Recycling collection arrangements

[Peter Sarf]

I am sure that I have seen a store carrier bag with a note printed upon it to say "this bag is recyclable" but I cannot remember which store.

CoOp do compostable bags which I sometimes manage to persuade the missus to use for the food recycling.

At risk of straying even further off topic, but it's worth remembering that household recycling arrangements vary quite significantly between local authority areas.

Where I am, there is no household recycling of "soft" plastics. The rest of the recycling all goes into one large blue wheely bin - except paper, which allegedly has a seperate box/bag, although I don't know anyone who actually has one, so paper just ends up in the normal grey bin. There is no seperate collection of food waste, it goes in the general grey bin. Food waste could be put into the brown garden waste bin so that, during the summer months, food waste was collected weekly rather than fortnightly. There's now an additional charge for the brown bin collections, so all food waste now goes in the grey bin regardless.

The collection/segregating arrangements do vary a lot.

Our free garden waste bag service got "improved" to a wheely bin that we have to pay for. We decided we did not want to pay for anther large plastic bin cluttering the front garden. The service was a bit unreliable and we just manage to get it all in the normal waste bin, burn some or organise a trip to the dump if we have a large dry quantity.

I believe that some local councils who collect and empty all the normal household "assorted coloured bins" do supply "small food caddies" and the compostable liners for them free of charge. One of my twin sons who lives in an area administered by Stockport council tells me that is the case in their area.

Food waste. Croydon initially gave free bags for the kitchen caddy that were far too weak. So the result was messy. We persevered but the collectors had a habit of chucking the dirty outdoor food waste bin into one of the paper or glass(etc) collection crates which made more cleaning effort.

The free compostable bags from Cardiff are far better and so the missus still uses the kitchen food caddy. But the bags then go in the normal outdoor waste bin if collection is due due soon or its winter. Otherwise it leaves the house on her next shopping trip.....

I do not think she will revert to using the outdoor food waste bin even though we have a supply of bags strong enough. One problem is she is no longer careful about what goes in the kitchen food waste caddy (so dirty plastic wrappers etc). Croydon have lost an opportunity there by not doing it properly in the first place. Looking down the road very few people use the small outdoor food waste bin.

Everything except food waste is fortnightly.

As for training the missus - I have no success getting her to use the right bin Paper+Cardboard vs Glass+plastic+cans. I just check it all often enough to not have to dig deep. I can tell a good proportion of the population do not care or are not smart enough.

That is why I think the best hope for the planet we share is that we avoid generating the stuff most are incapable of dealing properly with in the first place. Supermarkets need to jointly be 'erm less convenient. I remember when it was loose vegetable dropped into my Mums string bag and another string bag for the other shopping.

 

[Gloster]

The Isle of Wight, which was somewhat late to the recycling ball, has a small food waste caddy that you keep in the house and and a larger one that you decant the contents into every day or two. The latter goes outside on rubbish day, but you have to buy the recyclable lining bags yourself. General plastic, tin and glass recycling consists of a green bin into which everything goes and this has a plastic box in the top for paper and card. Even introducing that produced screams of rage about the council ‘wasting our money’.

 

[AM9]

Mine (and I think many others) are very specific that food waste bags must be the compostable one and no plastic at all should go into the food waste bin.

When St Albans introduced the small waste food caddy, they also supplied some compostible (paper) bags. A while after that they announced that they had installed devices that could lift plastic bags and just put the food into the anaerobic digester, - discarding the plastic separately. Thus sliced bread bags, some supermarket delicatessen/butchers/fish polythene bags and others could act a effective caddy liners. They now have a bin outside the store to take crushable plastic bags (as are used on packs of fruit, crisps, cereal packs etc.).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

My twin son who I have mentioned previously, says the Stockport council waste collection details are.....

