Selfsufficientish.com

Fine for letter in recycling bag.

He had one piece of paper in the wrong bag, plus he'd previously been warned for putting his bin out a day early because he was going on holidays.

I can just see this being applied around here - we know people who have had their bins out for three months and never had them emptied. Ours has been missed for up to eight weeks at a time, and as for recycling...

Like so many things, once the bureaucrats get their hands on what is basically a good idea, it's doomed.

by the heck it's a good job that in my other house the garden waste collectors didn't realise I put chicken poo in the green bin

Unfortunately, since it has become 'fashionable' to be green, the powers that be have seen numerous ways to make more money in pathetic taxes and fines.

Here, the paper and plastic goes in the same bin and gets sorted when it gets to wherever it goes. THere is no kerbside glass recycling, and all this stuff about one wheelie bin full of non-recyclables per household is ignored...my naighbours (and my parents i'm ashamed to say) just share the rubbish around so that it all fits into bins.

Until someone, somewhere (and i really wish i could work out how) manages to convince the great british public as a whole that the amount of waste we produce is shocking, then nothing will be done. Its about making people ashamed to waste so much, rather then fining them and making money out of it. Unfortunately, the councils have seen the pound signs.

I bought some organic veggies at the Co-op last week. After paying for them I took them out of all the plastic wrapping & handed it in at the Customer Services desk. The woman who took it from me looked a little bemused so I explained "it's unnecessary & I don't want it"

Customer service woman: " but you've had to pay for it"

me: "I know, but repeat it's unnecessary & I don't want it, so I'm giving it back to you so you have to pay to get rid of it. Lots of unnecessary expense all round."

She nodded acceptance, but didn't look any less bemused.

Given that I've been advised to eat organic veg for the sake of my health & I can't go through this charade every week (for the sake of my sanity), I will be signing up for an organic box scheme.

Mad isn't it?
Anyone been to the Eden project? It's inspiring for recycling, but STILL even though they have a bin for every single type of rubbish you see people dumping it all in the 'Other' bin. It really winds me up.
They should be charging big businesses, such as supermarkets and fast food chains for adding to landfill. It might force them to think and recycle or use recycled packaging at least.
I have been asking my council, since I moved into my house 3 months ago, for those bags for plastics and card, still no joy! I am taking it to the recycling centre at the moment, but if they collect it from the door, I'd like to take advantage of this, but it seems uphill work! Only about 5 other people on my strett seem to use their black box for newspapers. Surely its easier to get someone to take them away and recycle them than put them in a black sack and cart it outside each week?
Wow, I have ranted for a while, sorry to anyone who I have bored!!
Ranter, good for you, and your business will be much more appreciated by local organic suppliers than the supermarkets giants.

How blooming stupid!!! Surely it would just burn anyway - there is paper on the cans and paper on the bottles..... how can a letter contaminate the other items...

Pamplemousse, we can get replacement bits and bobs free of charge from our council on demand by visiting the council offices, but they won't drop them off. They say they will, but they won't. Other than that the service is pretty good apart from plastic bottles that they tell me I should take to... T***o!!

Thank you hedgewizard :)
Have now got a stack of recycling bags.

We couldn't get hold of a box when we moved, and so we bought a big green wheelie bin and Norfolk will take that full of reccyling. We've just put the black rubbish out and it was only 1 bag this week! Wooohoooo! That is a record for us! It has been up to 3 before we got the green wheelie bin and I came back to here.

We're working on the compost bin!

In the end we gave up and did it for ourselves, got our own stuff, because the councils round here are not hot on recycling. It's a lot of lip service and sound bites but very little action.

Sarah

We have green boxes for recycling, collected weekly from outside your house. They even accept a couple of types of plastic which covers most plastic bottles. But a lot of people on my road still put these in their general rubbish & don't bother using the green box. It drives me to distraction.

It really couldn't be any easier & still people can't be bothered.