Recycling for a newbie

ScouseMouse

Gotta confess folks, I have never really recycled to much. I have had, and currently still have, access to a commercial bin, so didn't need to pay that much attention to this stuff.

I do use glass banks (obvious one that), I do recycle paper and cardboard, but that's about it.

Anybody care to point me in the direction, or even put up a list of what can and cannot by recycled as efficiently as possible. I really don't know much about it. It's probable I will loose access to my big commercial bin soon.

Thanks all.

Baybay

We have a recycling centre in the town near where we live.
They take: glass bottles & jars, drink cans, food cans, cooking oil, batteries, bulbs, shredded paper, cardboard, newspapers & magazines, eye glasses, plastic bottles, tetra paks and have space outside for both smaller electrical items & larger white goods.
Possibly more too but that's all i can think of offhand.
We also have a paid recycling bag collection but it's very much more restricted, probably to plastics, cardboards etc & I don't use it.

Deedsie

Are you familiar with your local recycling centre? They will have a list of the items they accept on site.

I got more into recycling after reading about "zero waste".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_waste

It's almost a hobby/habit to me now.

My recommendation would be to start dividing up your waste and cleaning out food containers etc.

We have compostable bin bags, 20litre bags from Dunnes. All our food waste goes into them, nothing else goes in there.

We have a medium sized plastic container for all of our clean dry recyclables. Bottles, cans, paper, plastic etc etc goes in here. Take lids off bottles to save space. It fills up very quick.

We have a third bin for general waste. It's very small for toiletries waste, the cotton parts of cotton buds etc

Hope that helps a little. I'll hopefully get time to post some more stuff during the week and I might try to write this a bit more formally.

Black Swan

Here is a site by Citizens Information that discusses "Recycling domestic waste" in Ireland.

Pinch Flat

We've one bin in the utility for plastic, like this:

http://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/10255897/ takes probably the majority of our recycled waste

Our green bins also takes Tetra Pak, paper etc.

Glass in in a sack in the shed, recycled at a bottle bank when full

We've a little container we keep under the sink for brown waste, peelings, waste food etc. This is wrapped in newspaper and put in our brown bin - if you don't have one of these, you can compost your kitchen waste (need a composter obviously, they're not expensive)

Batteries, lights bulbs, non Working electrical appliances and aerosol cans I store for recycling periodically fir when I'm at our bring centre.

Similarly empty paint tins, oil, fluids I have a spot in the shed.

I've previously used recycling sites like jumble town or similar for old sofas, electrical goods (irons, Lawn mowers) that still work

two wheels good

My kerbside recycling collection doesn't accept plastic bags and wrappers - but the local recycling centre does!
Something else to add to the load for my quarterly trips to the "dump". It's frightening when you see how much plastic accumulates in just a few months.

I don't like buying apples and carrots packaged in a plastic bag. And why does SuperValu provide plastic bags for bread instead of paper bags.

Cherrycola

Is it true that shops are obliged to take all their packaging back if you remove it all before you leave the shop?
Say like Aldi's obsession with wrapping all vegetables in plastic, sometimes twice! Courgettes on a plastic tray wrapped in plastic wrapping for example. Apples, carrots etc, all packaged in plastic.
If you opened all these and put them in your own bags before you leave, can you leave all your packaging there?
I have little net bags for vegetables that came in my reusable trolley dolly bag kit which is specifically for fruit and veg.
Just curious as I've heard this rumour but don't want to start tearing off wrapping and leaving it behind me if its not allowed! Lol

brightspark

Cherrycola wrote: »

Is it true that shops are obliged to take all their packaging back if you remove it all before you leave the shop?
Say like Aldi's obsession with wrapping all vegetables in plastic, sometimes twice! Courgettes on a plastic tray wrapped in plastic wrapping for example. Apples, carrots etc, all packaged in plastic.
If you opened all these and put them in your own bags before you leave, can you leave all your packaging there?
I have little net bags for vegetables that came in my reusable trolley dolly bag kit which is specifically for fruit and veg.
Just curious as I've heard this rumour but don't want to start tearing off wrapping and leaving it behind me if its not allowed! Lol

Not if they are members of Repak

https://repak.ie/for-business/why-join-repak/

As membership costs are based on volumes of packaging this means that they have already paid for the recycling.

Of course "they" pass this cost onto the consumer so we pay for them not to accept the waste, and we then pay for someone else to take it instead..great country isn't it:rolleyes:

Cherrycola

So if they are members of repak they have technically already paid for their excessive packaging to be recycled? By us, when we take it home and put it into our free recycle bin?
Yes, all well and good until the recycling bin is over flowing and the excess has to go into my general waste bin, which I'm charged to dispose of.
Great country!!

Poochie05

Can you ask for a bigger recycling bin? Or a second one?

guil

Poochie05 wrote: »

Can you ask for a bigger recycling bin? Or a second one?

Depends what company you are with.

Cherrycola

guil wrote: »

Depends what company you are with.

Do AES provide a second/bigger recycle bin? I have the 240l and it's always overflowing. Bottled water is the biggest culprit, can't drink the tap water here.

foggy_lad

Cherrycola wrote: »

Is it true that shops are obliged to take all their packaging back if you remove it all before you leave the shop?
Say like Aldi's obsession with wrapping all vegetables in plastic, sometimes twice! Courgettes on a plastic tray wrapped in plastic wrapping for example. Apples, carrots etc, all packaged in plastic.
If you opened all these and put them in your own bags before you leave, can you leave all your packaging there?
I have little net bags for vegetables that came in my reusable trolley dolly bag kit which is specifically for fruit and veg.
Just curious as I've heard this rumour but don't want to start tearing off wrapping and leaving it behind me if its not allowed! Lol

Afaik Aldi are quite happy for customers to leave excess packaging in the packing area behind the tills.

Cherrycola wrote: »

Do AES provide a second/bigger recycle bin? I have the 240l and it's always overflowing. Bottled water is the biggest culprit, can't drink the tap water here.

Do you flatten down the bottles? 2litre or the larger 5litre bottles? use a heave block to weigh them down overnight then they should be flat enough to put in the bin.

Cherrycola

We usually use a small child to flatten down the rubbish in the bin, works quite well! Lol

two wheels good

ScouseMouse wrote: »

Gotta confess folks, I have never really recycled to much. I have had, and currently still have, access to a commercial bin, so didn't need to pay that much attention to this stuff.

I do use glass banks (obvious one that), I do recycle paper and cardboard, but that's about it.

Anybody care to point me in the direction, or even put up a list of what can and cannot by recycled as efficiently as possible. I really don't know much about it. It's probable I will loose access to my big commercial bin soon.

Thanks all.

Your local bottle bank is likely to have a can bank nearby too.
It's doubly benefitial to recycle aluminium because the mining and smelting from raw materials is so much more energy intensive than using recycled material.