Green bin (collected weekly).......All gardening waste such as grass cuttings, old plants, small branches, etc...PLUS the food caddy waste food compostable liner (He says these are quite good and never leak)...no charge
Black bin (collected fortnightly)...Non-recyclable items...no charge
Blue bin (collected fortnightly)....Papers, cardboard packaging and the like...no charge
Brown bin (collected monthly)....Plastic items such as bottles marked recyclable, used aerosols, clean foil containers...no charge

 

[gswindale]

We appear to have gone horrendously off-topic and I think that may have been my fault, but it is interesting to see the differing collection policies across the country.

Down here we have
Black Caddy (collected weekly) - food waste
Blue Bin (collected fortnightly) - mixed recycling - cardboard/paper/plastics/cans plus soft plastics in the blue bag in the bin
Brown Bin (collected fortnightly apart from over Christmas, so 25 collections a year) - garden waste - this costs £65 per year
Green Bin (collected every 3 weeks) - non-recyclables

The non-recyclable bin isn't full all that often, but the Blue Bin normally is. Brown Bin, I'm sometimes tempted to order another one, but begrudge paying extra - fortunately if necessary, we can also purchase garden waste bags from various shops in the Borough for £1.30 per sack., but that goes into the lorry with your waste.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The kindly disposed moderating team have opened this new thread, so "recycling collection" is now an on-topic matter. God bless them.

 

[DarloRich]

we have had this discussion before but my recycling in MK has changed a little. It is now:

• Green bin (collected weekly).......All gardening & food waste ( I have a kitchen caddy but don't use it)
• Black bin (collected weekly)...Non-recyclable items - mainly plastic wrappers and the like
• Red bin (collected alternative weeks)....Paper & cardboard ( inc widow envelopes)
• Blue bin (collected alternative weeks)....Recyclable plastic, used aerosols, clean foil containers, glass, tins & cans

Just to spice it up a bit I do not have a red, blue or black wheelie bin. As I have no rear access I am not eligible. Instead I have red and blue sacks. Apparently this is because you cant leave your bins in the street and must instead keep them in your boundary. No one in the street does this but only 3 of us are without bins!

You couldn't make it up! I suspect I have the green bin because the council introduced this rule with the new bins. In the past all waste was collected in sacks ( firstly pink then clear plus a bin bag), a glass bin and a green waste bin but in the last 18 months the city council have introduced wheelie bins for all materials! I think this is because they moved contractors but perhaps @Bletchleyite knows the real reason.

The recycling of food waste really cuts down on your black bag waste and is much more hygienic as cats/foxes/rats/crows aren't really interested in plastic wrappers!. I often go a fortnight or more without putting out any such waste.

 

[jbqfc]

Here in Crawley
Red top bin paper carboard plastic bottles/containers tetra packs tin can and foil
Black bin any thing else but not used much as plastic rappers taken to the supermarket garden and uncooked food waste in the compost bin
the only cooked food waste we get are meat bones as Clare is good at using up left overs

 

[gg1]

Dudley council has:

Green bin - garden waste (was free until this year, now a £36 per year charge)
Black box - glass
Blue bag - paper/cardboard
Green bag - recyclable metal and plastic
Black bin - everything else

The black general waste bin is collected weekly, everything else is fortnightly.

Interesting that some people are putting food waste in their garden waste bins, my council specifically says not to do so, it should instead go in the general waste bin.

 

[Benters]

Here in Stafford;
Green Bin - Non-recyclables and food waste, collected fortnightly.
Blue Bin- Recyclables, collected fortnightly.
Blue Bag- Paper and Cardboard , collected fortnightly.
Brown Bin- Garden Waste £42 extra per annum on top of Council Tax, collected fortnightly.
Green bin is emptied on alternate fortnight to that of blue and bag, brown bin.

 

[DarloRich]

I should say all mk collections are free

 

[75A]

Nice and straightforward here in County Down.
Blue Bin for all recycling.
Brown Bin for all food and garden waste.
Black Bin for everything else. Alternate weeks today was blue, next Wednesday black & brown.

