Well, a lot of people ask me why I want to get the hell out of the country, so here's another reason.

In the papers yesterday, the fines that will be levied against you if you dare to overfill your bin, or, gawdelpus put a bag of rubbish by the side. (even if it's on your own property.) You will face fines of up to 110 quid, which is more than they hit shoplifters for.

Personally I would have thought that a theiving b*stard was to be punished harder than someone who overfills their bin, (ie leaves the lid up more than a couple of inches.), but obviously not.

The minute my number comes up I am so out of here.

I don't normally talk rubbish - but I'll give it a go.
I think the thought behind all this is the effort to limit the volume of waste going to the tip via the general waste bin - probably a good thing - But what I don't get is that we now have two wheelie bins each about two & half times the volume of our old "dustbin" one for general waste, one for garden waste, and we get a sack to put the newspapers in for recycling - so theoretically I now have bin space for about 5 times the volume of general waste than I used to be able have??????????????

I'm in favour of recycling. I want to see an end to landfill, BEFORE every last hole in the ground is full of rubbish. I wouldn't mind having 5 bins, one for each type of waste.

What drives me insane is that you are treated worse that a common thief for just putting in a bit more waste than will allow the bin lid to close properly. :curse:

This is just another TAX.

No doubt they will have to employ yet MORE jobsworths to enforce it, then increase the fine to pay for yet MORE jobsworths. ect, ect, ect...................
Till the last person in private employment supports it all.
The way things are going, they might end up taking all your earnings, and thow you a few crumbs.

I think we are closer to that than I like. The current massive fuel increase is crippling. One of my customers told me her gas bill has jumped from £45 - £120.

The weekly shopping bill is up, up, up.

Before moving to Spain we had for 15 years a snack van on a huge lay-by next to the M6(J40)There were vast amounts of rubbish of which we generated probably about 5%,as there were no rubbish bins I asked for 2 wheely bins to be provided to tidy up what was effectively the entrance to the Northern Lake District,the scheme worked superbly well for 6 months then some bright spark at the local refuse office decided we were putting to much rubbish into the landfill site so they were removed,they now employ a nice chap to come around twice a week to pick up the said rubbish....and guess where he takes it to!.....

Two people we know are now growing their own veggies.
I'm actively looking into an independant 12 volt househould supply.
I've looked at genarating hydrogen for the car, but it seems that the dc requirement is costly. But like deisel for cars, start off selling it cheaper than petrol, get everyone hooked, then crank up the price.

Yeah, well that's where it went wrong. Had it been stupid, inefficient and useless, no-one would have tampered with a winning formula.....

With all these costs, do you wonder why I am going to be looking at solar in Spain?

Jimmbo, look very, very carefully at the 12 volts, if you mean photovoltaics. The storage batteries can make the system incredibly expensive, so for goodness sake cost it out very carefully.

Growing your own veg? Looking more and more sensible all the time.

we in italy (or at least here in the north) have very strict and new recycling laws.


We have one tiny bin per household for organic waste .... t-bags to egg shells to fruit cores and general foody stuff. The bins were numbered and registered in the town hall to each family unit before being given out - they are not more than 50 cm high. We put them outside the front gates twice a week for dustbin-man collection. This goes up to 3 times a week from june to september.

We have to seperate our glass, paper , plastic and alluminium ourselves and take it to the nearest larger collection bins placed in strategic places around the village.

Non- recycable dry goods like nappies , food wrappings, cig ends etc go into transparent yellow bags and get collected twice a week. We have to buy these bags and the organic waste ones ourselves and they are not cheap !!

Whilst i agree with recycling, I also have to agree with many Italian friends when they say that they now only eat fish on the night of "put bins out" otherwise it stinks. A simple melon will fill the tiny organic bin almost instantly not to mention the larger water melon - and each bag has to be tied in a knot inside the palstic bin itself before putting it out or they will not take it. This is an act that physically makes me gip if hubby is not around to do it !!!

Bins are numbered and bags are see-through so that if you cheat the town hall can fine you !

I will recycle and I do - but christ - the only thing I want is more collections or bigger bins ! After all - in Italy we are paying a "rubbish tax" and get frequent bills for this 'service'.

If you have a garden, then running a compost heap is a very useful idea.

not just any old heap here though - you have to buy a special bin from the town hall. You can't just chuck it all in aheap at the far end of the garden or veg patch !

put the melons and apple cores down the garbage disposal, then you won't have to put in bin.

garbage disposal ....... I'm in Italy and not in USA ..... we have NO garbage disposal here !

Italina sinks and Italian plumbing was never made for garnage disposal !

That's why we have the smelly bins we have to fill with everything froma t-bag to coffee grounds to egg shells and small bones !

Lorna,
Just think of us still stuck here in the UK.

The bins are collected every two weeks. Now that stinks.

It is still worth having a compost heap. You turn all the paper, cardboard and kitchen waste into rich soil for the garden and for use as potting compost.

That stuff costs!