Why do they make it so hard?

Some interesting info here, thank you. though frustrating councils don't make it easier. And good to hear so many of you are already doing so much. Must play catch up!
Can I ask, what compost bins do you use in your kitchen? We've been using old big yoghurt buckets but they don't look very nice and also fill up too quickly. Apparently some of the compost bins come with charcoal in the lids etc to banish any smells. Is this worth it do you think?

I dislike the recycle horror stories 'No they chuck it in with the other refuse.' We have been hearing that for 10 yrs now, and still don't believe it.
I dislike even more that shredded paper is not recyclable. Please someone explain why, almost all recycled paper has ink on it; and surely it's easier to pulp shredded than not

Our green (normal waste) wheelie bin disappeared so the Council just marked our blue (recycling) bin as a green bin so I can't recycle now unless I sneak my stuff in another block's bin (which doesn't go down well). Then we get leaflets encouraging us to recycle. I would prefer to do it but don't have much choice.

Upto a few years ago when a new company took over we could recycle much more. All plastic bags are now refused as is any type of plastic apart from bottles, cap removed. We used to shred personal mail, old bills etc & this was put in with cardboard & paper waste but not now. Shredded paper is not accepted now!
Our new next doot neighbour has lots of take aways & anything left goes in their black sacks. So I have the job of clearing up all the rubbish left strewn across my garden & my other neighbour. We have lots of cats around & a fox or two plus our local gulls who get all the blame,who overnight tear my neighbours bags to get at the food waste that for some reason is not put in a food caddy. I so love friday mornings in our road - not!!

We recycle like crazy and that bin is always full whereas the grey rubbish bin only has a couple of bags in it. We are lucky in that we are able to put glass bottles and jars in ours. I always wash them out along with tins, yoghurt pots etc in the remains of any washing up water from things you can't put in the dishwasher.We have a smaller grey bin for food waste but with 4 Labradors that bin only contains a minimal amount. The council supply the bags for that ( I assume this comes out if our council tax which is high). It's collected every week, all the others fortnightly.We have a brown wheelie bin for garden waste which we pay £36 for 10 months collection, it's worth it for us as the tip is a long way away. We have quite a large garden but nowhere suitable for a compost bin much to my annoyance.

Thankfully our glass bottles and jars are collected along with the paper and tin foil. I cannot believe that many people do not rinse out jars etc. before binning them.

Here we have separate bins for general waste, food waste, garden waste and recyclables (which includes paper/plastic/glass/batteries/polystyrene/aluminium); food waste is collected every week, the rest every fortnight.

All our cardboard, paper, plastic bottles go into the recycling bin. I would love to be able to do more, but our council does not have the equipment to recycle yoghurt pots or aluminium foil. We are way behind Argyll where my DD used to live. There they had separate small bins for different recyclables plus one for food waste!

We used to have a charity do our recycling and they took everything except garden rubbish. Now the council do it no glass, no foil, and if you live in the country no garden rubbish - you are expected to compost it.

As I understand glass is difficult to collect because it tears up the collection lorries.

Personally I am confused that our local council says clingfilm is recyclable - is it? It did make me wonder whether 'recycling' really is recycled.

I have often wondered this about that particular message on some packaging - though I must admit to not really checking and chucking it in with the recycling anyway

Therel was a report on recycling on theBBC Wales news last night. Bridgend has an anaerobic digester and they put all food waste into it and it is somehow converted into a fuel (gas I think ) which can be used. It showed you the amount of food going into the machine. It is only if the food waste is sorted by the households and collected separately it can be used as otherwise it is too difficult a job.
Bridgend really went into the recycling about 10 years ago and the householder does most of the sorting. There are biodegradable bags which line small brown kitchen bins for all food waste - when full and tied at the top they go into a bigger brown bin. Cardboard, paper, glass, plastic and tins all going into various containers - black boxes or a huge reinforced blue plastic sack. The recycled stuff is collected weekly and the black bag every fortnight. The last report I saw they were the best Welsh Council at increasing the recycling - more than 50% the last figures I saw. For anyone who knows the area the digester is at Stormy Down - a good place to blow any smells away !
Here in France we have a very large bin with a yellow lid which takes all recycling except food and it must not be bagged. We then have a smaller black bin for the black bag rubbish. The recycling bin is always much fuller in this house. Glass we need to take to the local glass bank. The lids of any bottles or jars go in with the recycling. We have a compost heap for veggie matter.
I put all fat onto the garden or let it solidify and wipe away with paper towel - we have a Fosse for the toilet and a grey water system which DH needs to clean out in certain parts and has a filter he made in another section - so it is us who would need to remove any solid fat. It is bad enough with stuff from the washing machine and showers etc. without any added kitchen fat.