 

[Lemmy99uk]

Here in north Cumbria we have a green wheelie bin …….. and that’s it!

 

[davews]

We appear to have gone horrendously off-topic and I think that may have been my fault, but it is interesting to see the differing collection policies across the country.

Down here we have
Black Caddy (collected weekly) - food waste
Blue Bin (collected fortnightly) - mixed recycling - cardboard/paper/plastics/cans plus soft plastics in the blue bag in the bin
Brown Bin (collected fortnightly apart from over Christmas, so 25 collections a year) - garden waste - this costs £65 per year
Green Bin (collected every 3 weeks) - non-recyclables

The non-recyclable bin isn't full all that often, but the Blue Bin normally is. Brown Bin, I'm sometimes tempted to order another one, but begrudge paying extra - fortunately if necessary, we can also purchase garden waste bags from various shops in the Borough for £1.30 per sack., but that goes into the lorry with your waste.

I take it like me you are in Bracknell? The system seems to work well, there was a lot of outcry when they introduced the food caddies and changed non-recyclable to three weekly but the concerns were unfounded. My green bin (no-recyclable) is never even half full and the food caddie is full of tea bags... Our hardest problem is working out which bins to put out each week, they even supply a little card to tell you, and it gets even more confusing at bank holidays when it is a day (or two at Christmas) later.

 

[Chrysalis]

Only two bins here. Green for things that can be recycled (very limited plastic wise, paper, cardboard, metal) and a brown bin for everything else. You have to pay extra for garden waste. Glass isn't recycled, you have to take bottles etc to supermarkets that sometimes have bins where you can drop them. Soft plastic and some hard types isn't recycled by our council.

Not recycling glass despite it being one of the easiest material to recycle makes me wonder why we're not getting a discount on our council tax?

 

[oldman]

Fortnightly green bin - dry recyclables - paper, card, plastic (some), cans
Fortnightly blue box - glass, batteries in clear plastic bag, clothing in bag, small electrical appliances
Fortnightly grey bin - residual
Weekly caddy - food, supply your own bag, non-recyclable accepted
Fortnightly brown bin - garden waste (£40 per year)
Special uplift - £5 per item

 

[Weary Walker]

Here in Crawley
Red top bin paper carboard plastic bottles/containers tetra packs tin can and foil
Black bin any thing else but not used much as plastic rappers taken to the supermarket garden and uncooked food waste in the compost bin
the only cooked food waste we get are meat bones as Clare is good at using up left overs

Crawley also takes glass bottles/jars, aerosols etc in the recycling bin.

 

[High Dyke]

South Kesteven District Council has now requested batteries are separated from the usual waste, following a spate of bin lorry fires. However, you have to provide your own bag to put out for collection.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

In Epsom:

Green bin = recycling ( paper, card, plastics, tins ). Weekly.

Black bin = landfill ( or incineration, depending on the contract at the time ). Weekly.

Brown bin = garden waste. Extra fee applies. Every second week.

Food waste caddy - unless it all goes on your bird tables - weekly.

Separate box for glass waste - weekly.

Textiles - bag them up in a white bag, mark them textiles, leave outside. Weekly.

In practice, the textiles are often problematic to the point of being comedy gold... the official instructions to the crews are that any crew can collect the textiles. This instruction, naturally, means that they all leave it for the other crews so in the end they usually end up being reported as a missed collection and a man with a van is subsequently sent round to deal with it.

The recycling boss at the council said in writing earlier this week that he was astonished when a textiles collection that had been placed on top of the green bin was not only not collected but the crew tucked it away out of sight behind a gatepost - despite him that morning having personally watched as the supervisor printed off a photograph of the said collection and attach it to the briefing sheets for the crews that day...


The brown bin I don't pay for. I use a compost heap.

The green bin I only put out every second week usually as that's how long it takes to fill up.

The black bin I only put out about once every 4 - 6 months as that's how long that one takes to fill up.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Croydon

About five years ago.

