UK 2024

[88V8]

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.

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

It's even better than that... people with gardens who can't be bothered to compost - we have a few of those in the village, and yes their gardens are plenty big enough for a compost heap - have to pay, those who garden 'properly' don't.

V8 (no garden bin)

[tjh290633]

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

I know because I have been to the recycling center (at Ford in West Sussex). A friend who is an ambassador for recycling writes a monthly column for our local free magazine which tells you a lot. You can also get information from the County Council website.

TJH

[UncleEbenezer]

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+

If you have a garden, you have at least one luxury of affluence. Obviously, some (much) more than others.

People in swanky flats pay for maintenance of the grounds through their service charges.

[Lootman]

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+

Uncle is such an old school lefty, with all that that implies, including convenient characterisations. But to give him credit he gets away with it through a combination of erudition and charm. Although that might just make him more dangerous.

[Dicky99]

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

My experience of this was a bottle bank I could see from my office window. Three bins for clear, brown and green glass. When the vehicle came to collect it, it was a simple tipper truck with a grab. Each bin in turn was lifted and emptied into the open backed tipper truck.
What the recycling regime is in your area is not always governed by what recycling facilities are available in the Borough.

I share a big dumpster recycling bin with neighbours. It's only supposed to be for glass bottles and jars, cardboard, paper, tin cans, plastic food containers etc. Other neighbours work on the principle that everything is ultimately recyclable and chuck everything in it. Recent indiscretions have included a suitcase, a sleeping bag, a combi boiler and endless amounts of polystyrene packaging, polythene and bubble wrap but the Council don't seem bothered and take it without question.

Interestingly there seems to be an inverse correlation of responsible recycling and age. My 95 year old neighbour takes the most trouble to try and police the recycling. The younger 30 somethings don't seem to be remotely interested but maybe it's because they've cottoned on that the Council don't give a fig.

[bungeejumper]

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."

Ha, my neighbour needed to get rid of an old fridge freezer that still had CFCs in it. Ooh, said the council, you can't bring it to the recycling centre. We'll have to send a truck out to collect it.That'll be thirty quid please.

He paid the money. A week later, a council refuse truck turned up and two burly operatives hoisted the fridge freezer into its open maw. Then they switched on the compactor. As they drove away, you could almost hear the hiss of the CFCs escaping.

Nothing surprises me any more, though. According to my council, if I've got dead flowers from my garden, they go into the green waste bins. But if I've got dead flowers from a vase in my kitchen, they go into the grey bin for landfill because they're contaminated. And I could be fined for doing it any other way!

We don't have food bins, so our orders are to put all food waste into the grey bins as well. It's a good job that we hardly ever have any. One of the benefits of being brought up in postwar Britain is that we were taught that it was a sin to waste food. But as for the rest, it'll probably all end up on a beach in West Africa or Indonesia or Bangladesh.

I once asked our county councillor with responsibility for environmental recycling why we weren't allowed to fill our green bins more than halfway? She said she was often asked that question by householders, and her answer was usually that they had too many trees in their gardens and they needed to think about digging some of them up. She didn't last long in that job. But the question was, how the hell did she get appointed in the first place?

BJ

[stevensfo]

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."

Ha, my neighbour needed to get rid of an old fridge freezer that still had CFCs in it. Ooh, said the council, you can't bring it to the recycling centre. We'll have to send a truck out to collect it.That'll be thirty quid please.

He paid the money. A week later, a council refuse truck turned up and two burly operatives hoisted the fridge freezer into its open maw. Then they switched on the compactor. As they drove away, you could almost hear the hiss of the CFCs escaping.

Nothing surprises me any more, though. According to my council, if I've got dead flowers from my garden, they go into the green waste bins. But if I've got dead flowers from a vase in my kitchen, they go into the grey bin for landfill because they're contaminated. And I could be fined for doing it any other way!

