Tuesday 17 April 2018

A Load Of Rubbish!

Do you ever visit your local tip? Oh, sorry, we are supposed to call them Household Recycling Centres or Civic Amenities Sites nowadays. When we were in Norfolk last week, there was great concern about an increase in flytipping, due to the increase in charges for householders taking waste to their HRCs.
We often call in at Dereham Tip when we're visiting Cornerstones - occasionally to dispose of stuff, more often than not for a quick look at the little shop.


They have quite a lot of small furniture items and bric-a-brac at low prices [not that I have purchased anything there for a long time...but it's fun to nose around]
The Leicester Tip at Whetstone is another Top Tip, imho - we went there lots in the years we were in Kirby.
It was always extremely well organised. The discarded vacuum cleaners there were always lined up by make. It amused us to see quite so many Dead Dysons- but we never saw a Sebo like ours - which must prove something!
Our local Dorset Waste Partnership seems well organised. We've not yet visited our local tip - but the bin men collect our various bins [general, recycling, bottles, glass and foodwaste] very efficiently. And Jim-next-door does not even have to put his bins outside the gate - elderly and less mobile residents can opt to have the bin man come onto the property, to retrieve, empty, and replace the bins each collection day. 
 Outside the Library yesterday I met a couple of affable chaps, warning about the problems of flytipping in Dorset.
The guy was standing in front of a heap of rubbish, handing out leaflets telling us how to report any illegal dumping of waste, and how to dispose of our rubbish correctly. Dorset's charges appear [for the time being anyway] to be lower than those in Norfolk]
He said that people have become much more environment-conscious in the last few years, but there are still folk who just drive out to quiet spots and empty out a van load of junk, rather than deal with it properly.
We had a great conversation about the wardrobe behind him. It had once been a good piece of furniture- the decorate escutcheon plates around the lock were delightful - and the interior shelves each had beautiful name plates [for socks, shirts, ties, underwear..] 
I have no use for it, and couldn't have transported it home on the back of my bicycle anyway. But it did seem such a shame it was being scrapped.
TV Programmes like Money For Nothing  are good for ideas about recycling/upcycling and renovating. 

I realised on Saturday that I had forgotten to get confetti for the wedding - but then saw the large notice at the Registry Office,  "This counts as litter, and therefore throwing confetti is illegal"which somehow seemed a little joyless!
One summer we had been invited to three weddings - so I bought 3 boxes of eco-friendly biodegradable confetti [on a 3-for-2 offer] Unfortunately by September, the contents of the third box had already become dust. 
As yet, we have a long way to go in this house before we become a "Zero Waste Home"   but I am trying to be extremely diligent about how we dispose of things. The largest item we are getting rid of this month will be a defunct Skoda Octavia.
Do you have helpful binmen?
And is your local tip well organised - or expensive to use?


4 comments:

  1. We have to be very conscious of our rubbish as we have to dispose of it ourselves. There are no wheely bins along the cut.

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  2. We live on a corner and the pavement is very slim outside our house so we get our bins collected from the garden and returned or they block the pavement.
    X

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  3. Here in Toronto we must recycle. As I live in an apt. building there is one large dumpster outback for the garbage and one for the recycling - and woe betide anyone if the Recycling Co. finds garbage in their bin!
    Each house also gets a green bin for organic waste. They keep trying this with apt. buildings but the containers aren't big enough and racoons are aways a concern - they can get into anything! There was even a funny bit on the news the other night with the mayor making a funny speech about them - someone had caught one on video managing to undo the "animal proof" clasp on his green bin - they are very smart!
    We actually get to recycle a lot more things than some other countries do although the black plastic containers came off the list just last week. The cost of this service is included in my rent and homeowners pay for theirs through their taxes.
    A few times a year there are special collection days for "hazardous waste" like paints or for large items like furniture - we just have to ensure that it is left out in the appropriate spot for pick up. It's pretty much second nature by now except for the organic waste situation - I wish they would get that sorted for us apt. dwellers.
    I have consciously tried to reduce my use of plastic but it is everywhere! I try to reuse grocery bags and don't use plastic for loose produce and have purchased glass containers for leftovers and lunches and pantry storage but it is difficult to eliminate it completely - I really don't know how anyone ever manages a zero waste home but I greatly admire their efforts.

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  4. I miss the recycling service in Wickford! It was weekly and took many, many items. In Rochford, we only get recycling taken every fortnight and certain things aren't collected.
    I didn't know you got charged to take things to the Dump (what we call The Tip!), we've never been charged when we've taken things there though I suppose we've not really taken furniture at all.Xx

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