Littering Cyclist.

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Petrichorwheels

Senior Member
Anti-littering but you throw your rubbish in the hedgerow?

Can you explain this one for me?

yes paul - it's organic surely? By leaving it (totally out of sight) I am surely returning it to the earth and it surely contains stuff that will do it good? - just like bananas, other fruit and all manner of other things growing in the countryside.

I actually used to put banana skins in my garden - not for littering purposes I stress.

You seem a decent cove but must admit your attitude strikes me as a bit purist - do you eat every bit of wild fruit and stuff you see when out riding in case it should fall to earth without a bird eating it?

I also plead guilty to shitting in the woods (leaving no trace) now and again when wild-camping.

Luckily have not encountered any bears doing the same yet.

A banana skin is also surely more natural than much of the stuff that goes into industrially farmed land?
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
yes paul - it's organic surely? By leaving it (totally out of sight) I am surely returning it to the earth and it surely contains stuff that will do it good? -

You actually go to the trouble of hiding your litter? That's very noble of you.

I do realise what a terrible burden it would be for you to take you crap home.
 

Petrichorwheels

Senior Member
You actually go to the trouble of hiding your litter? That's very noble of you.

I do realise what a terrible burden it would be for you to take you crap home.

yes I do go to the (minimal) trouble.
see my reasoning above.
see above about real crap.

(buried with a trowel I stress)
(I used to carry the toilet paper out with me and then bin it - but it then occurred to me that it was then most likely heading straight for landfill anyway - so all a bit pointless)
 
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Tom B

Guru
Location
Lancashire
Always go for a walk with a dog??

preferably a Lab - they will eat anything

Funnily enough... It's a lab (sort of fitting for a scientific experiment)

Way back when, my grandmother used to tell tales of smoking banana skins.

I seem to recall her doing it once to prove a point to us kids. Not sure where she got the banana from, her diet was 100% eggs bacon and chips. (And Old Holburn)

I seem to remember her saying it was quite a thing back in the day to smoke banana skin.
 

Randomnerd

Bimbleur
Location
North Yorkshire
Surprised no posts in the Viz Top Tips vein yet. This forum is getting so dull.

I find twelve banana skins the ideal number with which to fashion a close fitting, practical cycling cap. Moustache hair serves as a usable thread, and a blackthorn needle works admirably.

I've stopped killing fish by littering watercourses and rivers with my micro-plastics. Now that I've turned the old washing machine into hand-cranked composter, and have nothing to wash clothes with, no more of that.

In order not to use any more electric made from burning all that toxic waste at Drax - who wants to be part of that behemoth, ugggh - I am cutting this post sho...
 

PaulSB

Legendary Member
yes paul - it's organic surely? By leaving it (totally out of sight) I am surely returning it to the earth and it surely contains stuff that will do it good? - just like bananas, other fruit and all manner of other things growing in the countryside.

I actually used to put banana skins in my garden - not for littering purposes I stress.

You seem a decent cove but must admit your attitude strikes me as a bit purist - do you eat every bit of wild fruit and stuff you see when out riding in case it should fall to earth without a bird eating it?

I also plead guilty to shitting in the woods (leaving no trace) now and again when wild-camping.

Luckily have not encountered any bears doing the same yet.

A banana skin is also surely more natural than much of the stuff that goes into industrially farmed land?

Most people I see eating bananas on bikes, this includes good friends of mine, simply hurl the skin into the hedgerow. If you stop and hide yours full marks to you. I wouldn't argue with that action but I'll carry on putting mine in my pocket.

A bit purist? Possibly. I've tried to understand but haven't a clue where or how wild fruit comes in to this discussion. I'm fortunate to have a large allotment. I recycle everything possible in our house. First question is "Can I recycle this at home?" Yes, to food waste and many forms of paper so these all get composted. Plastics and metal go in the council recycling bin after I have checked every piece of plastic for the logos to indicate whether or not it can be recycled. There's no point in contaminating recyclable plastics with those which cannot be recycled. Packaging I break down in to it's constituent parts - for example a blister pack of cardboard and plastic will be separated in to plastic and card for separate recycling. The consequence of this is my wheelie bin is usually 10%, at most, full - the rest is down to the supermarkets.

This perhaps costs me five minutes each day. Purist? No. Doing all I can to contribute to saving the planet's resources? YES.

Of course industrially farmed land is a problem but hiding your banana skin in a hedge isn't going to contribute to field nutition or solve the issue.

I can't be arsed to stop the bike, find a hiding place and hide my banana skin. It's easier to shove it in my pocket and more valuable to my allotment to take it home.
 

winjim

Smash the cistern
Most people I see eating bananas on bikes, this includes good friends of mine, simply hurl the skin into the hedgerow. If you stop and hide yours full marks to you. I wouldn't argue with that action but I'll carry on putting mine in my pocket.

A bit purist? Possibly. I've tried to understand but haven't a clue where or how wild fruit comes in to this discussion. I'm fortunate to have a large allotment. I recycle everything possible in our house. First question is "Can I recycle this at home?" Yes, to food waste and many forms of paper so these all get composted. Plastics and metal go in the council recycling bin after I have checked every piece of plastic for the logos to indicate whether or not it can be recycled. There's no point in contaminating recyclable plastics with those which cannot be recycled. Packaging I break down in to it's constituent parts - for example a blister pack of cardboard and plastic will be separated in to plastic and card for separate recycling. The consequence of this is my wheelie bin is usually 10%, at most, full - the rest is down to the supermarkets.