We don't have food bins, so our orders are to put all food waste into the grey bins as well. It's a good job that we hardly ever have any. One of the benefits of being brought up in postwar Britain is that we were taught that it was a sin to waste food. But as for the rest, it'll probably all end up on a beach in West Africa or Indonesia or Bangladesh.

I once asked our county councillor with responsibility for environmental recycling why we weren't allowed to fill our green bins more than halfway? She said she was often asked that question by householders, and her answer was usually that they had too many trees in their gardens and they needed to think about digging some of them up. She didn't last long in that job. But the question was, how the hell did she get appointed in the first place?

BJ

Your indoor flowers may be contaminated? You're not using your large kitchen blender to enrich uranium are you?

I helped my mum take her old fridge to the tip and it was free. It was a small one so we could slip it into the back of the car. No charge. That was a few years ago, so they may have already introduced another 'nice little earner'.

I've heard similar stories to yours about refuse collectors not caring. Shame that nobody took a nice film to show on Youtube.

and her answer was usually that they had too many trees in their gardens

I thought that the world desperately needs 'more' trees! I've never heard of bins only allowed half full. Trees are great. Habitats for birds, shade during the summer. It's just important to keep an eye on the height so you're not frantically searching the small print of your house insurance during a storm. Been there, got the teeshirt etc!

Steve

[bungeejumper]

and her answer was usually that they had too many trees in their gardens

I thought that the world desperately needs 'more' trees! I've never heard of bins only allowed half full.

Oh yes. Apparently if you put more than 20 kg of stuff into your wheelie bins it would damage the bin mens' backs. And never mind that the bins were rated to 50 kg.

A money making exercise, of course. Shortly afterwards, we were offered additional bins @ £50 a year. So we could carry on putting out a full bin's worth of stuff, as long as we distributed it between two bins instead of one. Council happy, bin men happy.

BJ

[DrFfybes]

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

We have space for wheelie bins, and have 3, plus a sack for the carboard. I take the ins the 100m or so up to the end of the lane where it meets the main loop, as to the other neighbours. Firstly it saves them time, it means we don't get as many heavy lorries on our unsealed lane, but more importantly we don't have to listen to their reversing bleepers at 6am as they come down to collect it.

We had lidless boxes for tin and plastic, but it just blew away overnight. The hessian sack for cardboard is a PITA, need a brick on it to keep the flap shut and water gets in and papers sticks to the inside.

Oh yes. Apparently if you put more than 20 kg of stuff into your wheelie bins it would damage the bin mens' backs. And never mind that the bins were rated to 50 kg.

No problem with that here - some weeks I can barely move the garden waste bin.

Paul

[stevensfo]

I thought that the world desperately needs 'more' trees! I've never heard of bins only allowed half full.

Oh yes. Apparently if you put more than 20 kg of stuff into your wheelie bins it would damage the bin mens' backs. And never mind that the bins were rated to 50 kg.

A money making exercise, of course. Shortly afterwards, we were offered additional bins @ £50 a year. So we could carry on putting out a full bin's worth of stuff, as long as we distributed it between two bins instead of one. Council happy, bin men happy.

BJ

I wonder what happens if you buy your own wheelie bin? It may work out cheaper than £50 per year.

Steve

PS Then each house could introduce their own colour code scheme. Imagine the delight on the bin-mens' faces as they scamper from house to house, whooping with joy as they correctly identify which bin has the garden rubbish in and laughing when one of them confuses it with one for food waste. A nice lady from the council running after the truck, bathroom scales under her arm, breaking into song whenever she found a bin with more than 20 kg in it. Every street would echo to the sound of gay abandon, singing and laughter.

[servodude]

I thought that the world desperately needs 'more' trees! I've never heard of bins only allowed half full.

Oh yes. Apparently if you put more than 20 kg of stuff into your wheelie bins it would damage the bin mens' backs. And never mind that the bins were rated to 50 kg.

A money making exercise, of course. Shortly afterwards, we were offered additional bins @ £50 a year. So we could carry on putting out a full bin's worth of stuff, as long as we distributed it between two bins instead of one. Council happy, bin men happy.

