A load of rubbish
Feb. 5th, 2015 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustIt is Thursday, and the council's refuse collectors have called. At least, I assume that's what has happened. The bin has been removed from the back step at the end of the garden. I haven't tried to retrieve it, because I can see from the window that the back lane is one sheet of ice - not thick, but continuous. Time enough to go out in search of the bin when I need to put something in it.
Which won't be as long as I'm accustomed to: we are generating more rubbish than usual at the moment. Much of it is vegetable waste, which I prefer to compost. We have a compost bin; in fact we have two, and they are both full to overflowing. Which makes it very clear that in this household, composting is not a way of creating compost, which I don't use, but a way of disposing of of coffee grounds (and other peelings, but oh, such a quantity of coffee grounds!). There are places where the council collects vegetable waste separately, and composts on a large scale, which is much more efficient, but Durham is not one of them, so into the bin it goes.
Where it joins all the kinds of plastic which are not accepted for recycling. Durham used to accept any plastic (I suspect they sorted and discarded, but at least they collected it first); but the latest leaflet from the council, while urging me to recycle more, also said that 'we no longer accept plastic bags or black plastic food trays'. What does 'black plastic food trays' mean? Does it include the trays from supermarket packs of fruit (yes, sometimes I buy these; don't judge me too harshly) or are they simply trying to avoid trays incrusted with the remains of microwaveable ready meals? Who knows? Sometimes I decide one way, sometimes the other.
Ah well. I have just been to the postbox at the top of the hill. The birthday card will still arrive late, I think, but there are snowdrops poking up by the fence. There is hope.
Which won't be as long as I'm accustomed to: we are generating more rubbish than usual at the moment. Much of it is vegetable waste, which I prefer to compost. We have a compost bin; in fact we have two, and they are both full to overflowing. Which makes it very clear that in this household, composting is not a way of creating compost, which I don't use, but a way of disposing of of coffee grounds (and other peelings, but oh, such a quantity of coffee grounds!). There are places where the council collects vegetable waste separately, and composts on a large scale, which is much more efficient, but Durham is not one of them, so into the bin it goes.
Where it joins all the kinds of plastic which are not accepted for recycling. Durham used to accept any plastic (I suspect they sorted and discarded, but at least they collected it first); but the latest leaflet from the council, while urging me to recycle more, also said that 'we no longer accept plastic bags or black plastic food trays'. What does 'black plastic food trays' mean? Does it include the trays from supermarket packs of fruit (yes, sometimes I buy these; don't judge me too harshly) or are they simply trying to avoid trays incrusted with the remains of microwaveable ready meals? Who knows? Sometimes I decide one way, sometimes the other.
Ah well. I have just been to the postbox at the top of the hill. The birthday card will still arrive late, I think, but there are snowdrops poking up by the fence. There is hope.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 01:03 pm (UTC)Luckily, our council does have a compostable waste collection set up and they'll take stuff like fish and meat scraps and bones and the like as well as the rest.
They also do all plastics and metals and all paper products.
I don't rate our local authority, but this they do pretty well.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 02:09 pm (UTC)I remember when we lived in Durham, there was hardly any curbside recycling of plastics at all. We collected our plastic bottles and such in large bags that we kept in the garage. It was a good storage space, since we didn't have a car. When curbside recycling happened (2008?) we put the plastic out, a bit at a time, until it was all collected. I'm sorry to read that they seem to have rescinded.
Be careful on that ice, m'k?
no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 08:51 pm (UTC)Don't worry about me, we have hardly any ice to speak of (it had gone by the end of the afternoon) and I am excessively careful about it. You're the ones with the real winter. Don't fall into those snow drifts!
no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 03:00 pm (UTC)We have a compost bin, but although I do use the compost (spread at random over the flowerbeds if I just need to make room in the bin, or mixed half and half with commercial compost in pots) we really need two. It does mount up over late Autumn and Winter when we're not doing much in the garden and nor are the worms.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-05 10:49 pm (UTC)Broken glass and food: easy to separate - what could possibly go wrong? Maybe their targets are based on the amount they collect for recycling rather than the amount which is actually recycled.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-06 10:54 am (UTC)Y'know, that's a very persuasive hypothesis! And I believe it's measured by weight, which is why Durham are so reluctant to take plastics (bulky but not heavy).