UK 2024

[XFool]

Does anything in Britain 'work' anymore? (No!)

The post goes missing: Nothing you can do about it - it's all somebody else's responsibility. Sorry!
(See moans passim)

I don't have a recycling bin (don't ask!) so I need a new supply of recycling sacks, from my local council. Easy! I hear you say, just ask for them...

So I go to the council website and find: Recycling and waste --> Order new or additional bins and sacks

That's what I want. So I log on to my account - have to fill in personal details, haven't I done this to get an account? Eventually arrive at the three options to select from. None of which is for recycling sacks.

I could phone... Yes, where I am answered by Robo operator who asks me what I want. "I want recycling bags", "Do you want...", "No". As I am clearly destined to just continue going around in a circle with Robo operator I ring off.

I eventually phone again: "I want recycling sacks" - "Do you want...", Yes I do! "Listen carefully as our options have changed." Oh yes?

There are two options:

Press 1. For a new bin
Press 2. For an existing request

That's it, no sacks. So I just use the recycling sacks I've got until they run out and then everything goes in the rubbish bin. Presumably if this is ever reported I am then fined or something, for not recycling.

Perhaps I can then ask the court if they know how I can get some more recycling sacks?

[88V8]

I don't have a recycling bin (don't ask!) ...

Can't you just creep out at night and nick someone else's?

V8

[Hallucigenia]

I don't have a recycling bin (don't ask!) ...

Can't you just creep out at night and nick someone else's?

Round our way, they give sacks to people whose properties aren't suitable for wheelie bins for whatever reason - so for instance if it's a terrace fronting directly onto the street with no front "garden", or access is via steep steps directly onto the pavement. So it's a minority of cases at the council level, but at a street scale it can be the solution for the majority.

[XFool]

I don't have a recycling bin (don't ask!) ...

Can't you just creep out at night and nick someone else's?

I can get a bin (presumably - though I think they may now charge £65), I had a recycling bin for several years. I asked for it to be taken away as, following a 'reorganisation' of the council refuse service it stopped being emptied and nobody could tell me why. Eventually it was a council refuse officer who arranged for the bin to be recovered and gave me the original recycling sacks.

[stevensfo]

Does anything in Britain 'work' anymore? (No!)

The post goes missing: Nothing you can do about it - it's all somebody else's responsibility. Sorry!
(See moans passim)

I don't have a recycling bin (don't ask!) so I need a new supply of recycling sacks, from my local council. Easy! I hear you say, just ask for them...

So I go to the council website and find: Recycling and waste --> Order new or additional bins and sacks

That's what I want. So I log on to my account - have to fill in personal details, haven't I done this to get an account? Eventually arrive at the three options to select from. None of which is for recycling sacks.

I could phone... Yes, where I am answered by Robo operator who asks me what I want. "I want recycling bags", "Do you want...", "No". As I am clearly destined to just continue going around in a circle with Robo operator I ring off.

I eventually phone again: "I want recycling sacks" - "Do you want...", Yes I do! "Listen carefully as our options have changed." Oh yes?

There are two options:

Press 1. For a new bin
Press 2. For an existing request

That's it, no sacks. So I just use the recycling sacks I've got until they run out and then everything goes in the rubbish bin. Presumably if this is ever reported I am then fined or something, for not recycling.

Perhaps I can then ask the court if they know how I can get some more recycling sacks?

Not quite sure what these sacks are you're talking about, but could you use supermarket bags? They're biodegradable these days so okay for most things.

In other news, my mum's council is pleased to announce that their green bins for garden waste are now available for a charge. A nice way of saying that they're introducing a charge where there hasn't been one in the past, and since all houses have a green bin, it's a nice little earner. I assumed that the charge was a one-off. No! It's an annual subscription. Not sure how some pensioners will afford the new charge for the bins when they have to save up for the extortionate council tax that pays for them.

Steve

[Lootman]

[my mum's council is pleased to announce that their green bins for garden waste are now available for a charge. A nice way of saying that they're introducing a charge where there hasn't been one in the past, and since all houses have a green bin, it's a nice little earner. I assumed that the charge was a one-off. No! It's an annual subscription. Not sure how some pensioners will afford the new charge for the bins when they have to save up for the extortionate council tax that pays for them.

Not sure how this works in our house as my wife deals with rubbish but we let our neighbour put stuff in our green bin as we never fill it anyway. If charges become common I can see neighbours ganging together to share bins to save money.

Only an urban problem since in the country you can just dump garden waste on scrub land.

[kempiejon]

In other news, my mum's council is pleased to announce that their green bins for garden waste are now available for a charge. A nice way of saying that they're introducing a charge where there hasn't been one in the past, and since all houses have a green bin, it's a nice little earner. I assumed that the charge was a one-off. No! It's an annual subscription. Not sure how some pensioners will afford the new charge for the bins when they have to save up for the extortionate council tax that pays for them.

We have a similar wheeze round here. Grey bins are for refuse, trash, rubbish not food scraps, that's another little bin. Green bins are for household recyclables, metal, paper, plastic and what not.
If you have a lot of garden waste you annually subscribe for a brown bin for garden waste as per above, cost about £60; the council's contractor take away twigs, leaves, grass, pruning etc and turn it into compost. As a brown bin subscriber you get access to the compost they make... you buy it back from them though you do get a discount.

