How many bins do you have?

Four wheelies. Food/garden waste, glass/plastic, paper/card and general non recycling.

1

All goes in a big black bin bag. Paper, metal, plastic, takes them all.

4 bins

brown - garden waste

black general waste

green - recycling - paper, card, tins, plastics

blue - glass

we have a Labrador - does that count as a good waste bin?

I’m with the OP; as a nation we should be doing more regarding food packaging. It staggers me just how much waste we produce per week as a family of 4.

1 bin for landfill, a box for plastics / glass, and a bag for paper. Although they refused to empty the landfill bin this week because I’d lobbed a weed that I’d plucked out of the drive into it.

Bin men round here take their enforcement roles seriously.

Hampshire here, but clearly not the same Borough/City as someone who posted earlier.

Green topped bin = landfill

Blue topped bin = recycle

Brown topped bin = garden waste (extra annual charge).

Glass has to go to the village centre.

Metal that is not cans has to go to the tip.

No food waste provision.

Stayed in a North Welsh village in the summer.  3 way split on recycling including glass and a main bin.

My parents are in East Anglia same bin system as us but different colours and different things can go in them 🙄

Milton Keynes

Ours has just changed (start of September)

4 bins
Green bin for garden waste - collected every week
Black bin for rubbish - collected every week
Red bin for paper - collected fortnightly
Blue bin for plastic/cans/glass - collected fortnightly

It's much better than the old system which was mostly bags, so now the foxes/birds/rats can't get into the bags

Berkshire.

Black wheelie,

I compost at home so green wheelie is for my non-kerb plastics that I drive a skip bag at a time down to a container.

2 x green buckets. One got paper, one for glass.

1 x green bag for tin and kerbside plastic (bottles only). That's the one I struggle with: I think that's the delineation but need to check. Some neighbours just chuck any old plastic in.

Unofficial 3 x white pots. Crisps packets, soft plastics and plastic bottle tops that I recycle off my own back.

No eco warrior, just guilt for generating more than we should

...We're on a little lane of 7 houses with some space at the entrance that I was thinking I'd use to put 6 plastic tubs to encourage community recycling (i.e. Stuff that can't be kerb recycled) but not sure my neighbours immediately opposite would appreciate it.

Haven't done much more than think about it mind you

Argyll & Bute - 3 bins:
Green - general waste

Blue - recycling

Black - Glass

Green waste either gets composted with a lot of the food waste either goes to the Labrador or chickens for ‘reprocessing’

We have no bin collection though as we’re on an unadopted road, so I have to take it all to the recycling centre every few weeks.

In Powys with weekly collection for the recycling boxes

Blue - paper and cardboard
Red - plastic and metals
Green - glass
Compost Caddy

Every 3 weeks the non recyclable gets collected. Wheelie bins where suitable and they are sized according to household numbers. We still have the one sized for 2 based on previous owners, but is a good incentive for the 3 of us and seems just fine.
3 weeks doesn't seem too inconvenient, but we are in a village so put out each others bins if we know someone is away on wheelie bin day.

I grew up in a really big family, all boys.

We had seven bins for seven brothers

That's a bit sad Dyna-Ti - doesn't your council offer anything better?

fossy
Full Member
Four wheelies. Food/garden waste, glass/plastic, paper/card and general non recycling.

The same as fossy.

We recycle most of our single use plastic at the Co-op.
We have 2 compost heaps, so very little garden waste or peelings etc go into the green bin.
We use the local re-fill shop and also buy soap/shampoo/conditioner bars etc. meaning there's very little waste.

 

3 and a bag for paper card.Weekly

Wheely for landfill fortnightly but goes out monthly

Weekly Box for metal/plastic

Weekly Box for glass. Goes out monthly

Suspect food bins exist as some stupid mini ones are around but see no need. We eat everything but the peelings which go in the compost bin

I would ban all double wrapping eg cardboard sleevs on plastic containers . Could be done virtualy overnight.

So much is wrapped that doesn't need it. Bread! Cheese, ham etc.

Two:

- general waste collected weekly, but goes out once a month if that

- recycling fortnightly, often goes out monthly.

I’m in North Wiltshire, and we have three big wheelies - one for general household waste, one for recycling one for garden waste, which I have to pay £65/year for, and a small black box for glass.

