JanScots Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 Hello all. We recycle everything we can, and make at least one trip to the Council recycling depot every week, on top of Council collecting our normal rubbish every week and recycling every two weeks. However, beware of compost bins. We went down that route, and got rats! All solved now, but as much as we want to do our bit, I am afraid that the compost bin has gone to the Council recycling depot!! Not helpful I know in this debate, but this was our experiance. JanScots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dancer Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 A lot of stuff is recycled into non-specific items such as road surfacing material, fencing, garden seats where the items dont have to be sorted into colours, just material type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howie Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 JanScots - 2007-06-22 9:50 PM Hello all. We recycle everything we can, and make at least one trip to the Council recycling depot every week, on top of Council collecting our normal rubbish every week and recycling every two weeks. However, beware of compost bins. We went down that route, and got rats! All solved now, but as much as we want to do our bit, I am afraid that the compost bin has gone to the Council recycling depot!! Not helpful I know in this debate, but this was our experiance. JanScots Hiya Jan and where have you been these past few weeks then. Something that has,nt been mentioned is the disposal of us humans when we finally pop our clogs. Most people still insist on burial, which in terms of valuable real estate seems rather selfish, while the only other alternative is to pump even more smog into the atmosphere. Rats or not, I would be more than happy to slowly crumble back to fertiliser in our compost bin and then be turned over into our garden, content in the knowledge that i,m helping replenish something that has given me so much pleasure over the years. Not sure if I fancy being recycled as anything else, although coming back as that missing piece of jigsaw puzzle I lost at Christmas would bring some solace to the rest of the family, but i,m sure you and those with more imagination have your own thoughts on this matter. Almost forgot burial at sea. Fishguard to Roslaire has always been a favorite route of mine, and booking through the Camping and Caravan Club will not only provide a prompt and efficient service but should prove a lot cheaper than most funeral parlors can offer these days. Replenishing the garden would still be my first choice, but dropping me off halfway across the Irish sea would not bother me in the slightest either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breakaleg Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 i think recycling is great, the only downside i can see, is that we now have three bin wagons a week instead of one. so dose the damage to the enviromen caused by the extra wagons running around the city equal the savings made in recycling or is this the reason that they want your rubbish collected once a fortnight. pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Chapman Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Dave Newell - 2007-06-22 1:44 PM Thanks Mike, that answer does make some sense to me but surely the manufacturing of glass bottles is just as labour intensive and therefore expensive? Besides, to recycle glass it has to be sorted into clear and coloured varieties, crushed, melted down before being turned back into bottles and jars. I accept that the machinery and plants are already in existence for the recycling but there would be much less machinery involved in cleaning, sterilising and checking bottles for re-use as they are, wouldn't there? I'm not disputing what you say, you've obviously worked in the industry and I haven't. I'm just trying to get my head round it fully. D. Hello Dave, I never thought for one moment that you were disputing what I said and if it appears that way I fully apologise. We each have knowledge from our experience and jobs and I hope that this enables us to help others when the time comes. Your knowledge of working with Motor Caravans or Clive's knowledge of Electrics etc., has been invaluable to me and I am sure many others. The reason for picking up on Glass Recycling, out of all the products mentioned in the thread, was that it is the one product that I do know a little about. Why the industry prefers re-manufacturing to return and re-use I am not sure but they obviously prefer to go this way. I notice that there is now an extensive use of what they refer to as "One-trip" containers and that their production cycles are based firmly on making more use of re-cycled glass. They will have probably carried out their own studies and found the re-cycling method more cost effective. The shame is, as you have already recognised, that a product (Glass) that can be easily sterilised and re-used or re-cycled has given way to a product (Plastics) that is truly only one-trip and then can only be used for re-cycling or disposal. In your own industry that is exactly what is happening/has happened. Years ago you could buy components to refurbish or rebuild (eg. Gearbox or differential parts) now these are only supplied as new whole assemblies or in some cases specialised