Why Do People Find It So Difficult To Put Different Waste In Different Bins?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37159581
I just don't see what the problem is, it ain't rocket science is it?

[Bazile]

It should be easy , if you are aware of what is your council's policy

You would have thought that milk and juice cartons would be ok - however our council does not take them .
Another thing they don't take is pizza boxes , if they have grease on them .

Neither do they take ' drinking glasses '

[EDDIE51]

Another point raised was that each council makes it's own rules as to what they accept for recycling. Huntington has different rules from Cambridge for example but the waste from both places goes to the same place and the same company.

[Bazile]

Some of you have your binmen sort through your 'recyclable' at the point of collection ?

[EDDIE51]

Our bin men look in each bin but only a glance. I am wondering how your bin men spot a grease mark on a pizza box, do they check through each bin item by item?

[Bazile]

It's a case of what you should not put inside , rather than the binmen sorting through .

They do not sort through the items

[jno]

our binmen found some food waste wrapped in a kitchen paper towel, mistook it for plastic, so left the whole bin unemptied. Reading binmen's minds can indeed be rocket science.

Tonight's lasagne: plastic dish, which I must first wash, appears to be recyclable, so goes in the recycle bin, but if I've got that wrong, or the binmen think I've got it wrong, our rubbish isn't collected. Plastic lid goes in the general waste bin. Cardboard cover goes in the recycling bin.

As has been said, different councils classify the same things differently, and so do different binmen.

[EDDIE51]

The council or the waste collectors do not process the recycling them selves.
They send it to specialist recycling companies. The councils just collect it .
Waste rotting food in the recycle items causes it's own problems such as smell and attracting pests such as rats and flies.

[Mamyalynne]

I watched a programme quite recently where they took to the streets with a variety of food containers - plastic etc and asked people if they thought they could recycle them.

The results were very confused and many that people thought actually had a recycle logo on them weren't accepted bu the Council - so on the face of it, it should be simple but isn't.

[Mamyalynne]

^ by the Council...

[woofgang]

we have a good simple system here. Glass is collected separately. Paper, cardboard tins and recyclable plastic goes into clear sacks, or you can fill cardboard boxes. All refuse goes in black refuse bags. tetra packs, bubble wrap, shredded paper or any foil or paper with foil on. won’t be recycled but is still taken. basically while they tell you what is recycled and what isn’t, the recycling gets sorted at base anyway. I think its because we live so near the New Forest. Fly tipping is a huge problem and if the refuse system is too picky and refuses to take stuff, people WILL flytip.

[trt]

## I just don't see what the problem is, it ain't rocket science is it? ##

Not at all TTT, and it wouldn't be rocket science for all manufactures, wholesale, retail of domestic goods around the World, to find a solution to stop burying all our/their waste out of sight, on our planet.

One day it will be full!!!

[ummmm]

If anyone watched 'Hugh's war on waste' the majority of people interviewed didn't know that coffee cups from the likes of Starbucks couldn't be recycled. They look and feel like cardboard but as they're waxed they need to be binned.

So no, it's not rocket science, but it's not very clear either.

[bednobs]

ours just take the whole recycling bins (although you have to seperte out paper and tins/plastics/glass.
The only thing i have ever known them to reject is glass in the wrong place.
I have no ide what qthey do with it once they have collected it.

[ummmm]

I've never had anything rejected.

[naomi24]

We don't have a bin for food waste. That goes in the general bin - and our council doesn't collect glass - we take that to bottle banks. Black bin, general waste - blue bin, plastic, tin, cardboard and paper. Not difficult at all.

[mikey4444]

I think local councils should get together and come to some kind of agreement.

My Council does as it simply as possible....green bags, every two weeks for glass, cans and newspapers ( in different bags ) and then pink bags for plastic on alternate weeks, together with now-recyclable black bags. They also do a food waste on the green weeks.
,
There are, of course, some people that don't abide by these simple rules, but its normally due to sheer bloody-mindedness. if one of my brothers is anything to go by !

It really isn't rocket science...its just sensible common sense !

[-Talbot-]

The authorities in the UK are useless when it comes to recycling.
Half the stuff I put in gets left in the recycling bin and I fail to see why.

[EDDIE51]

In my area we were told that the plastic containers / packets food is sold in were not recyclable. Now it has changed and 'most' are recyclable still a few that are not though, very confusing.
Just a point, the Starbucks and Costa coffee cups are a problem not because they are wax coated, but because they have a plastic inner liner that has to be separated before they can be recycled. There are just two places in the entire UK that have the facility to separate the liners and paper, so technically they are recyclable, but in practice only a very small % are actually recycled.

[youngmafbog]

We've done it for years, before bins were provided we sorted it and took in buld to banks.

It's just lazyness in the main although I have had the problem of idiots putting the wrong waste in the wrong bin when they are out for collection. Usually takeaway wrappers.