The recycling stuff is a pain, because although they’ll take batteries and other household electronics if placed in a clear plastic bag and put on the top of the bin, clear recyclable plastic boxes, like I get bird food, mealworms and the like in, I can’t put in the recycling bin, I have to take ten miles to the recycling centre! 🙄

A green landfill wheelie and a blue recycling wheelie, plus a food bin and a red glass bin. And an optional brown one for garden waste if you pay extra. Absolutely gutted that Sunak's stopping me having another 2 though.

That’s a bit sad Dyna-Ti – doesn’t your council offer anything better?

We get green bin for general rubbish and a blue one for paper stuff. Its a tenement flat so we have around 6 or 7 green bins and 2 blue ones.

I dont use the blue as it mainly gets filled by heavy paper like cardboard, so small stuff-packaging and the like just goes in the green one(In a bin bag)

All of it is taken to the collection/sorting/processing center where the lot gets dumped on a conveyor system with magnets removing metal, then a team of sorters separate the rest.

This is then packaged up and sold on to recycling firms dealing in metal and plastic. Far as im aware the rest gets burnt.

Does the bin in the bathroom count?

The cute little one near the bog that never gets emptied until it reaches critical mass?

Four:
Household waste
Recycling (mixed dry)
Food waste
Garden waste

We also collect glass in a tub and take that to the recycling bin ourselves periodically because we're not supposed to put glass in the recycling bin. So I suppose there's an argument for a fifth there already.

I guess the mythical seven was really just a couple of extra to allow sorting of different recycling materials (say card, plastics, metal?)

I'd be ok with seven bins TBH, the problem would be my family who generally seem unable and unwilling to sort stuff under the current system.

Green, black and blue all used for general waste in various parts of the country. Cluster ****.

French village so communal bins for us.

One general

One glass

One for packaging, paper, plastic and tins

The department recycling people showed us a video about their super new recycling plant and its automated sorting and processing. The general message was that it was cheaper than landfill to recycle so even making a mistake was not too bad.

The other thing I really notice here is how much packaging is cardboard rather than plastic, which seems a step forward

Living in a very small coastal flat, I really envy anyone in a French village.  We have plastic woven bags which are always being blown away along with the fruit fly farm, sorry food caddy.   That brings back warm memories of school genetics.

Edible food waste goes in the dog or horse. Non edible stuff in the compost bucket under thr sink and then on the muck heap. Paper and card either used to light fire or once a month might drop a red bag for recycling. Plastic and metal recycling in a purple bag goes out once a week. The glass box is collected fortnightly together with the black landfill bag. You are allowed 1 such bag every 2 weeks.

clear recyclable plastic boxes, like I get bird food, mealworms and the like in, I can’t put in the recycling bin, I have to take ten miles to the recycling centre! 🙄

CountZero -We get our bird food from the RSPB, which 'mostly' comes in paper sacks or pouches.

In Romania(and other parts of EEU under Russia, they used to burn all waste in a central plant. This produced hot water that was pumped through all the houses in the town, providing constant heating throughout winter.

3 bins and a bag for paper card. Brown, Blue and Cardboard bag emptied bi weekly opposite Black bin.

The funny thing is the council can't afford the new bin lorries which split the cardboard from the other recycling so they just chuck it all together. Despite asking households to split the card from other recycling. The black bin could easily be emptied less often. There are only 2 of us and we rarely have more than a couple of small bags of non recycling waste. Still too much but we have got a lot better in the last 20 years.

Three - all emptied fortnightly.
General waste.
Recyclable, excluding metal and glass.
Garden which is charged at £35/40 pa but likely to increase next year; service provided for 8 months only.

The council are introducing kerbside glass recycling so there will be a fourth bin.

We have three (Cambridge).

Black - landfill
Green - compostable inc food waste
Blue - All recycling: glass, metal, plastic, card, paper

Batteries go in a plastic bag on top of any bin.

North Herts

- Purple for non-recyclable - collected fortnightly

- Black for recycling (glass/cardboard/packaging) - collected fortnightly

- Small caddy for food waste - collected weekly

- Tub thing for paper - collected fortnightly

- Brown bin for garden waste - paid for service, collected fortnightly

If waste and recycling is if interest to you I can heartily recommend the following book that a friend of mind has recently published;