It may sound like an odd question, but I’d hazard a guess that most households have at least three bins in their household for general waste, recycling, and vegetable scraps or garden waste. I have ten ‘bins’ in my studio flat (but don’t worry, some are quite small!). That is what it takes in my efforts to responsibly recycle or repurpose as much of my waste as possible in the county of Wiltshire, UK.
Before we begin, a quick note that recycling is a contentious issue since not all of our recycled materials are actually recycled responsibly, particularly plastic. The priority is to first reduce then reuse before recycling. See my post Steps to Sustainability for a few more ‘R’s to throw into the mix.
Kerbside Recycling
In the county of Wiltshire, UK, there are two main rolling kerbside bins; one for general waste and one for some recycling, then another kerbside bin for for food scraps and garden waste if you pay extra. This seems to be a common arrangement across the UK and Australia. Oddly, in Wiltshire we also have a black box for other recycling certain items, which means that our recycling has to be thoughtfully separated.
Trying to be a good citizen, I did my research on what can be recycled in each bin and wrote lists to guide me. In my kitchen, I even had separate bins to make sure it is done correctly, until I knew it by heart and could sort it on the fly. However, as of this week, they are finally simplifying the system to my great delight!
To find out what recycling is allowed in your kerbside bins (in the UK and Australia), check out my post Recycling.
Other Recycling Options
In addition to the kerbside recycling, local recycling centers take items that can’t go in kerbside bins but regularly exit households. For example polystyrene, electronics and cooking oils.
And there’s TerraCycle. I became aware of this amongst rumours that some shops or local residents were collecting things such as chip packets to be recycled in special schemes. It turns out that TerraCycle are worldwide and have schemes to collect all sorts of products, which certain brands (the ones making those products) fund to be recycled. To find out more, head to the TerraCycle website. But be wary of this ‘solution’ as they are just a plastic recycling middle-man, and recycling plastic is an utterly flawed system. I’m going to revert to other options very soon.
There may also be other recycling options in your area, such as collections for batteries, ink cartridges and water filters. These may be in the shops that you buy these items from such as office and craft supply stores and supermarkets, or perhaps the online store will accept empty returned items to recycle? Keep your eyes peeled for options!
Repurpose
If you don’t have access to the ‘green’ collection, why not save your fruit and vegetable scraps to compost yourself or donate them to a willing local gardening centre, a friend or a neighbour that composts? Fortunately, I have a local charity garden centre that collects scraps for composting. They then sell this compost, so my scraps are turned into charitable funds!
Another repurposing idea – save plastic bags, including bread bags, vegetable bags and other packaging without holes (or tape up the holes) to reuse as bin liners. Also stash used snap-lock packaging, such as those used for nuts and powders etc., to reuse for holding meat, fat, bones and any not-compostable smelly substances going into your bin. I only empty my little kitchen pedal bin once a month or less, so anything organic goes into a snap lock packet to contain it and reduce the smell!
It’s also easy to keep an open bag for clothes to donate. Notice what is in your wardrobe that you don’t wear often (other than special occasion clothes) or are difficult to match with other pieces. Wear it one more time and decide if you love it or if it is just taking up space. This way, you can slowly but effectively thin your wardrobe and build a bag of clothes for charity. Since I purchase from charity shops (op shops, thrift stores) regularly, I like to cycle clothes back just as regularly to keep my wardrobe manageable!
In addition, I save and wash my soft plastic to make ecobricks (the topic of a future post). I like this option as it is taking responsibility for my own plastic and making absolutely sure that the toxic dioxides they contain are trapped from entering the environment for 400+ years. The effort involved in ecobricking is an extremely good motivator to reduce single-use plastics in my home even further, as well as being a meditative exercise in itself!
Summary
In summary, the bins in my little household include:
- General waste (emptied every 6+ weeks)
- Recycling
- Things for the recycling centre (electronics and jars of oil/fat)
- TerraCycle items (chip packets)
- Items for other collection points (water filters, batteries)
- Food scraps to donate
- Plastic bags and snap-lock packets to reuse in my waste bin
- Clothes for charity
- Dirty soft non-recyclable plastic to wash for ecobricks
- Clean an dry soft non-recyclable plastic for cutting to ecobrick
Phew!!
What bins do you have, and what ways have you found to recycle as much as you can?