Recycling crushed cans

[Arch]

W
What? Am I not meant to put cereal boxes in?

In Sheffield we have a glass and plastic collection, but it's only jars and bottles - mo yogurt pots, lastic food trays etc. We have a seperate collection for card and paper.

I collect all my other plastic and take it to the recycle bins at the supermarket.

Cereal boxes are fine. Just don't rip them up into little pieces!

We sort by hand at the kerbside, and have to separate card from paper. Try that when everything is torn up into little bits, and you're wearing gloves, and it's blowing a freezing gale. t's amazing the effort some people put into making stuff difficult to sort. Another favourite is ramming drinks cans (aluminium) into food cans (steel). Or if you don't rip your cereal box into confetti, fill it with a glass bottle, a plastic bottle, a can, and some non-recyclable plastic.

A well sorted box takes 30 seconds to empty. The worst ones take 5 minutes.

We also only collect plastic bottles. Other stuff like tubs tends to be a mix of polymers, and less easy to recycle. Our council collect it with the recycling, but it's sorted out and goes into landfill anyway.

 

[Sara_H]

Cereal boxes are fine. Just don't rip them up into little pieces!

We sort by hand at the kerbside, and have to separate card from paper. Try that when everything is torn up into little bits, and you're wearing gloves, and it's blowing a freezing gale. t's amazing the effort some people put into making stuff difficult to sort. Another favourite is ramming drinks cans (aluminium) into food cans (steel). Or if you don't rip your cereal box into confetti, fill it with a glass bottle, a plastic bottle, a can, and some non-recyclable plastic.

A well sorted box takes 30 seconds to empty. The worst ones take 5 minutes.

We also only collect plastic bottles. Other stuff like tubs tends to be a mix of polymers, and less easy to recycle. Our council collect it with the recycling, but it's sorted out and goes into landfill anyway.

Oh my goodness! Ours just gets tipped into the back of a bin wagon. I've always assumed it gets autosorted at a depot.
Mind you, I'd wouldnt stuff two different metals together anyway.

 

[Fnaar]

I always squash tins so that hedgehogs don't get their snouts stuck in them. I was advised to do that at a Mrs Tiggywinkle hedgehog sanctuary some years ago. It has always stayed with me, and I hope the feckin' hedgehog world appreciates my devotion to their saftey.

 

[MossCommuter]

Do you check for resident hedgehogs before crushing?..

...or is that bonfires?

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

We also only collect plastic bottles. Other stuff like tubs tends to be a mix of polymers, and less easy to recycle. Our council collect it with the recycling, but it's sorted out and goes into landfill anyway.

'Fraid I puts pretty much all plastic in for recycling. I'm yet to be able to recognize what's what. Some stuff does have a recycle logo stamped on it but other stuff is unmarked and looks like it could be recycled. So I leave it to the cognoscenti to sort.

It is a pain tho' that my lot don't collect glass.

As for box wee. Drill a hole or two...............

 

[Gromit]

I love the new recycle machines in Horwich. I would use them all the time if we had them in York.

 

[annedonnelly]

I always squash tins so that hedgehogs don't get their snouts stuck in them. I was advised to do that at a Mrs Tiggywinkle hedgehog sanctuary some years ago. It has always stayed with me, and I hope the feckin' hedgehog world appreciates my devotion to their saftey.

And don't forget to tear apart those plastic rings that hold four beer cans together - something else that hedgehogs can get stuck in. Poor little chaps have a hard life these days.

 

[Arch]

'Fraid I puts pretty much all plastic in for recycling. I'm yet to be able to recognize what's what. Some stuff does have a recycle logo stamped on it but other stuff is unmarked and looks like it could be recycled. So I leave it to the cognoscenti to sort.

It is a pain tho' that my lot don't collect glass.

As for box wee. Drill a hole or two...............

The boxes have holes in, although thanks to bad design, not at the lowest point. But this stuff is a bit gloopier than water, so doesn't flow well.

Most places do take all plastics, and it is autosorted. That tends to lead to much more contamination of the finished bales of material. We specify bottles (pop, milk, shampoo etc) because it's a fairly easy way to define type 1 and 2 plastics, which are the easily recyclable types. After all, it's easy to decide if something is a bottle, isn't it. Apparently not, based on our rounds!

Of the council plastic, co-mingled, anything other than types 1 and 2 will go in landfill (and sometimes, if very contaminated, the whole lot does), but people putting it in recycling boxes assume it gets recycled. Our way is more honest, but does depend on people having brains.

It's down to motive really. We do the job because we care about the waste and reuse of materials, and we want other people to - hence we also do surveys and talk to people about it and explain why we do things the way we do. The council, although they like to wave Zero Waste ideals, when it comes down to it, want to reduce Landfill Tax bills. Ideally, the same end result, but realistically, not quite.

 

[Gromit]

I used to do the recycling full-time before Arch took over from me, I invented the term box wee, it's horrible, the worst stuff ever. It's smells terrible a well as it's often a mixture of dead decaying slugs, beer and fags that people have put into their cans.

I have also found used condoms, nappies, hair, tissue, vomit and poo rapped in newspaper, this was the straw that broke the camels back for me.

I like covering the round now when someone's off sick or on holiday, as we now recycle within the City walls.

 

[Arch]

I used to do the recycling full-time before Arch took over from me, I invented the term box wee, it's horrible, the worst stuff ever. It's smells terrible a well as it's often a mixture of dead decaying slugs, beer and fags that people have put into their cans.

I have also found used condoms, nappies, hair, tissue, vomit and poo rapped in newspaper, this was the straw that broke the camels back for me.

I like covering the round now when someone's off sick or on holiday, as we now recycle within the City walls.

Oh yes, we certainly mostly have a better sort of client now,

Mostly, mind.

Fag ends steeped in Carling is a particularly lovely thing, where 'lovely' is defined as utterly foul. You pick a can up, and before you realise, the dregs of fag end beer marinade slosh out all over your glove, or if you're unlucky, sleeve and trousers.

On the other hand, we do find some great stuff, we had a wonderfully tasteless clock shaped like Australia last week, and sometimes we get a stack of unopened cans of perfectly good food. I even found a tenner a while back!

 

[Night Train]

I did a recycling round with Arch a while back when I was on crutches.

I am still not convinced that the thing in the box that looked like a poo wasn't a poo and was just a decaying vegetable that looked like a poo.

I also got some box wee on my gloves and my trousers.

 

[Arch]

I did a recycling round with Arch a while back when I was on crutches.

See, I know how to give a guy a good time...

 

[MossCommuter]

New bins (a blue one and a brown one) were delivered today along with two nice bags of the same colour for each flat.

What's more, not only am I allowed to use my can crusher, it's positively encouraged!

 

[Arch]

New bins (a blue one and a brown one) were delivered today along with two nice bags of the same colour for each flat.

What's more, not only am I allowed to use my can crusher, it's positively encouraged!

Hoorah!