BJ

Your wheelie bins are lifted by people?
How quaint

[stevensfo]

Oh yes. Apparently if you put more than 20 kg of stuff into your wheelie bins it would damage the bin mens' backs. And never mind that the bins were rated to 50 kg.

A money making exercise, of course. Shortly afterwards, we were offered additional bins @ £50 a year. So we could carry on putting out a full bin's worth of stuff, as long as we distributed it between two bins instead of one. Council happy, bin men happy.

BJ

Your wheelie bins are lifted by people?
How quaint

All trucks I've seen have a device at the back that lifts the bins. Maybe BJ was referring to having to pull the bins to the truck.

Though they have wheels, just like large suitcases, but in addition, can be leant over, making it much easier so 20kg should be no problem.

Steve

[didds]

CF unemployed living with small garden, property is rented cheaply versus merchant banker living in a swanky first floor flat worth £1M+
If you have a garden, you have at least one luxury of affluence.

and if you are unemployed/etc you may not be able to do anything with said luxury of affluence.

If you live in a 1M+ flat there may not be grounds to maintain.

[didds]

Oh yes. Apparently if you put more than 20 kg of stuff into your wheelie bins it would damage the bin mens' backs.
BJ

well thats bullsheet. Binmen dont lift bins, they have a lifting-jobby-thingmah to do it.

[Hallucigenia]

According to my council, if I've got dead flowers from my garden, they go into the green waste bins. But if I've got dead flowers from a vase in my kitchen, they go into the grey bin for landfill because they're contaminated. And I could be fined for doing it any other way!

Arguably that's the correct approach and should be enforced more widely, the logic being that garden flowers will only have diseases that are already in the UK, whereas commercial flowers could contain diseases from Kenya, Guatemala or who knows where else. There's plenty of examples of diseases spreading via the markets in the Low Countries and I imagine it's even worse at the moment as if anything looks a bit dodgy they will put it on the trucks to the UK as there's no checks at the moment and no mechanism for sending it back thanks to Brexit.

So if you want to avoid being responsible for the next disease like ash dieback or sudden oak death, it is sensible to send commercial flowers to landfill. But better to buy UK-grown flowers in the first place.

[kempiejon]

So if you want to avoid being responsible for the next disease like ash dieback or sudden oak death, it is sensible to send commercial flowers to landfill. But better to buy UK-grown flowers in the first place.

A chum has a mixed woodland she crops and has lost the majority of Ash trees; it's early days yet but some few specimens survive and saplings too.
Since I heard UK supermarkets mostly supply UK grown cut flowers, I find it easy to check out the red white and blue when I buy, similarly fruit and veg.
Now I wonder about international veg trimmings in the compost.

[88V8]

So if you want to avoid being responsible for the next disease like ash dieback or sudden oak death, it is sensible to send commercial flowers to landfill. But better to buy UK-grown flowers in the first place.

...Now I wonder about international veg trimmings in the compost.

In that case you might wonder about the veg in your stomach

V8

[the0ni0nking]

Anyone else incredibly irritated (I'd have written numerous expletives if I could) with the Pot Noodle advert.

It seems to be on everytime an ad break comes on and the noise is just beyond vile. I appreciate I'm likely not the target market for their dire product but is it just me?

[bungeejumper]

Anyone else incredibly irritated (I'd have written numerous expletives if I could) with the Pot Noodle advert.

It seems to be on everytime an ad break comes on and the noise is just beyond vile. I appreciate I'm likely not the target market for their dire product but is it just me?

Nope, the marketing industry seems to be pretty revolted by it as well. I saw/heard it the other night on Sky Arts, but it was my fault because I normally hit Mute during the ad breaks, and that time I forgot. https://www.marketing-beat.co.uk/2024/0 ... -slurp-ad/

Was it any worse than last year's Channel 4 trailer for a programme on climate change? Discuss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKxEE2rI6gk&t
BJ