This post is all about Recycling and Waste Management – Do you do it?
We had a wee note through the post a few days ago, with a big red splodge across the top and telling me, in no uncertain terms, that from now on, our waste management team in Aberdeen is wielding a baton in the name of recycling, and will only lift one household, one bin waste from now on.
In the past, being a household of 6, with one elder who produces a fair bit of waste, we had 2 bins, and that was never a problem. We’ve had to renew that now, as all previous allocations have been wiped, and we have to apply once more.
The note gave us a fair bit of a telling off, saying they believe our household presented more than one bin, and as Aberdeen City Council will only collect one bin per household each fortnight, they will not collect excess waste. On top of that, they announced that if we presented our second bin again, it will not be emptied, and is likely to be removed. That suggests the bin will be emptied to be removed, but that’s splitting hairs…..
The long and short of it, is that we need to apply again, to be allowed to keep our second bin, as Aberdeen recycle around 38% of household waste, but they want to do more. On top of that, our 240 litre general waste bin is also going to be replaced by a mixed recycling bin. I’m not sure how that is going to work, and I can imagine it will end up stinking, but a new recycling bin will be welcome indeed.
Currently, we have little black bins and paper sacks, that end up getting blown across the streets if there’s even the slightest breeze, so proper bins, that can hold up to anything apart from a gale, will be a good move.
We also have a brown bin for garden waste and food peelings/scraps, which we use a lot. We can never wait for the kerbside collections though, as our box and bag get filled up quickly. They really are quite small. We use Household Waste Recycling Centres and drop ours off. I quite like that our local council also provide us with food waste caddys and compostable liners, which do come in handy.
We all owe it to the landfill situation to do some recycling though. This is what we do, and what we’re allowed to recycle up here.
We can apply for an extra bin if we have:
- 5 or more people living at home.
- 1 or more people with conditions that produce extra waste.
- 2 or more kids in nappies, and under three years old.
We can apply for an additional black bin if we use kerbsie recycling and the food and garden waste recycling services. We might stick here as we use the recycling services separately and don’t use the kerbside service. We drop all ours off. Time will tell if they approve our need to have a second bin lifted at times.
There will also be a telephone assessment of recycling by one of their recycling officers.
To buy a second bin, if we don’t already have one, costs £35, but there are some conditions where it might be free.
Go here to download the additional bin application form
What we can Recycle
Kerbside & Recycling Centres
Paper, magazines, newspapers, leaflets, envelopes (without windows), phone books, brochures, catalogues. Remove staples. Cardboard, cereal boxes, egg boxes, toilet roll tubes and cardboard packaging. The advice is to tear up cardboard and put it into the recycling bags here.
Some recycling centres also take clothing and shoes.
Black Box
Glass bottles and jars, including cooking sauce jars, jam jars, baby food jars, juice bottles, wine bottles and beer bottles.
Plastic bottles including drinks bottles with their lides, milk bottles with their lids, sauce bottles, shampoo and handwash bottles, cleaning product bottles and plastic lids.
Metal, including alumimium drinks cans, food tins, empty aerosols, aluminium foil, foil trays, metal lids, biscuit tins.
What NOT to Recycle in Household Waste
Batteries, pizza boxes, envelope windows, wallpaper, broken glass, drinking glasses, lightbulbs, pyrex sheet glass, marg tubs, yog pots, plastic packaging and carrier bags, crisp packets and food pouches, containers and wrappers, and lastly, no cardboard food and drinks cartons, ie think orange juice, soup and milk cardboard packs.
What we can do?
If you don’t already recycle, it’s probably about time we thought about it. Saving the planet and all that. Leaving our kids with the rubbish of the previous generations is pretty garbage, so we do our bit.
Starting them young, means they get into the habit of recycling as they grow up, and it becomes second nature to them is a really good thing to do. We do recycle, and I hope many of you do too.