refurbished whole units. Replacing a gear synchromesh ring now becomes replacing the whole gearbox. Labour cost is probably the main reason. Regards, Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davenewellhome Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 "In your own industry that is exactly what is happening/has happened. Years ago you could buy components to refurbish or rebuild (eg. Gearbox or differential parts) now these are only supplied as new whole assemblies or in some cases specialised refurbished whole units. Replacing a gear synchromesh ring now becomes replacing the whole gearbox. Labour cost is probably the main reason." Well yes and no. There are still thriving businesses based on reconditioning engines, gearboxes, final drives, steering racks etc and there are still plenty of breakers yards where you can buy second hand parts to help you keep your own vehicle going. I accept that these are mainly for the older cars but I still use second hand parts where possible. In that respect the motor industry has been recycling many parts for years. As for general recycling we try to do what we can. I never accept a carrier bag for my purchases unless it is absolutely necessary. We have a rainwater collecting butt at both front and rear downspouts and the collected water is used for watering the garden. I recently recycled a motorhome water pump I had replaced for a customer because the pressure switch wouldn't switch it off. How did I recycle it? I mounted it on a small hand trolley with a recycled 85AH leisure battery and use it to pump the water from the butts through a hosepipe for watering the garden, so much easier than a watering can, the battery is charged from a small solar panel on the greenhouse roof. We take our glass, cans and plastic fortnightly to the local council recycling centre, cardboard and newspapers are collected fortnightly. whether or not the council genuinely recycles them or tips them into landfill I don't know but we try to do our bit. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 davenewell@home - 2007-06-23 3:17 PM As for general recycling we try to do what we can. I never accept a carrier bag for my purchases unless it is absolutely necessary. We have a rainwater collecting butt at both front and rear downspouts and the collected water is used for watering the garden. I recently recycled a motorhome water pump I had replaced for a customer because the pressure switch wouldn't switch it off. How did I recycle it? I mounted it on a small hand trolley with a recycled 85AH leisure battery and use it to pump the water from the butts through a hosepipe for watering the garden, so much easier than a watering can, the battery is charged from a small solar panel on the greenhouse roof. D. Dave, Dick Strawbridge would be proud of you! He comes up with weird and wonderful 'inventions' as well. We recycle when we can but our 'home' Council won't take glass and most plastics so, because I work in another Council's boundary that do, I take it to work and put it in the bins there. The only stupid thing is that they are now proposing not to take ANY garden waste away at all!!! Now some people can compost it but many can't, either because they are elderly, disabled, or have a local vermin problem (don't I know about that one!). So, what's going to happen to all this lovely green waste, it'll get dumped near where I live and my vermin problem will get worse than ever. Oh, the site that does recycling is: http://www.freecycle.org/ Just register for your local group and away you go. You can find out more about it on this old posting: http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=5154&posts=13 Howie, forgot to say, I believe it is quite legal to have yourself burried in your own garden (once dead preferbly), not sure how you go about it but I think so long as it doesn't cause an environmental pollution problem, like being next to where they draw drinking water from a well etc the you should be able to go forth and decay in peace, it's just that digging the hole could be a problem - it was bad enough when we burried the dogs! Oh, you do have to declare it though if your family subsequently sell the property ... could be a bit off putting for the new owners with the thoughts of being haunted by you! 8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Forgot to say, the biggest amount of recycling we do is giving stuff to charity shops and buying other bits back, do it all the time, get some really good stuff at bargain prices. Also we frequent car boot sales a lot, shabby chic and all that! (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davenewellhome Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Cheers Mel, Major Dick (or the tache as we refer to him here) is one of my heroes, I always enjoyed him on scrapheap challenge and now his occasional series on going green is always worth watching. Just a shame that so many of his "environmentalist" friends are a bit, shall we say strange? As for a vermin problem I was told that you are regularly seen with rats round your person, is this true? If so and you ever do call in to see me let me know in advance 'cos Dexy is very keen on getting up close and personal with little furry creatures. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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