Are we really protecting the environment?

Depends on whether your authority really recycles your rubbish ethically and doesn't send it all to landfill regardless. We can only try out best but after it goes in the bins it's not really within our control is it?

Do you also remember the smogs from all that coal burning, Daddima?

Wheelie bins are made from recycled plastic, by the way.

I've just signed up to a green energy provider- 100% renewable energy and cheaper than my current provider.

Plus we grow much of our own fruit and veg and what we do buy I buy loose and carry home in a bag that's not plastic. We have our own chickens and I only buy free range meat, and not a lot of that.

I only use Method products which are environmentally friendly (and not tested on animals) - and incidentally do the job well.

I use the car as little as possible.

So, some of us do what we can ?

For anyone thinking of getting or already having an electric car, Ecotricity, a green energy supplier, has what they call an electric highway.
If you get your gas/electricity from them, you do not have to pay for the connection fee, just for the units you use.

There is little point in comparing today with when I was a child living in the 60's. We too had a coal fire (as did the entire estate we lived on) and a lot of rubbish went on the fire. We had a metal dustbin for the rest (which probably wasn't very much). Being working class we didn't have a car and neither did any of my friends families, in fact you could count the cars on the entire estate on two hands. These days I am very environmentally aware as i am responsible for our environment policy at work. I only drive a few miles essential miles a year, very rarely fly, conserve water with a water butt etc. and generally do my best.

I wish I knew whether it's more environmentally friendly to wash up things that need a lot of hot water and washing up liquid eg the mayonnaise jar so it can go in recycling or just to throw it away dirty. The council says stuff has to be clean or it contaminates the whole load. I know it's a minor thing but I feel guilty which ever one I do.

We now can't separate food waste from general waste in our bins so the whole lot goes to landfill AND we now pay to have our garden waste collected. We still have recyclable waste bins but the bins themselves are becoming battered - especially the inner boxes which crack as they get thrown about and have to be replaced. Is this really environmentally friendly? The old metal dustbin lasted for ever.

But you don't wash up the mayonnaise jar on its own under running water, do you? You don't use any more water to wash that up than everything else in the sink.

We pay for our green waste to be emptied too goldengirl and have only just this morning made an official complaint to our local authority who seem to think they can come and empty it, only if they feel like it. I already have my own composing bin (which is full to the brim at the moment) and I am cross to be not getting a service I am paying for.

Durhamjen, I use the dishwasher because I was told that is better than washing up in bowls, but if you put the mayonnaise jar in the dishwasher everything comes out greasy. Silly to fret over this when the world is in the state it's in!!

Oh and washing up the tray that the raw chicken sits on which then means I have to squirt the sink with anti bacterial. You can see what a muddle I'm in.

From the government recycling guide:

Reduce contamination and improve recycling efficiency, wash and squash!

Wash

Scrape out any food remains/pour away excess liquid.
Rinse the container (use your washing-up water)
Don’t put recyclate in the dishwasher – no need to waste resources to achieve an unnecessary level of cleanliness!
Squash

Crush metal cans.
Squeeze plastic bottles flat to expel as much air as possible.
These steps help prevent contamination and reduce the volume of recyclate, making collections more energy efficient.

Our landfill bin was never full , I composted what I could , recycled all that was told to do , alas now our landfill bin is overflowing and I feel so guilty , but what else can I do ....? ever tried to burn disposable adult nappies ?

This is from Durham County Council website.

youtu.be/5ITbHef3_pE

So rinsing your jar out in used washing up water is fine Eglantine no need to do a special wash or put them through the dishwasher.

Thank you. The council does it a bit differently where I live, more complicated with what plastics we can recycle and different paper products. Honestly I have to stand with the leaflet and check what's acceptable and what isn't. And it all has to be squeaky clean.

It's crazy isn't it? We have a list of acceptable and unacceptable and our crazy council change the rules regularly, either to keep you on your toes or to give them an excuse not to take the bin). One month its papers in a separate caddy, the next it's mix them together. A right "happy in their work" bunch they are too,.

I think Durham is easiest, certainly compared to anywhere else I have lived. Possibly why we have a big percentage of recycling, too.

There is a company near here that makes things like playground fencing, park benches and play equipment out of recycled plastics. Lovely bright primary colours for schools - or brown if you prefer.

www.marmax-products.uk/index.php?route=common/home

This is the company.

When it comes down to it, there is an awful lot that potentially should be recycled that apparently can't be.
Cardboard juice cartons, aluminium foil (who knew? Is it not metal?), mixed plastics such as yoghurt pots, margarine and ice cream tubs, polystyrene and plastic food trays (such as the ones that chickens come in). Presumably these things end up in landfill, or are they incinerated?

Juice cartons are recycled here, and foil, yogurt pots, margarine and icecream tubs.
I think you ought to tell your council, greyduster.

The recycling services are contracted out to a private firm, and the guidelines are theirs, but prompted by this thread I looked at the council's website and discovered that next year they are taking the contract (which they will have to pay to get out of apparently), away from them and giving it to "another contractor" as yet unnamed, at which point our refuse collections will be reduced to every four weeks instead of every two. We, as householders, have not yet been notified of these changes, but I expect the brown stuff will hit the fan big style when they do get round to telling us! It caused a big enough furore when they cut the weekly service. But, needs must when the financial devil drives.

That recycling company is getting paid a lot of money for doing nothing, in that case.
You ought to get your recycling requests in before the contracts are signed.