This perhaps costs me five minutes each day. Purist? No. Doing all I can to contribute to saving the planet's resources? YES.

Of course industrially farmed land is a problem but hiding your banana skin in a hedge isn't going to contribute to field nutition or solve the issue.

I can't be arsed to stop the bike, find a hiding place and hide my banana skin. It's easier to shove it in my pocket and more valuable to my allotment to take it home.

Well done you but it's simply not plausible to expect every person to check every label on every piece of plastic every time they dispose of their waste, nor to necessarily put it in the correct bin. This is moving away from the littering discussion, and I don't think it's necessarily helpful to conflate different environmental issues but while individual actions can hopefully help nudge society in the right direction, systemic problems require systemic change.

Plastic production needs to be reduced and plastic recycling needs to be made a hell of a lot easier and more accessible and we need to be careful not to congratulate or condemn too much those who recycle more or less than others.
 

PaulSB

Legendary Member
Well done you but it's simply not plausible to expect every person to check every label on every piece of plastic every time they dispose of their waste, nor to necessarily put it in the correct bin. This is moving away from the littering discussion, and I don't think it's necessarily helpful to conflate different environmental issues but while individual actions can hopefully help nudge society in the right direction, systemic problems require systemic change.

Plastic production needs to be reduced and plastic recycling needs to be made a hell of a lot easier and more accessible and we need to be careful not to congratulate or condemn too much those who recycle more or less than others.

Precisely which is why I made my comments. I don't expect people to follow my choices nor would I want to impose them on others. I would hope though that some will consider if following the same path is worthwhile.

The only point I'd disagree with you on is checking plastic labelling. It takes a glance, nothing more.
 

winjim

Smash the cistern
Precisely which is why I made my comments. I don't expect people to follow my choices nor would I want to impose them on others. I would hope though that some will consider if following the same path is worthwhile.

The only point I'd disagree with you on is checking plastic labelling. It takes a glance, nothing more.

Checking the labels may only take a glance, but you still can't expect every single person to do it, or to know what the symbols mean and where to put things. I wish they did, but you do need to build people's innate laziness into the system.
 
I don;t check plastic for recycling at all
no need to - the firm that takes it all issued a very helpful leaflet a few years ago - I was probably in the 1% that actually read it but it made it all clear
Basically - if you look at it and the word that occurs to you is "Bottle" then put it in the recycling bin
anything else shouldn;t go in - including anything that could be described as "Carton" etc etc
Oh - and black bottle can;t go in either

Seemed a bit weird until I read the details - apparently the recycling goes along a conveyor with a camera over it and the camera is connected to a computer that analyses the stuff below it - if it sees a bottle it knocks it into the plastic recycling and that is all they can recycle
The bit about black plastic is because the system can;t "see" black plastic

There is a skip for "hard plastic" at the tip - but that is for proper "hard" plastic not just old butter cartons and stuff - it is normally mostly full of old garden chairs and kids toys!

That is all that can be done round here - so not examining of labels needed
 

winjim

Smash the cistern
I don;t check plastic for recycling at all
no need to - the firm that takes it all issued a very helpful leaflet a few years ago - I was probably in the 1% that actually read it but it made it all clear
Basically - if you look at it and the word that occurs to you is "Bottle" then put it in the recycling bin
anything else shouldn;t go in - including anything that could be described as "Carton" etc etc
Oh - and black bottle can;t go in either

Seemed a bit weird until I read the details - apparently the recycling goes along a conveyor with a camera over it and the camera is connected to a computer that analyses the stuff below it - if it sees a bottle it knocks it into the plastic recycling and that is all they can recycle
The bit about black plastic is because the system can;t "see" black plastic

There is a skip for "hard plastic" at the tip - but that is for proper "hard" plastic not just old butter cartons and stuff - it is normally mostly full of old garden chairs and kids toys!

That is all that can be done round here - so not examining of labels needed

Same here, which serves to highlight how poor the system is.

Black plastic's also a nightmare because you can only recycle down a shade. So you can go white to grey, grey to brown, brown to black but never back up again. Black plastic is the end of the road.
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
One problem is lack of national consistency. Different authorities have different rules, which makes it difficult for information to be spread nationally. We Brits have a talent for making a confusing buggers muddle of contradictory rules for everything.

My local authority says something vague like "most household plastics". Mind you there is a mega incinerator in the authority so it wouldn't surprise me if rather a lot of it ends up there.
 
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Moon bunny

Judging your grammar.
Funnily enough... It's a lab (sort of fitting for a scientific experiment)

Way back when, my grandmother used to tell tales of smoking banana skins.

I seem to recall her doing it once to prove a point to us kids. Not sure where she got the banana from, her diet was 100% eggs bacon and chips. (And Old Holburn)

I seem to remember her saying it was quite a thing back in the day to smoke banana skin.

Have you never heard of musadine sometimes called bananarine?
 
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