General Chat

We have a green wheelie bin for general rubbish which is collected weekly. Basically, if the lid shuts, anything can go in it, even rubble! We also have a blue bag for newspapers and magazines (if it tears white, it's all right!) and a green box for tins and glass of any type or colour which are collected fortnightly. Epsom and Ewell don't collect plastic, but my daughter lives in Kingston borough and they collect plastic but not glass, so we swap and fill each others recycling bins! Epsom and Ewell did provide a black sack for textiles, which was supposed to be replaced when the full bag was collected. The first week the full sack went and I've never seen another one! Sue

i think if the concil gave a little incentive like money off your council tax then alot more people would do it .even if it was £50.00 a year.how would they do it i ask.barcoding on the bins which would locate addresses where they have made an effort to to it.more information aswell to let people know how much they have recycled in a month or a year would be good.there was a story last year in our local paper the news where people were recycling there waste only for the council to throw the migority in landfilled sites because they could not keep up with the amount people were recycling.doesn't put much faith in people does it!

We don't have recycling bins - just clear recycling bags with a regular circular telling us what to put in them. Basically, everything recyclable except glass and compost. The bags are made of extra strong and flexible plastic so they can be collected in the same lorries that take normal black bags, but they don't burst with the weight of the black bags on them (our dustcarts don't crush bags any more). At the depot, the recycling bags are separated and sent off to wherever they go for sorting. I understand that they lose one bag in 50 through it not being closed tightly, or being overfilled so that it bursts open, but that still means 49 that are recycled properly. Much simpler than lots of separate coloured bins and a huge improvement on us having to make trips to the council recycling depot once a fortnight. Angela

Dee, Probably so, but they won't admit this. We actually have to take our paper, bottles, clothes to bins set at random points here. It's only our normal waste and garden/kitchen waste which is collected. We have 1 large grey wheelie bin and in front of our flats two sunken containers for garden/kitchen waste. Sylvia

Lisa, have you got yours already?in theory they sound a good idea but as usual the council think they know best.we have a back entrance but i doubt they'll collect the bins from the back,that would be too easy, karen

I used to be really methodical in separating my kitchen waste for the green bin until I saw the dustman coming round here and emptying everything into one bin! If we are caught putting paper, bottles or kitchen waste in the ordinary bin we can be fined. They make random checks here and there. All these bins. We have one for paper, one for clothes, one for green glass, one for white glass, one for brown glass, and one for kitchen waste. Mind you in Germany they are a step further with bins for plastic. If you go to a supermarket you can unpack your goods and leave paper and plastic behind. Sylvia

the council introduced wheelie bins for recycling because they thought it would be better and practical to have.practical wher i live the front gardens are small living in a victorian house.not only do we have a rubbish wheelie bin but this thing has blocked our view and become a health hazard.we have been told we have the option of having one but they didn't ask us before we got them.at one stage they were going to fine residents 1000.00 if they didn't use them.living in a city full of bully boys.(portsmouth council)