I’m actually not a newbie to recyling. I remember when I was little, we used to take back the empty glass bottles to the newsagent or off-licence and get 5p for each bottle. I also used to accompany my Dad and brother who, on behalf of the Scouts, collected old newspapers from the local community. I loved doing that because one of the houses we went to was where a lovely retired Army Major lived. He used to invite us in and give us a lovely cup of tea served in fine bone china.
Back then, during my baby days, anappies weren’t the norm and my Mum would wash my towelling nappies each day for re-use the next. When I was a bit older, I would help Mum out in the kitchen and she’d often give me the scraps to put on the compost heap for use on Dad’s allotment (organic of course, simply because there weren’t pesticides and other nasties to put on veg back then). Actually, when I come to think of it, we were fairly green back then in the 70s.
So, thirty-something years on, I’m revisting the family tradition and recyling once again.
It’s not easy though. Particularly when you live in a flat. At the moment, I have a vast array of cardboard, plastic, tins and bottles strewn over the kitchen top and windowsill, waiting to be taken down to Sainsburys where my nearest recycling centre is located. Us flat dwellers aren’t given individual recyling boxes to leave out on various days of the week and, even if we were, I’d have no room for them in flat. Instead, we have four small recycling bins for glass, tins and newspapers/magazines but not cardboard or plastic. These are placed opposite the main bin store which has five very large bins in to cater for the flat – the sort that fix to the back of refuse lorry and they tip up to empty them. It amazes me that people walk past the recyling bins to put their rubbish containing glass, tins, paper etc in the large bins.
Anyway, much as I’m happy to use the Sainsburys recyling centre, I thought it about time the flats had the opportunity to recycle plastic and cardboard too, for those that clearly cannot be bothered to walk 10 mins (or even drive two mins!) round the corner. I emailed the local council and was pleasantly surprised at receiving an early reply. The nice man is going to put in a request for the new recycling bins, although has to liaise with the Management Company who probably need to get some sort of crazy plannnig permission or something. Let’s hope they don’t take too long to sort this out.
I also asked about green bins for food scraps as I do feel very guilty each time I scrape my food waste into the bin. This wasn’t such an easy request. I was told one could be arranged but I would need to take responsibility for it, make sure other residents put only food waste in it and that I had to wheel it down to the main road for collection. Too be honest, I’m not going to take responsibilty for other people’s recycling I’m afraid. So I’ll just have to wait until we move to a nice house with a garden where I can set up my compost heap.
Finally, I also asked the nice council man if perhaps a small leaflet drop could be done to the local flats to remind them about recyling. Once again, no problem! Although I feel a bit guilty now because that will cost money and I could actually spend an afternoon being creative myself. What’s the betting that a lot of residents won’t put the leaflet in the recycling!
It’s also quite hard work knowing what can and can’t be recyled. Some plastics can, some can’t, containers must be washed and squashed apparently, envelopes need their windows cut out and now I’ve discovered these little symbols on the back of packs to tell you if it can be recycled. But I won’t confuse you with these now as I have a kitchen to clean before local residents confuse it with the local refuse site.
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