Blue box - paper and card - collected week 1.​

​

Green box - Glass, tins, plastic (not all types) - collected week 2.​

​

Small outside bin - food waste - collected weekly.​

​

Black wheely bin - general waste collected week 1.​

​

Brown lidded wheely bin - garden waste (no food) - collected fortnightly.​

Since about 2019.

Blue lidded wheely bin- paper and card - collected week 1.​

​

Old black wheely bin- Glass, tins, plastic (not all types) - collected week 2.​

I kid you not the council decided we now have two black wheely bins and the clean recycling goes in the old dirty bin !.​

Needless to say lots of people get the two bins mixed up - the new one has a slightly different shape matching the blue lidded wheely bin and the collectors KNOW which to ignore !.​

Some people have a new/replacement bin with a green lid.​

​

Small outside bin- food waste - collected weekly.​

​

New black wheelybin (almost same size)- general waste collected week 1.​

​

Brown lidded wheely bin - garden waste (no food) - collected fortnightly.​

​

As an extra feature the two new wheely bins were imported from Germany and are slightly shorter than the old bin (still used). In my road (terraced) almost all of the pavement has a line of bins along it - what an eyesore. Worst thing is the new bins have a lid that manages to retain a puddle of water on it which tips into the bin when you lift the lid - fantastic German design - not. When I go to the council tip there is a huge area of stacked up old boxes. What a pile of wasted plastic.

All in all I really have serious doubts about Croydon councils ability to run anything.

Why oh why can the UK not have a standard recycling regime ?. I wonder what other countries are like ?.
My missus disagrees with my explanation preferring what her sons from Cardiff tell her. I am regularly checking the two recycling bins are correctly fed. We don't bother with the food recycling as that is too advanced !. Cardiff have recently got stricter with more than one recycling receptacle so she has lost the argument now.

 

[Energy]

Warwick DC and Stratford upon Avon DC jointly run the service here:

Food waste - bin and caddy included, residents expected to provide their own compostable bags*. Collected every week.

Recycling - all in one large 240L bin. Collected every 2 weeks.

Garden waste - 180/240L bin depending on when it arrived. £44 per year. Collected every 2 weeks.

Waste - 180L bin every 3 weeks.

It seems to work reasonably well and the recycling:waste ratio is approximately correct. Recycling used to be 4 separate bins and is much better now.

*these are extremely common now, many disposable supermarket bags are also biodegradable so can be used.

 

[Ostrich]

Dorset Council:

Fortnightly green recycling bin - paper, cardboard, cans, plastics such as food containers (and they've just amended it to also include milk or juice cartons, as long as you squash them flat)
Fortnightly green box - glass jars and bottles (including lids)
Fortnightly blue bin - residual household waste (holds a much smaller quantity than the green bin)
Weekly brown food caddy - food waste (supply your own newspaper liner or buy your own compostable food bags)
They also supply a smaller brown food caddy for you to use indoors
Fortnightly brown bin - garden waste (a larcenous but very necessary £69.50 a year!)

They do collect used batteries in a battery bag fortnightly, but I've never had one - I just take them down the supermarket for recycling
Items like small electricals have to be taken to the local council tip.
Old clothing goes into one of the numerous charity skips in town (always assuming I can find one which isn't full to overflowing ....)

 

[sprunt]

Bury:

Black bin for non-recyclabe
Green bin for paper and cardboard
Blue bin for glass, plastic bottles (but not, for some reason, plastic food trays) and cans

The above are collected three-weekly on a rotating basis, so it's green tomorrow, blue next week and black the week after.

Also a brown bin for food and garden waste, no extra charge, collected on a different day every two weeks.

 

[Mojo]

We don’t have any bins, it’s just a black sack for general waste, clear bags for recyclables, hessian sacks for garden waste and a green caddy for food waste. All collected weekly.

 

[gswindale]

Warwick DC and Stratford upon Avon DC jointly run the service here:

Food waste - bin and caddy included, residents expected to provide their own compostable bags*. Collected every week.

