Selfsufficientish.com

we've got a blue week - green week system here.
blue: paper-cardboard in a bag, recycling box with tin-bottles, clothes and shoes bagged separately.
green: plastics in a bag, garden waste in big bags (up to 4).
kitchen waste is not collected at all.

interesting to read how it's done in other places. Seems like we're quite lucky...

we have 4 bins: blue for non recyclable, green for packaging/tins/polystyrene, black for paper/cardboard, brown for garden waste and food waste (inc bones etc). It's amazing how much of our rubbish is packaging, it's the only bin which is ever full. The waste bin is the smallest, emptied fortnightly, I am glad we use reusable nappies though as with 2 in nappies our waste bin would be full (and stinking) after a fortnight!!! Although Fife council has a trial starting for recycling nappies :)

Sssshhhh don't anybody tell Swindon BC that other councils are charging for garden waste. We have a great system here. Just buy green bags (£1 for 10 from the supermarkets) and you can put out as many bags as you like each fortnight. I quite often put out over 20 bags and they all get collected.

Zoe

Reading this has made me think I'm quite lucky too as our council don't put any extra charges on for waste removal. We have a wheelie bin for garden waste collected every fortnight and can request another if required free of charge.
I can only really see in the long term , however, charges being brought in both here and swindon and in other councils who currently don't charge. It also wouldn't surprise me if charges were brought in for general unrecyclable waste, a sort of landfill tax. As I mentioned we don't actually produce that much and our bin can go for some time before it needs emptying so much so that when I was renovating my parents house pretty much all of the builders rubbish was removed via the black bin, which pleased a tightwad like myself as I didn't need to hire a skip.


Pete

I think the reason our council is going to charge for the garden waste bin is because they can keep the council tax the same as last year. pbf.

prison break fan wrote:I think the reason our council is going to charge for the garden waste bin is because they can keep the council tax the same as last year. pbf.

Yes I think that will be the argument used by other councils in the future too, and to be fair it's hard to argue against the logic of it. It has been said that people who live in flats are in effect subsidising those of us with gardens which also has logic to it as well. Perhaps the councils could prepare instructions of how to convert your wheelie bin into a compost bin seeing as they are both basically upright plastic tubes pity there's no "light bulb" smilie .
Incidently since starting this thread I've been having adverts for wheelie bins in any colour at the top of the page.


Pete