[swill453]

In other news, my mum's council is pleased to announce that their green bins for garden waste are now available for a charge. A nice way of saying that they're introducing a charge where there hasn't been one in the past, and since all houses have a green bin, it's a nice little earner. I assumed that the charge was a one-off. No! It's an annual subscription. Not sure how some pensioners will afford the new charge for the bins when they have to save up for the extortionate council tax that pays for them.

We have a similar wheeze round here. Grey bins are for refuse, trash, rubbish not food scraps, that's another little bin. Green bins are for household recyclables, metal, paper, plastic and what not.
If you have a lot of garden waste you annually subscribe for a brown bin for garden waste as per above, cost about £60; the council's contractor take away twigs, leaves, grass, pruning etc and turn it into compost. As a brown bin subscriber you get access to the compost they make... you buy it back from them though you do get a discount.

We all have brown bins around here. If you don't pay £35 p.a. you can only put food waste in. If you pay you get a stick-on certificate which allows you to put garden waste in it. They get collected every fortnight all year round.

I don't know how diligent the bin collectors are at checking inside bins. I guess if it's heavy and doesn't have a certificate they'll look inside.

Scott.

[stevensfo]

In other news, my mum's council is pleased to announce that their green bins for garden waste are now available for a charge. A nice way of saying that they're introducing a charge where there hasn't been one in the past, and since all houses have a green bin, it's a nice little earner. I assumed that the charge was a one-off. No! It's an annual subscription. Not sure how some pensioners will afford the new charge for the bins when they have to save up for the extortionate council tax that pays for them.

We have a similar wheeze round here. Grey bins are for refuse, trash, rubbish not food scraps, that's another little bin. Green bins are for household recyclables, metal, paper, plastic and what not.
If you have a lot of garden waste you annually subscribe for a brown bin for garden waste as per above, cost about £60; the council's contractor take away twigs, leaves, grass, pruning etc and turn it into compost. As a brown bin subscriber you get access to the compost they make... you buy it back from them though you do get a discount.

My mum doesn't have a huge garden and I tried to persuade her to have a compost heap in one corner, but she refused, saying it would spoil the look. I had one years ago and it worked very well, though we had a large vegetable patch that took it all.

A chicken coop with about 3 hens is excellent for disposing of kitchen waste from a couple. Five hens if you have kids. We had hens for approx 3-4 years until my wife went crazy with the mess they were making. My fault, since I'm a big softy and hated them being 'cooped up' and allowed them to wander around the garden. But they eat just about everything and gave us loads of eggs. Even our dog got used to them and enjoyed the massage on her back from their claws.

If all else fails, I will tell my mum to just throw it all over the fence to the neighbour, then pretend she's cuckoo. Works for me in the office.

Steve

[XFool]

Not quite sure what these sacks are you're talking about, but could you use supermarket bags? They're biodegradable these days so okay for most things.

Ah. This is where it gets really complicated.

Firstly, the recyclable sacks are just that. Sacks supplied(?) by the council for putting recyclable items in for collection. But, seemingly, nobody allowed to have them...

I use(d) them because several years ago, after several years of use, my blue recycling bin started being left unemptied every week. Nobody could tell me why. I may have an idea why - but could only confirm it experimentally by months of practical research. So...

More complications: I never put loose household items into my bin(s) - there are long and tedious reasons for this, it makes sense, just trust me on this. I put items in a plastic bag and then put the bags in the bin(s). This still works perfectly for the general rubbish, it used to work for the recycling bin; until it didn't. Why? Possibly because either:

1. The bags were not transparent so the recycling people couldn't quick check that the items were recyclable items.
2. The plastic bags themselves were not recyclable therefore the entire bin load was considered non recyclable.

I favour No. 2 above, but cannot be sure.

Would biodegradable plastic bags now be considered recyclable items? I have no idea and little optimism I can find out other than by months of practical research. (And would it now cost me £65 to get back a blue bin?) So...

[swill453]

Would biodegradable plastic bags now be considered recyclable items?

No. The only benefit of a bag being biodegradable is if it's discarded in the countryside, it won't be an eyesore forever.

Their reusability is limited, and when they ultimately go to landfill the methane they give off when biodegrading is a problem not a benefit.

Scott.

[gpadsa]

how I can get some more recycling sacks?

After frequently being left no replacement brown sack I gave in and bought 10 from a supplier on ebay

gpadsa

[88V8]

Can't you just creep out at night and nick someone else's?

Round our way, they give sacks to people whose properties aren't suitable for wheelie bins ...

Ours isn't.
The bin lorry can't get up our narrow lane.
So we don't have wheelie bins (hooray), we have plastic sacks for the waste, which we keep in our galvanised dustbin anno 1989, and for recycling we have a bin, a green lidless plastic thing about the size of a champagne crate. That takes the paper/card, and we have a bag thingy for the glass/plastic. The council sends a pickup truck to empty them.