Tizliz we recycle foil.
Maybe there should be a degree in domestic waste management.
Some of you would definitely be in there with a first class honours?

We used to be able to put grass as well as food waste into our brown bin but not any longer, it is for grass only and we have a tiny black bin for food waste only and it must be wrapped in newspaper. Unless one is at home when the bin men come, these black bins, being so light, fly down the street.

I would be totally confused if I ever moved house, being an avid recycler and no two councils run the same disposal of rubbish etc.

We are passionate recyclers. With a large garden we have space for three compost heaps and the hens are happy to eat any uncooked greens going spare. We grow most of our own veg and what I do buy is loose not pre-packed.

I put some green garden waste in the appropriate bin because I don't want them to stop coming down the farm road which they might if they think it's not worth it.

The blue bin is always full by collection day and I wash any empty plastic meat containers so there's no smell/maggots etc. I would prefer to buy my meat from a local butcher to avoid the supermarket packaging but the nearest one is six miles away and parking is a nightmare.

Cardboard boxes are flattened and saved to make mulching mats for the garden, envelopes are shredded and added to the compost heap.

I'm very surpirsed that some houses in my road dont seem to recycle anything. Their black bin (landfill) is always bulging on alternate Monday mornings but on the next week the brown bin (recycling) often doesnt get put out or has a few milk cartons/beer cans in. My next door neighbour does this and they have lots of fast food deliveries. Our bins are always the other way round with very little in the landfill bin.When we lived in Essex houses who did not recylce were fined. Disappointedly we wer told by the jobsworth at the council that we couldnt put any household green waste like cabbage leaves in a green bin if they had been in the kitchen as the waste went to a farm and it might affect the animals!!!!!! we dont 'purchase' a green bin in that case and DH takes our larger garden waste to the amenity site (ridicuous name)and we compost the rest.

I do get annoyed with Tesco. The bacon in my delivery this week was in a light plastic bag and then in a carrier bag, and they complain that usage is not going down.
H
Re fat, I tend to put foil in my grill pan and then the fat gets thrown away with the foil. I let other fat get cold and scrape it into the bin. It is only sensible or your home drains will block up.

We have recycling off to a fine art. I never use plastic carriers. I have the old fashioned wicker baskets. I use as little plastic as possible, but unfortunately it has become an essential to modern life.

Are you sure you haven't got a little mouse around the house Jalima1108

This might interest keen recyclers

I'm the champion recycler in our house, I'm always checking the bin (the inside one) to make sure things in it are 'legal' and then tutting a lot. I think it's working as DH was the one to tell me we couldn't recycle black plastic. He still can't get to grips with having to remove the plastic bits in cardboard packets so I have a little more training to do.
We often have little discussions in the kitchen when we try to work out which bin to put an item in?

We recycle what we can, and I always thought that if the item had a recycling symbol on it, it could be put in one bin or the other but I get very annoyed with our council because there are so many things that can be recycled that they will not accept. It seems to differ from council to council. We can't recycle any of the plastic containers that supermarket fruit and some veg come in (which have recycling symbols). We need more paper bags and papier-mâché trays.

I recycle like mad ( am a born recycler!) so carry a non plastic bag at all times, and try and use cardboard boxes for groceries ( kept in the car.) Tell DH off all the time for putting the wrong things in the wrong bins ( or is that the right things in the wrong bins?Or the wrong things in the right bins?)

I have noticed that some plastic bags disintegrate these days - I put something away in a drawer for DD stored in a plastic bag and when I checked on it the bag was in tiny pieces.

I tend to do the same as M0nica and put anything that I think is recyclable in the appropriate bag and leave it to the sorters. Paper and cardboard needs more care, as those little plastic see-through parts on some boxes/envelopes etc can ruin a load if left in.

I just bung anything that might be recyclable into the recycling bin and leave the recycling unit to remove the non-recyclables. I know not to put black food trays in the bin because the machinery that does the sorting cannot see them as they are the same colour as the conveyor belt they put the material on to sort it

In France the supermarkets do not prepack fruit and veg to the extent that we do and all the plastic bags for putting your choice of fruit and veg into are now those plant based plastic sacks that you are expected to use in the UK for food recycling and they can be composted.

When I am in France I always tie loose knots in the bags when buying fruit and veg so that I can untie them carefully and re-use them as food recyling bags in the UK.