which is clearly coursing lots of PROBLEMS as they believe the management have not got a clue in the best way to run such an important service. For example did you know if someone wants to change their large wheelie bin for a smaller one, their old wheelie bin is destroyed because it's been used before, and they would rather buy a brand new one instead of giving it to someone else to use, to help keep down cost.
Did you know for years the Greenwich Council accounts department has not been charging some businesses, and schools for example for collecting their rubbish, which they should have, but when they tell the people that they must start to pay now, most of them don't, and they change to a private contractor to do the same job for some reason. So even more money has been missmanaged for years, and no one will be held accountable for it, as it's only our money they are manageing which makes no profit, even though they get everything for free paid for in one way or another by us. I have heard that they are now starting to paint some Green Top Wheelie Bin lids Black to use, I wonder if this is to put the black sacks in to replace us leaving the black sacks out, which then have to be picked up each time not knowing what's in them. Apart from that we are still waiting for about 100 Blue Top Wheelie Bins to cover our estate, which is getting on for three months now since they were ordered by me and others to help solve our recycling PROBLEM. I was told that Bexley waste management has got a system where their peoples waste day is collected with in half an hour of each other, not taking all day like ours, and more when contractor lorrys come round to pick up what the dustmen wont take, because it's been contaminated in some way, which is when people usually put stuff in either bins in black bags, instead of waiting until the righ day for them to be collected, which is once a fortnight where we live in Greenwich at the moment.
I can't wait until the next public meeting of Councillors and MPs, and Waste Management, and C.T.R.A. members to talk about things that concern us in one way or another.
May you and yours and what you grow live long and happy. John.J.R.P.

[JRP]

Hi ALL, this is how our Greenwich Council solved our Community Hall Waste Bin PROBLEM of not being emptied by them for a long time, they simply took it away on a large open back lorry and never replaced it with another one, why because they say a bill as not been paid, even though the caretaker said her manager said to her, it had been paid, and can prove it. But no they went a head and took it away, which all came about after me and the caretaker manager keeped complaining about the Community Hall waste bin not being emptied each week ever since they started our New waste collection service back in January, even though the same dustmen go past it to collect rubbish from a tower block just up the end of our road, say about 100 yards away. The crazy bit is. We were told it was not on any list to be emptied by them, even though they had been doing it for years before they started their NEW waste service this year, and they have had the same dustmen who have been told to empty it, do it as well, so you would have thought someone would have said something about our PROBLEM before now, which seems to prove our Greenwich Waste Service is rubbish at dealing with our waste PROBLEMs, as others have told me too.
There is some very good News though, we have just had a lorry load of Blue Top Wheelie Bins to use, giving to lots of people who are living on our Coldharbour Estate SE9.
There is also some more good news, I now have a Gardening friend who's a teacher, and I have a Headmaster at the same school where he works who are both keen on getting my way of growing things up and running as a school project, starting at the end of Mayish, after the children have had their exams, which is the most posative thing I've heard for along time, plus the fact, my system is proving to other it works very well as the years pass, as more and more people who try it will find out.
The only trouble I have is some people think I'm boasting every time I post something to do with the way I feel about things, good or bad, because I stand by what I say, to the point they think I must be mad or on something to carry on in the way that I do. What's the point of having a idea if you can't share it with others, even if they may not agree.
Thank you for taking the time to read my message, I will keep you imformed of our waste bin situation next time I post. John.J.R.P. the Voice of Coldharbours Estate C.T.R.A. Waste and Recycling Team.