Do light bulbs go in your bin?

Recycling Light Bulbs

A few people have been asking about what to do with light bulbs - James Thompson from Shropshire Council sent over this advice:
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Incandescent

 
Incandescent light bulbs should be disposed of in normal household waste. They can't be recycled like regular glass as the fine wires are very difficult to separate out in processing.

Compact Fluorescent Lamp

Compact fluorescent lamps are energy saving light bulbs and do not belong in the rubbish bin. They contain small amounts of mercury. Although this is completely safe for users of the lamps, they must be collected separately for disposal.

This ensures that valuable parts of the lamps, such as glass and metal, are not lost. The energy saving lamps can be disposed of for free at your local Council or other collection points.

Halogen

Halogen Light bulbs should be disposed of in normal household waste. They can't be recycled like regular glass as the fine wires are very difficult to separate out in processing.

Metal Halide

HID lamps are energy saving light bulbs and don't belong in the rubbish bin. They contain small amounts of mercury. Although this is completely safe for users of the lamps, they must be collected separately for disposal. Furthermore, it ensures that valuable parts of the lamps, such as glass and metal, aren't lost.

The energy saving lamps can be disposed of for free at your local Council or other collection points.

Light-Emitting Diode (LED)

LEDs don't contain harmful substances. They have an extremely long service life and are virtually maintenance free.

You should look for the disposal rules that apply to the equipment in which they're incorporated. Individual LEDs can be disposed of in household waste.

Fluorescent Tube

Fluorescent lamps are energy saving and don't belong in the rubbish bin. They contain small amounts of mercury. Although this is completely safe for users of the lamps, they must be collected separately for disposal. Furthermore, it ensures that valuable parts of the lamps, such as glass and metal, aren't lost.

The energy saving lamps can be disposed of for free at your local Council or other collection points.

Neon

Neon lamps are energy-saving bulbs that don't belong in the rubbish bin. They must be collected separately for disposal. Furthermore, it ensures that valuable parts of the lamps, such as glass and metal, aren't lost.

The energy saving lamps can be disposed of for free at your local Council or other collection points.

So I guess the upshot is - you get less waste in landfill if you use low energy bulbs, and use LED and fluorescent when you can as they last and last and last .........

I was in B and Q the other day and found the staff in the lighting department to be really helpful - so if in doubt go and ask them

Trying to avoid packaging in shops

Please tell me why supermarkets are selling stuff in black plastic trays? We cannot recycle them in Shropshire - even the most modern. sophisticated plastics separation facility in the country can't do anything with black trays!! So why is stuff still sold in them?

Are black trays cheaper to produce? Does the food look better on a black tray? Either way, there should be a way to force non-recyclable packaging out of the loop.

Perhaps, there should be a disposal surcharge on products if their packaging is non-recyclable to discourage food companies from using it. Perhaps, supermarkets could start to refuse to sell products which come in non-recyclable packaging.... Another idea would be for supermarkets to provide the facility to take back all their own packaging.... all the bring banks in the car park are a good start - but if supermarkets had to find recycling and disposal routes for all the packaging they sold - they would soon start to only sell things wrapped in stuff that is easy and cheap to handle. Oh for a joined up World...

Apparently you can compost almost anything!!

Did you know.....?

20 surprising items you can compost Taken from the RecycleBank (4 Sep 2012 by Jo Dimbleby)

Many items of household waste can add extra nutrients to your compost heap – not just the obvious, such as vegetable peels and coffee grounds.

 1. Stale wine and beer – great for after a party! Wine is actually used by many old school gardeners as an ‘activator’ for compost, kicking off the bacterial processes needed to break down the waste.

 2. Hair from your family and your pets

 3. Balsa wood boxes – such as the ones commonly sold with Camembert cheeses.

 4. Used masking tape

 5. Stale fish food

 6. Hide or bone based dog chews – just make sure your dog’s finished with it first, otherwise you’ll have an unhappy hound.

7. Old rope – so long as it’s natural and not plastic-based

8. Really worn out leather items – chop these up into small strips with scissors to cut the time it takes them to break down. 

9. Condoms – did you know that both latex and sheepskin condoms compost?

10. Wool or cotton clothing – finally a good use for that exhausted old jumper!

Old cotton clothing can be used as dusters and cleaning cloths first; when they get too mangy, wash them through and bung them on the compost.

11. Cotton tampons and cardboard applicators

12. Seaweed – tried and tested ‘activator’. Useful as it gives the decomposition process a boost.

13. Feathers – another brilliant way to get your compost heap working overtime.

14. Vacuum dust – woollen carpets only, not synthetic as these fibres will not compost.

15. Muddy scrapings from your hiking boots

16. Lint from the tumbledryer filter

17. Fingernail and toenail clippings – provided they’re nail varnish free.

18. Ashes from the BBQ – worms go crazy for these. Make sure they’re cool first, unless you want a flaming compost heap! 

19. Used tissues – collect them when you have a cold. The screwed up paper helps create space and aerate the heap. Also paper towels make excellent compost.

20. Animal manure from vegetarian pets – best mixed with straw.

Let us know if anyone's got any other compost tips?

How much food goes in your bin?

So here we are in week 3 of the rubbish diet - this week we are looking at food waste and how to avoid it!

No-one deliberately wastes food but it is so easy to do!

