Recycling and the vagaries between Councils.

All our recycling goes in one bin, paper, glass and plastic. Makes it very easy for the residents of course, but the council has to sort everything out.

Our bins are within reach of the pavement all week so we have locked them to stop people using them (especially for dog mess). I love it when I see someone trying to open the bin for their doggy bag ha ha.

As for plastics, just read the council's website, otherwise the rule is hard plastic to be recycled and soft plastic/plastic bags not. It's not worth getting worked up about.

I remember reading a letter in our paper from a reader who said she hurried out one morning when the bin men arrived and just wanted confirmation about which of the umpteen bins she should put some type of recycling in.
“Oh I shouldn’t worry love, they all go down the same chute “ he replied.

It's the plastic that I can't cope with. Green bin , fine ( even though our green bin is black with a pink lid). Paper, fine. Glass and metal, fine. But plastic!!! Can we? Can't we? Black food trays? Definitely no! But what about grey ones or brown ones? To say nothing of everything else that , no matter how hard we try to avoid, comes in plastic. I try. I really do. But sometimes I just give up and put everything in the general waste. And my DH really can't get his head around the fact that not all plastics are equal.

I noticed that all our plastics seem to have a recycling symbol with a number representing the type of plastic so I contacted my council to see what number plastics they want in the plastics recycling bin.

They said "tell us what you have to recycle (eg. milk carton, tetra pack) and we will let you know if you can recycle it in plastics. I wrote back that a list of the recycling numbers would be useful as I didn't want to keep messaging them every few days with a specific item.
The response - "if you aren't sure just put it in the black bin"!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64995473

My neighbour’s Paper and Cardboard bin was not emptied because some thoughtless person used it to deposit some dog poo on their dog walk.

The bins have to be out by 5.30am on collection days, must be a boon for lazy early morning dog owners.

Don't be upset please ! Sure by now you have contacted your council, if not, you must. This is simply unacceptable.

I've just had a letter from the bin police. They say I put something in the wrong bin , don't know what, and my bin won't be emptied if I do it again.
As they haven't said what it was I may reoffend. How did they know? The men rush round and the machine throws everything in together so I don't think they had time to open all the bags.I feel quite upset now.