Where to put the recycling bins?

Latest Articles

Where to put the recycling bins?
Page 1, 2 Next

Downsizer Forum Index -> Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Author

Message

gillyflower

Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 226

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 07 6:40 pm Post subject: Where to put the recycling bins?

Our council is going to give us big recycling bins sometime next year for fortnightly collection. Do I keep them in the (small) back garden, meaning they take up my valuable space and I have to look at them when I'm in the garden, or, do I put them in the small front garden so that everyone else has to look at my rubbish and generally make the street look untidy?

Not saying it's a bad thing to have them, just not sure where to put them.

Fee

Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 15922
Location: Earth

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 07 6:42 pm Post subject:
Have you got a back gate or something you could keep them outside of? Maybe if they have to go in the back, you could build some sort of cupboard to hide them/blend them into the garden? That's what we need to do with our recycling ideally, but we haven't quite got round to it yet

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91� N

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 07 6:47 pm Post subject:

Back garden. Even if you can't hide them from your view in the back garden it's worth it to make the street tidier.

When it comes to hiding it a simple piece of trellis or willow will do as you only need to distract the eye rather than cover the thing completely (at our last house we successfully hid the greenhouse from view by putting a two man garden bench in front of it, everyone commented on the bench and ignored the greenhouse!)

gillyflower

Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 226

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 07 6:53 pm Post subject:

If they're round the back I would have to try and hide them, but they're so big!.. The extra problem is that they have to be round the front of the house on the day of collection which means I have to take them through next doors back garden (right of way) and leave them in the street all day until I come home from work (have had 2 small green boxes stolen so far). I'm also on a steep hill and I don't know if these things have brakes! But the front garden, as well as being very small is also 1 big step up from the pavement - who's going to lift it up and down? What so other people do?

Fee

Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 15922
Location: Earth

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 07 6:56 pm Post subject:
We don't have any bins, because we've got a totally useless council (SURREY HEATH), just black bags and carrier bags for paper which they will take on bin days too.

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 07 7:32 pm Post subject:

gillyflower wrote:

If they're round the back I would have to try and hide them, but they're so big!..

Have you tried asking the Council for a small bin? One of my neighbours did that successfully a few years back, as there were just the two of them in the house and they didn't produce much rubbish.

OP

Joined: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 4661
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 07 9:01 pm Post subject:

This whole recycling thing raises so many issues it's difficult to know where to begin. I'm not sure from what you say if this is a reduction in the service from weekly to fortnightly as some councils have done, or an additional recycling service on top of the regular collection. If it is the former then I'd be looking for a corresponding reduction in the council tax - on 2 grounds, firstly the council will be paying less landfill tax to central government, and secondly they are providing a lesser service so they need less council tax. Personally, I think it is important not to let local authorities use "the environment" as an excuse to put up council tax (or, as perhaps in this case, cut services whilst still charging the same amount of tax!).

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 07 9:18 pm Post subject:

Rather than ask for a council tax discount I'd hit my head against a wall, less painful and better results!

Are the bins stackable? That way they'll take up less room in the back and are they too big to carry through the house? If you decide to keep them in the front garden then you could always cover them to stop people looking in. Finally I've written my house number on my bins in huge black permanent marker, this avoids people "accidentally" taking my bins.

kevin.vinke

Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 1304
Location: Niedersachsen, Germany

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 07 11:27 pm Post subject:

Well you are so lucky to get a bin!
We get VERY thin yellow plastic bags in which to put packaging (thoroughly washed of course

) and they collect once a month!
Most people in the rubbish service admit these go straight into the incinerator anyway.
The wheeley bin has an insert to half its volume.
Burning stuff of any kind is restricted ti 4 weekend Saturdays in the year.
Any unusual waste (sofa�s etc) is collected with special stickers except they advertise the collection date and the night before lots of vans with Polish numbers plates come to collect them.
Btw by the time the yellow bags pile up and get broken into by the wildlife and the bits get blown around by the wind it�s got all very messy.
Doesn�t help with your problem but another perspective.

OP

Joined: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 4661
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Sat Nov 17, 07 7:09 am Post subject:

It is interesting to hear how they do it in Germany, especially as we are always told how bad the UK is. I'm normally the first to criticise our local authority (East Riding Yorkshire) for their lacklustre performance but even I will admit they do an excellent job of refuse collection and recycling. We have weekly main collection in bins (1 size regardless of size of household) plus a monthly separate collection of recycling bins (up to 2 per household).

I think the idea of restricting bonfires to 4 Saturdays a year is a good one.

Yarrow

Joined: 26 Jun 2006
Posts: 463
Location: Wiltshire

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 07 6:14 pm Post subject:
perhps one day we'll all have rcycling bins on our street, and those litter-picker people will have extra bags for tin and glass... and maybe we won't be making some b@st*rd rich by collecting up for him... ah well

2steps

Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 5349
Location: Surrey

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 07 7:40 pm Post subject:
Virtually everyone here has them in the front gardens next to their wheelie bins. I had been planning to buy make a wooden planter with a trellis to put in front of them but it was another thing I just didn't get around too this summer

Yarrow

Joined: 26 Jun 2006
Posts: 463
Location: Wiltshire

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 07 2:23 pm Post subject:
you could always try to zoning principle of permaculture... Permawiki

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 07 4:33 pm Post subject:

gnc wrote:

you could always try to zoning principle of permaculture...

Permawiki

ros

Joined: 19 Jul 2005
Posts: 2469
Location: Beds

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 09 12:10 pm Post subject:
Ours is out the front (it's a green wheelie bin) and sits with the landfill (black wheelie) food waste (for energy production apparently) brown bin and the green bags (garden waste) Goodness knows what peeps in central Beds without a front space do I built a willow screen for them and planted a clematis to cover it.

	Downsizer Forum Index -> Reduce, Reuse, Recycle	All times are GMT Page 1, 2 Next
Page 1 of 2

View Latest Posts