Karen Cannard - the creator of the Rubbish Diet sent over this link from love food hate waste campaign.... "Re food, it's also worth remembering that even up to its Use By date, certain food can still be frozen. Here's a great link that you might like to share around your community:" http://england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/content/know-your-dates-londons-love-food-hate-waste-campaign

I think I just need a 30 hour day - then I would be really organised! The chickens next door are enjoying my attempts at getting rid of food waste and the dog is getting fat! This has got to stop - no more food waste from now on!

My biggest and best discovery is the bokashi bin - a little caddy into which you put all your food waste even bones. You add some bokashi bran and in 2 weeks the fermented contents are safe to put in your compost bin or dig straight into your garden.

Here at the Rubbish diet we have some bokashi bins to give away to rubbish dieters to help you keep your bin weight down. If you would like a set to have a go - just drop me a line at Alison@therubbishdiet.org.uk

Just seen this from love food hate waste for things to do with soft tomatoes: http://england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/search/apachesolr_search/tomatoes?filters=tid:78%20type:recipe

 

Bin research

Hello

I was passing Morrisons in Shrewsbury the other day so I hung a left and swung by the recycling banks - great to find a cardboard bank there as well as paper and glass - you can also recycle small electrical items, books, dvds and clothes at the banks - but non-wearable textiles should be taken to a charity shop to be sold as rags or put in the Oxfam clothes banks where all textiles are recycled.

On the way into the shop is my favourite recycling bin - the stretchy plastic bin - it says recycle your plastic bags here and it refers to way more than just your regular carrier bags - you can put all your wrap from toilet rolls, cereal packets, fruit packaging in there.

Cat Litter - is litter in more ways than one!

In my day job I often find myself faced with a pile of somebody else's rubbish to sort into categories - it's called residual waste research.

Now, we start the day in good spirits with lots of banter to keep the mood light and the work swift. However as the day wears on my mood generally dips a little and I  have been known to rant a little!!

About what you ask - what could possibly make you cross when you are sorting through rubbish!! Well, in my case, the thing that tends to set me off is the endless bags of heavy, inert and totally non-biodegradable cat litter that we find in the rubbish.

Most people are extremely considerate and wrap up the used litter in a plastic bag so it is not particularly offensive to deal with but boy, is it heavy!! In some waste sorts that we do, cat litter makes up 30% of the weight of rubbish. So 30% of the cost of landfill is because of cat litter!!

Now cat litter is a double edged sword - people who use cat litter can be seen as responsible cat owners who don't let their cat poo all over someone else's garden. But the resultant waste is incredibly heavy and therefore costs a lot of council tax to dispose of it in landfill.

So is there a solution? How can cat owners continue to be responsible pet owners but at the same time not produce incredibly heavy bins? I asked a few questions on twitter and this is what came back....

There are a number of cat litter products on the market that are biodegradable and compostable

Fed & Watered ‏@FedAndWatered  reckon that Cats' Best is the best product - flushable, compostable and economical

 

                              

Our Altrincham ‏@OurAltrincham agree "Better still is Cats' Best degradable cat litter which is so readily degradable it can be flushed down the loo or composted."

 

So if you have a cat and are looking for a way to slim your bin perhaps using a biodegradable cat litter that can be composted is the way forward!

 

If you have found another product that helps you slim your bin please let me know.

 

thanks

ali

 

 

 

 

Things that make bin slimming difficult!

As I go through the rubbish diet I am attempting to make a list of things that I need to try and avoid buying because of their packaging.

Black plastic !

Please tell me why supermarkets are selling stuff in black plastic trays? We cannot recycle them in Shropshire - even the most modern. sophisticated plastics separation facility can't do anything with black trays!! So why is stuff still sold in them? Are the black trays cheaper to produce? Does the food look better on a black tray?

No more Tresemme
The biggest shame is that I can't buy my favourite Tresemme shampoo any more even though it comes in a good quality plastic bottle - because it is black it is ending up in landfill.

Tresemme please could you use purple bottles instead?

Polystyrene Pizzas

My kids are often going off to play something involving a ball and a stick in the evenings and by the time I get home from work sometimes the only answer to avoid mass starvation is a quick pizza. So I whip a couple out of the freezer ready to whack them in the oven - only to find a devious layer of polystyrene inside the innocuous cardboard box......  Does anyone know where I can buy ready made pizzas that don't have hidden polystyrene?

Crisps and chocolate foil lined packaging

This is the toughest one to avoid in my house - with a barrage of teenage boys who despite my best efforts would still live on junk food if they could. We do buy basic tortilla chips because these come in clear plastic that I take back to Sainsburys.

The fact that Terracycle are collecting biscuit wrappers is making a difference to my list of stuff to avoid - but I really do need to tackle my chocolate habit!


 Wouldn't it be great if we could find a way that forces non-recyclable packaging out of the loop?

Perhaps, there should be a disposal surcharge on products if their packaging is non-recyclable to discourage food companies from using it.

Perhaps, supermarkets could start to refuse to sell products which come in non-recyclable packaging....

Another idea would be for supermarkets to provide the facility to take back all their own packaging.... all the bring banks in the car park are a good start - but if supermarkets had to find recycling and disposal routes for all the packaging they sold - they would soon start to only sell things wrapped in stuff that is easy and cheap to handle. Oh for a joined up World...

Would love to hear how you manage to avoid difficult materials

Ali