Rubbish collection

We have bins for general rubbish and recycling sacks for recyclables.  Electronics used to be something they'd pick up for you if you made an appointment, but now you're meant to recycle them at a centre (since the cutbacks).  Garden waste used to be taken for free, but now you're meant to pay for it since the cuts.  We've not found out how much it costs, and are trying to compost our clippings, but we have quite the heap going.  We used to be able to leave the stuff within our property line and a worker would come around before the collection and set everything by the curb.  After the bins were collected, the worker would put them back.  Now we need to put our bins out between 6 pm the night before a collection and about 8 am the next morning. I don't think that is unreasonable, and they make concessions for those unable to physically move their bins.

Westminster absolutely sucked.  They had no bins and wouldn't let you put the rubbish out unless it was within two hours of a collection.  But when is the collection?  They used to pick my elderly inlaws rubbish up from their basement steps.  No longer.  There's no sense in having collections really.  Now they just dart through traffic to stick the rubbish into the big bins the council has every few blocks or so.  Westminster fines for *everything* so this is just a way for the council to raise funds without having to up the council tax.  It's really easy to get fined for not putting the rubbish/recycling out at the right time.  They even will come and investigate if you're moving in or out if you leave the boxes for more than a few minutes.  I really, really couldn't stand that council.

ETA: I have no sympathy for people complaining about sorting recycling.  Sorry.  It's nothing like what we had to do and were required to do by law in the town where I grew up:

All plastics had to be sorted by numbers.  Number 7s had to be tossed with the regular rubbish.

All labels had to be soaked off tins and jars

Tin, glass, paper, all separated.

Tins had to have both ends off and flattened

Boxes had to be flattened.  Not just smooshed, but have the ends pulled off and neatly flattened.

It goes without saying, everything had to be washed with no residues

We had to pay individually for each sack of rubbish.


I think they changed some of the rules in the past 10 years, but that was the gist of it.  Nothing like that happens here, so the frothing about having to put recyclables in one sack, compost in another makes me laugh a bit.

ETA: I have no sympathy for people complaining about sorting recycling.  Sorry.  It's nothing like what we had to do and were required to do by law in the town where I grew up...

Just so I make sure to never move there, can you tell us where that was?   

If it means that much to you, I'd totally recommend you check out an area's recycling policies before you moved anywhere.  As I said, some of the rules have changed, and technology has advanced.  I'd be surprised if many places have that many requirements any more as machines do a lot of the work. My dad pays a company to pick up his rubbish and deal with the recycling, so I don't know what they have to do now there.  But that is what we had to do when I was a teen, and I loved it because in my idealism I actually thought I was making a difference.  Silly teenagers.   I even used to do paper drives long before we had compulsory recycling in our town.


I bet there are still guidelines somewhere on the net for old school recycling. 

Every council is so different - lol!  Here in Leeds:

Big black bin - rubbish

Big green bin - recycling, except glass - glass must be taken to a collection point (although I know some people put glass in their regular rubbish sometimes rather than bothering with taking it somewhere else & that doesn't seem to be a problem here)

Big brown bin - garden waste (although we haven't asked for one of these, because we compost ours for use in our garden & plants)

Regular rubbish collection is *supposed* to be every week, and green bin (recycling) every 4 weeks.  Although ever since the Leeds binworkers' strike of 2009, following which the council tinkered about with the routes, schedules, pay, overtime, etc...the service isn't entirely reliable any longer (it was before for years & years).  There was a long stretch when it was anyone's bet if they'd actually show up in a given week or not - it still seems to be that way in the poorer areas of the city, whereas the richer areas (where councillors & MPs have residences) seem to score more reliable service.  Normal-ish service for us has finally resumed two years on, but it can still be hit or miss on occasion.

As I said, some of the rules have changed, and technology has advanced.  

Ah, I missed that part.  I thought you were saying your home town was still requiring people to wash their garbage.   

Oh, I am sure they still do require that.  You're meant to do that here as well.  I don't soak labels or anything here, but you're meant to clean plastic bottles, pots, tins, and tetrapak in our council.  Giving them a good rinse works, but washing them out after you do the washing up probably uses less water.

I know that in places in the US, and I assume here as well, sorting doesn't really matter any longer for recycling because the plants can sort it themselves. 

For instance we put everything int he big blue bin.  Glass, foil, Tetrapacks, cardboard, plastic and I'm sure other things that I am currently forgetting.

That's what I meant when I said technology has advanced.  You still need to rinse or wash the items, but you don't need to sort them (except for from your regular rubbish, but supposedly they've developed a machine that will do that too), flatten the tins, sort the plastics, sort the newsprint from the shiny paper, etc.  I forgot about the biggest thing: because our town was relatively small, there was no municipal garbage pick up.  You had to get it to the transfer station on your own.  You could hire a garbage collector (which my dad does now), but ultimately it was up to you to handle it.  So people used to try to recycle as much as possible because you didn't have to pay for what could be recycled.  You did have to get it there and sort all the things I described before putting them into the separate chutes.

When I moved to NYC, I couldn't believe we could just stick our recyclables into a bin and not sort them, nor did we have to remove labels or worry that much about types of plastics, papers, etc.

Ah, I missed that part.  I thought you were saying your home town was still requiring people to wash their garbage.   

Even though that isn't required here, we always rinse out cans and jars etc, especially with it being a plastic box they go in rather than a bin with a lid it helps in not attracting flies and vermin.

When I used to work in a supermarket in New York, I used to handle bottle returns. I would have to handle cans and bottles that poor people fished out of the garbage. Sometimes with bugs crawling in them.

I wouldn't want anyone to have to handle my unwashed items.

Although I sense this position will be unpopular, I don't plan to start washing any of my trash anytime soon.