Recycling - all in one large 240L bin. Collected every 2 weeks.

Garden waste - 180/240L bin depending on when it arrived. £44 per year. Collected every 2 weeks.

Waste - 180L bin every 3 weeks.

It seems to work reasonably well and the recycling:waste ratio is approximately correct. Recycling used to be 4 separate bins and is much better now.

*these are extremely common now, many disposable supermarket bags are also biodegradable so can be used.

Are you sure it's the same in both authorities?

As mentioned earlier in the thread, I am in Bracknell and the waste contract is a joint partnership between Bracknell Forest, Wokingham and Reading councils and the collection arrangements differ in all 3 boroughs.

 

[DerekC]

Hampshire County Council has a very restricted menu of what can be recycled because they signed a long term contract with Norse about five or six years ago. They dispose of all the refuse collected by the district councils. The bin colours vary by district, which causes all sorts of confusion. Here in East Hampshire it's:

Green plastic bin (or large black metal commercial bin) - general waste
Black plastic bin - plastic bottles (but not plastic boxes, trays or anything else), cans (but not other metal), clean cardboard and paper (but not kitchen paper or tissues)
Blue plastic bin (or black plastic box) - glass bottles and jars (but not any other glass)
Brown 240 litre bin - garden waste - £55 extra per bin per year

They are having a blitz on the wrong things being put in recycling at present, so anything spotted gets you a red tag and the bin left full.

I live in an over-60s development (got co-opted onto the committee before we had even moved in). We have shared bins and getting everyone to get it right all the time is more or less impossible. Most people do try. The problems are:

• Overenthusiastic recyclers who think all sorts of plastic, paper and metal should be recycled, so put them in the recycling bin to encourage the council. With a bit of pushing, the council came and did a "show and tell" and explained that if too many people do that, the whole lot goes in landfill. That's helped quite a bit.
• Relatives, friends and particularly carers from other areas who think a black plastic bin is for general waste - large "Recycling" labels have helped, but we had to buy them ourselves.
• Some (a few) who just don't get it and drop whatever's in their hand in the nearest bin.

At least we don't get dog poo bags in the recycling bin, which used to happen at our last place!

 

[Energy]

Are you sure it's the same in both authorities?

As mentioned earlier in the thread, I am in Bracknell and the waste contract is a joint partnership between Bracknell Forest, Wokingham and Reading councils and the collection arrangements differ in all 3 boroughs.

Same here in both authorities here! If you apply for a green bin Warwick DC redirect you to the Stratford on Avon DC website.

 

[Mr. SW]

Everything in the green bin here in Charnwood. Collected fortnightly and almost certainly sent straight to landfill due to contamination with food waste, nappies etc. I'm not sure why anyone bothers.

 

[DarloRich]

why cant we have one simple national scheme that recycles everything?

Also - i am very glad MK CITY council don't charge for the green bin. The ability to recycle food waste really cuts down on your black waste. Mine is now almost entirely soft plastics that cant go in the recycle bin. I assume the food waste goes for power generation but haven't ever looked into it

 

[Snow1964]

Here in Wiltshire we have :

black bin for everything not recycled (which is narrower than other two bins)

blue recycling bin for paper, card, (ok to put envelopes with windows), plastics (bottles, trays, and food trays, except the film or black plastic), drinks cartons (including yogurts, soup etc) metal trays and foil. You can also put a bag on top for small batteries, small rechargeable items, vapes etc (only tried this once, but bag with 2 batteries blew off and wasn't collected)

black crate with lid for glass bottles, jars etc

Green bin (optional for which have to pay £70 per year) for garden waste.

All are fortnightly. The blue bin and crate collected together, other two are on 2 different days (so have to put out a bin on 3 days per fortnight).

All the local mini recycling points with bottle banks etc have been closed, any big items have to be taken to a recycling centre few miles away (which is closed couple of weekdays)

There is nothing for food waste here.