islandwoman120

Just read this interesting article and many of the comments that follow it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/op...agewanted=all&

J.JsOH

Similar here.
We are already at 3 wheelies plus a smaller cooler sized carry bin.

A caddy emptied weekly (size like a cooler) for food waste and the waste must be in a purchased degradable plastic bag (which seeps fluid through it).
A black wheelie, fortnightly for general rubbish, I use grocery store bags to contain to rubbish.
A green wheelie for recyclables that are permitted - no Glass and if you put forbidden articles in there they won't empty the wheelie,
A brown wheelie (for which I have to pay additional £40/year) for garden rubbish but not vegetable peelings.
Glass has to be taken to a glass recycle centre adjacent to some supermarkets. I collect it in my separate box.
For plastic, metal, other that is not permited in recycling wheelie I collect separately and take to recycle centre when my box gets full - but is remote so can only be done by car.

I think that wheelies kept out front of houses are a horrid blight. I paid to have a gate installed in our back garden wall so that they are hidden from street - but not my - view

between two worlds

Have read the article, very interesting (I think Sarah Lyall has also written a book about her experiences in the UK?). Thank you so much for posting as NYT paywall prevents me from keeping up with it.

Haven't read the comments yet.

J.JsOH

A local general merchandise shop used to have a container to drop in printer ink cartridges for recycling - but stopped providing it because dummies kept putting batteries in it despite clear labelling.

Bud the Wiser

Thanks for the link. An enjoyable read.

jasper123

Yes Rosie, thank you for sharing this, I read it all way through and found it very interesting, and coming from a US journalist who lived in the UK for many years since Maggie Thatcher was still Prime Minister, she saw the way the UK has gradually over the years been heavily influenced by US people and there way of life and even adopting practically all there sayings/expressions only in a different accent, and I was interested too in the way she said the English seem to apologize so much, like saying sorry when there really not, and the over politeness of some people here, instead of the straight forwardness and more casual approach of the American people,

between two worlds

I am still English enough to like this frequent apologizing thing--and to think that many Americans (for example) don't apologize, or say please or thank you, nearly enough! The little politenesses of life make it more pleasant and flow more smoothly, and remind us that we really should be considerate of others.

Someone in the comments to the article mentioned Katie Fox's wonderful book,Watching the English, and I think I have mentioned it earlier on this thread. It's a brilliant and funny study of Englishness (I am using "English" rather than "British" intentionally, not meaning to offend Scots/Welsh/Northern Irish, because Katie Fox confines her focus to the English, and explains why).

She puts some of the ideas to the test; for example, she decides to jump a queue to see how much disapproval she received and how it was expressed. She also tries bumping into people on purpose, and not saying sorry, to see if they, even though the victims, said sorry themselves (as often happens!).
Problem is, being English herself, she found both these exercises impossible without a stiff drink first, and even then could hardly bring herself to bump into people on purpose and not apologize, or to deliberately jump a queue!

dunroving

Stirlingshire Council is pretty good:

Grey wheelie bin (general rubbish) - collected every second week
Brown wheelie bin (garden refuse - grass clippings, etc.) - collected every second week
Blue recycle crate (glass, cans, paper, plastic) - collected every week
Brown recycle crate (cardboard) - collected every week
Small food waste container (uncooked vegetable waste - peelings, rotten tomatoes, etc.) - collected every week
Large food waste container (cooked food waste including meat) - collected every week

They also subsidize the cost of purchasing compost bins

I compost all vegetable waste, a lot of paper, vacuum cleaner contents, teabags, some cardboard, garden refuse except weeds (4 composters), etc.. and have a wormery (they eat almost anything) that gives me super-rich worm compost every month or two. I also put my general rubbish wheelie bin out only every 6-8 weeks because it takes me that long to fill it. I can't believe how some of my neighbours put their bins out every time, full to the brim, including cardboard, etc. the Council couldn't do more to make it easy to recycle and minimize general rubbish. I think some people just feel they pay council tax so they are paying to have their rubbish collected and it doesn't matter if they put it all in one bin.

cheers

You just reminded me, I need to put out my bin for the weekly collection today.
It has everything in it and it is only half full. Newspapers, packaging, junk mail and stuff but no food waste that I can think of. No garden clippings.
Our situation I think is different because we have so much land that could be used for land fill.
I remember in England when the dustman use come to our back garden and pick up the waste bin which included the cinders from the fire.
You mentioned the bin men checking to see what you had put in your different containers. Well that wouldn't work here because the driver doesn't get out of his cab.
All in all I think the whole thing has gone overboard. Too much I say!
I hate to think of the extra cost of these programs.

Cheers

dunroving

I'm absolutely amazed at the efficiency of our recycle men - their hands are in and out of the box at ten to the dozen, throwing the bits and pieces into the relevant part of the huge recycle lorry - and if you have one tiny piece of plastic that isn't recyclable or a tiny piece of cardboard in the paper recycle, they manage to find it and it is duly redeposited in your recycle crate. I feel duly guilty if I make a mistake.

lf1

Speaking of wheelie bins, does anyone have any good tips on how to clean them? I fear that, one of these days, I will end up in one head first.

Mummy in the foothills

Tip it over lid down on the floor and get a spray nozzle on the hose, spray from a distance Dh does our regular bins this way.

J.JsOH

I use how wash up water after doing the dishes and swish it around in there with a long handled broom before tipping it out around back of compost bin

jasper123

Doc Martin's new season is starting soon, they keep advertising it on TV,
cant wait!!!!
Also the new season of Dowton Abbey starts soon, and so there showing all the repeats of last season every night of the week now so people can catch-up if they missed any episodes,
Yesterday on the bbc radio 2 on the jeremy vine show, they were talking about the huge success of the teeny bopper pop group one direction!!! and there was a 9 year old english girl describing how cute they are, and she mentioned the american word Awesome 4 times, Im just using as an example how the influence of American TV and films has on British people starting at a very young age here, Awesome is quite an old word that has been used in US for probably way over 15 years I think, and they are just picking it up here!!!!

lf1

Me too. Love Doc Martin and the trailer for the new season is funny. It is just classic Doc Martin. The new season of Vera starts on Sunday, so the nights must be drawing in.
Awesome!!!! LOL!!!