Our trip to the recycling centre
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Our trip to the recycling centre was interesting yesterday. As you might remember, I had a heaving sack of stuff for the ‘non recyclable’ receptacle following my pre-Christmas panic declutter.
But there was a silver lining to the cloud. Mr Green was carrying a bag of our landfill sins on top of some cardboard and was going to put the cardboard in its proper container afterwards; it made a perfect ‘tray’ you see.
Anyhow, one of the men who works at the centre came along behind Mr Green and took the cardboard from him, clearly thinking he was going to dump it in the ‘non recyclables’. He said “There is a cardboard recycling skip down there, I’ll take it for you.”
Kudos to him for being so on the ball. I like to think they keep their eye on everyone and save things going into the wrong containers. And even that they stop things going into the non recyclable skip to help educate the public.
In addition, we’ve noticed that there seems to be something new virtually every time we go to our local centre. This week we discovered window glass recycling. We saw some builders actually separating their waste by adding doors, windows and frames there, scrap wood to one pile and rubble to another. It was heart warming to see people caring.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been able to put yellow pages in with our kerbside paper recycling and I’ve just discovered shredded paper recycling at a centre in Ross on Wye that we sometimes go to.
After a morning noticing all the plastic we are contaminated with in the supermarket, it made a refreshing change to see some positive things happening in the world of recycling.
There are some Salvation Army textiles banks at our recycling centre and I found out this week that the charity are going to be working with schools to help increase the council’s recycling targets. The Salvation Army will pay the schools for all the items they collect and vans will collect the items and take it back to their depots. The clothes and shoes will then be sold abroad at affordable prices.
It seems that things are changing all the time. Not necessarily at the rate I would like to see it, but at least some things are moving in the right direction. 🙂
What about you – What new recycling facilities have you discovered in your area?
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yes it’s great news when there are more things we can recycle. we can now put aerosols (minus their plastic lids and nozzles) into our kerb side recycling boxes in Tewkesbury Borough
It’s movement in the right direction for sure, just a shame it’s not universal or fast enough really.
I feel so blessed that we have awesome curbside recycling here. 3 bins for us. 1 yard waste (eventually most will go to my compost bin), 1 recyclables, 1 landfill.
I didn’t know that Maureen – thank you! I must recheck the full list to see if anything else has crept on without me noticing.
I’ve noticed that Bishops Cleeve car park recycling area has gained a Tetrapak recycling bank.
nothing really new here, but I am going to visit my family in Holland tomorrow and since in my moms town, they only have a bin for green and one for everything else, I am for sure going to find out, where I can take my stuff to get recycled….but my moms doesnt know where, soi thats gonna take somme searching (which I’m happy to do!)
I love my visits to my local recycling centre. It’s the snazziest I’ve seen and would win top marks for its facilities. They also accept all sorts of plastic packaging including polythene and film bags. I’m going to check on my next visit whether they’ll accept bubble wrap. Keep your fingers crossed ladies. 😀 x
Oooo, Maureen, that’s great about the aerosols. I don’t think we use any, but I know lots of people do so that’s a wonderful service for Tewkesbury to offer.
Sarah, you sound like me – a little erm, impatient perhaps 😉
Di, it sounds like your collections are really good over there. We’re catching up, hopefully!
Kris, I’ve found that you do need to keep checking; check the online sites too such as the tetrapak recycling because new things are popping up all the time.
Have a great trip, Esther (although you’ve probably already gone). It will be interesting to see how Holland’s recycling compares to yours.
Mrs A – what an accolade for the facilities in your area. I would think bubble wrap will be ok because it’s polythene (I think??) let us know what you find out. It certainly seems that you live in one of the best areas for recycling facilities.
Hi
Any clue who takes polystyrene, please, apart from Ikea – I forgot to put it in the car when we went last week
Hey Diz,
You know I’m just not sure about polystyrene. Have you look at the GHS website to see if they accept it. You’ll have to post it, but at least it doesn’t end up in landfill.
And I didn’t know that about Ikea – thank you for sharing that information with us 🙂
Is there anywhere that specifically takes polystyrene? I’m pretty sure that it can be reduced in size by a special machine. If you buy a fridge or washing machine I believe that they are still be protected by this and because they are delivered those companies take back the polystyrene and cardboard…
Now wouldn’t it be good if we could all leave our polystyrene in skips with them? Just wishin’.
I don’t know if Chris is still collecting polystyrene – you can read his story here: http://myzerowaste.com/2013/07/how-to-recycle-polystyrene-chips-and-get-paid/
Or there are some reuse ideas here: http://myzerowaste.com/2011/05/how-to-recycle-polystyrene-pellets-packing-peanuts/