Tea? (Part 2)

[Speicher]

Round here we are supposed to take the tops of the plastic bottles. Being the very keen recycler that I am, I have kept the tops from my bottles for the past..um...two years.

Do you know what happens to the tops?

The Resource Centre also has about four barrels loads, that are not being used. Some tops, like the more colourful ones, get used in arty things, but still huge amounts left over.

Which reminds me, Arch, that in the New Year I will send you the details of the ScrapStoreUk organisation, which has a forum, and may be able to help you get some ideas about starting.

I very much hope you have a good day tomorrow, and finish early. Good luck with the trains.

Six inches of snow here, but I am not planning to go anywhere.

 

[Speicher]

I have a Sebo (made in Germany) vacuum cleaner. It has a vvveeeeerrrrryy looooooooooooooooooooooooong hose accessory which easily reaches to the top of the stairs when the vacuum cleaner is at the bottom of stairs.

 

[Night Train]

Cart! CART! That's 4 grands worth of Maximus loadcarrying tricycle! Then she asked where our 'train' was today. Train! TRAIN! That's a Bradshaws FB electric truck, you stupid woman, in what way is it a train?

I hope you didn't tell her it costs £4k she will be blaming her council tax rise on overly expensive trolleys when she has seen those four wheel things at the garden centre for £50.

Right, any tea on the go?

Here you go.

 

[Night Train]

I have a Sebo (made in Germany) vacuum cleaner. It has a vvveeeeerrrrryy looooooooooooooooooooooooong hose accessory which easily reaches to the top of the stairs when the vacuum cleaner is at the bottom of stairs.

Length isn't everything you know!

I do carry Henry about a bit but then he doesn't weight too much.

 

[Speicher]

 

[Arch]

I hope you didn't tell her it costs £4k she will be blaming her council tax rise on overly expensive trolleys when she has seen those four wheel things at the garden centre for £50.

She's a bit batty. She was complaining about her neighbours not sorting their stuff properly, and how she's been doing it, and kept saying "But I'm not a rag picker!". I think she's just got issues with her neighbours.

Here you go.

Oooh, loverly!

<slurp>

Speicher - we're relaxed about tops on bottles, plastic or glass. I think it depends on how stuff is sorted and processed. As far as I know, the plastic bottle tops get processed with the bottles, and the glass bottle tops (I mean the metal tops off glass bottles) get sorted out at the glass processing plant. I have heard of people collecting the tops off plastic milk bottles, for charity, in a similar way to how they used to collect foil milk bottle tops. I'm not sure how valuable they are, I suppose you need a lot. We're also collecting stamps off envelopes for a friend's charity. You need loads, but we have access to loads - it's just a case of weighing up the time it takes to hoik an envelope or three out of a box as we sort it against the tiny value of each stamp. So we're not getting them all, but a fair few, as we spot them.

 

[Night Train]

Should we send you our stamps?

I always thought the thing about removing bottle tops was to make it easier to squash the bottles down.
I usually squash the bottle and then put the top back on to keep them squashed.

 

[Arch]

Should we send you our stamps?

Well, you coould if you wanted - although I think a few charity shops will take them, so you might be able to put them to good use locally.

I always thought the thing about removing bottle tops was to make it easier to squash the bottles down.
I usually squash the bottle and then put the top back on to keep them squashed.

It seems to vary from place to place. Where the stuf is co-mingled, and sorted by machine, they prefer bottles left unsquashed, because otherwise the machine confuses them with cardboard or something....

We prefer bottles squashed, so lid off, squash, lid on is the best way to go.

Mmmm, just had a very satisfying pasta dinner - not just because it was nice, but because it used up exactly the portions of onion, pepper, courgette and beans I had in the fridge.

Now, more tea...

 

[Speicher]

I know of someone who collects the milk bottle tops, I think that is fairly common. The other bottle tops, from shampoo etc, are harder to sort. Someone did once say that a Charity in Kent was collecting all sorts of tops, but despite contacting the company that had supposedly devised a way to reuse the plastic for coating wire, I had no success in tracking it down.

As it happens I read somewhere today about someone collecting used stamps. As you can imagine the foreign stamps are worth about three times more than ordinary ones. Also the margin left around the stamps is important for some reason.

At one time, there was a stamp collection going on to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund (or whatever it is called these days) and they named it the Albatross fund. I found it very amusing when the person came into collect the stamps and asked for the "stamps for the Albatross".

The recycling round here is sorted by machine. They do not take aluminium foil, which is given to Oxfam, for their funds.

 

[Night Train]

Hmmm, is this safe to drink?

I just cracked open a bottle of cider and the top of the bottle broke in the cap.
I swept off all the little shards of glass outwards and then decanted it slowly into a glass leaving the last bit in the bottle.
Should I risk it? Filter it? Leave it alone?

 

[Arch]

At the very least, I'd say filter it - do you have any coffee filter papers?

Better safe than sorry I think. I would worry that there might be a tiny speck of glass on the neck that didn't get swept off, but did get washed off into the glass.

That said, my boss said he accidentally ate some glass (I can't remember what in, but he thought it was just a bit of crunchy bone, until he found another bit), and the hospital said that under a certain size there's nothing they can do and it's unlikely to damage you.

But I'd still err on the side of caution.

 

[Night Train]

Hmmm, would kitchen roll do as a filter paper?

Well, filtered it through the coffee pot with four layers of kitchen roll.
Probaby a good thing too. Looking at the kitchen worktop and the chopping board there was a lit of tiny bits of glass all over the place.

Oh well, coffee flavoured cider it is then.

 

[Arch]

Oh well, coffee flavoured cider it is then.

Could be next Xmas's must-have beverage!

 

[Arch]

Mum rang earlier to tell me this. Sis rang her to say Oli wanted to ask her something (and then told her what he was going to ask, because sometimes he's hard to understand on the phone). Conversation went like this:

Oli: Grandma, can I make rock cakes at your house?
Grandma: oh yes, Oli, of course you can, I've got all the ingredients.
Oli. Oh good. <pause> Did you get the ingredients at Waitrose?



I don't think he's actually brand loyal yet, that's just where Mummy shops.... Still, get him into the John Lewis Partnership habit early...

 

[Arch]

Right, I'm off. Night night fellow tea drinkers, and have a Merry Christmas and plenty of cake.