We also have the ditto bin, only blue instead of green, that came with us 'accidentally' when we moved from Surrey, I use it to carry logs for the house.

Never had a wheelie bin

V8

[Adamski]

[quote="XFool"]Does anything in Britain 'work' anymore? (No!)

We seem to be the world leaders in:- vapes, Turkish barbers, coffee shops and online gambling those businesses working fine! but yes, apart from that not so great.

[UncleEbenezer]

In other news, my mum's council is pleased to announce that their green bins for garden waste are now available for a charge. A nice way of saying that they're introducing a charge where there hasn't been one in the past, and since all houses have a green bin, it's a nice little earner. I assumed that the charge was a one-off. No! It's an annual subscription. Not sure how some pensioners will afford the new charge for the bins when they have to save up for the extortionate council tax that pays for them.

Steve

A one-off charge would just be a huge theft-magnet. Never a good idea to assign value to something that's left outside and can't be secured! A subscription makes much more sense. And it's the cost of an ongoing service to which you're contributing.

In social justice terms it's even progressive. People with gardens pay. Poorer people without them don't.

[UncleEbenezer]

We seem to be the world leaders in:-

Arms exports to the world's dodgiest regimes.
Money-laundering services.
Creative financial bubble-engineering.
Jurisdiction-shopping for abusive legal services, like abuse of libel law.

Turkish barbers

What is it about Turkish barbers, as opposed to British or any other barbers? Our local ones are sometimes seen smoking outside their door, so there's no way I'd let them anywhere near my face!

[tjh290633]

Not quite sure what these sacks are you're talking about, but could you use supermarket bags? They're biodegradable these days so okay for most things.

Ah. This is where it gets really complicated.

Firstly, the recyclable sacks are just that. Sacks supplied(?) by the council for putting recyclable items in for collection. But, seemingly, nobody allowed to have them...

I use(d) them because several years ago, after several years of use, my blue recycling bin started being left unemptied every week. Nobody could tell me why. I may have an idea why - but could only confirm it experimentally by months of practical research. So...

More complications: I never put loose household items into my bin(s) - there are long and tedious reasons for this, it makes sense, just trust me on this. I put items in a plastic bag and then put the bags in the bin(s). This still works perfectly for the general rubbish, it used to work for the recycling bin; until it didn't. Why? Possibly because either:

1. The bags were not transparent so the recycling people couldn't quick check that the items were recyclable items.
2. The plastic bags themselves were not recyclable therefore the entire bin load was considered non recyclable.

I favour No. 2 above, but cannot be sure.

Would biodegradable plastic bags now be considered recyclable items? I have no idea and little optimism I can find out other than by months of practical research. (And would it now cost me £65 to get back a blue bin?) So...

Our council specifically states that recycling should not be bagged. Property that cannot accommodate a wheely bin get a box instead. At the recycling center, various types of material are automatically sorted, like iron, aluminum, glass and plastics. Anything in a bag will get rejected and go to landfill.

TJH

[stevensfo]

Ah. This is where it gets really complicated.

Firstly, the recyclable sacks are just that. Sacks supplied(?) by the council for putting recyclable items in for collection. But, seemingly, nobody allowed to have them...

I use(d) them because several years ago, after several years of use, my blue recycling bin started being left unemptied every week. Nobody could tell me why. I may have an idea why - but could only confirm it experimentally by months of practical research. So...

More complications: I never put loose household items into my bin(s) - there are long and tedious reasons for this, it makes sense, just trust me on this. I put items in a plastic bag and then put the bags in the bin(s). This still works perfectly for the general rubbish, it used to work for the recycling bin; until it didn't. Why? Possibly because either:

1. The bags were not transparent so the recycling people couldn't quick check that the items were recyclable items.
2. The plastic bags themselves were not recyclable therefore the entire bin load was considered non recyclable.

I favour No. 2 above, but cannot be sure.

Would biodegradable plastic bags now be considered recyclable items? I have no idea and little optimism I can find out other than by months of practical research. (And would it now cost me £65 to get back a blue bin?) So...

Our council specifically states that recycling should not be bagged. Property that cannot accommodate a wheely bin get a box instead. At the recycling center, various types of material are automatically sorted, like iron, aluminum, glass and plastics. Anything in a bag will get rejected and go to landfill.

TJH

But how do you know?

One thing that I've found suspicious over the last decade is the way in which we're all supposed to sort out our rubbish, but when you ask anyone what 'EXACTLY' happens to that rubbish, nobody can tell you. The council tip people say, "A truck takes it away."

A nice BBC broadcast:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49827945

But how is it recycled? Why is this information not sent to every household and the walls of the council tips.

We know that most gets sent abroad. Okay. But then what?

If you ever see the guy that empties the so called sorted rubbish in airports, you'll see them throw everything into one bag.


Steve

[didds]

In social justice terms it's even progressive. People with gardens pay. Poorer people without them don't.

having gardens doesnt make you rich.
not having gardens doesnt make you poor.

CF unemployed living with small garden, property is rented cheaply versus merchant banker living in a swanky first floor flat worth £1M+

[Moosehoosenew]

Turkish barbers

Possibly money laundering like car washes and sunbed parlours, who knows?