Waste Management

[GillyBee]

As I was putting the bins out first thing this morning I found myself wondering how many of you have a waste management plan? I know that rubbish collection in rural areas is iffy at the best of times.ut But us city types rely on it.
My very basic plan is:
Wash all cans, glass, plastic & and plan to reuse if possible. Otherwise crush to minimise storage.
Burn paper/card type waste in back garden.
Upgrade compost heap for all food type waste, aware this will attract rats so set out the poison traps. Neighbours mness likely to make this worse anyway.

Halve I missed anything? And any other ideas? I am thinking of strikes etc which would also close the local dump. (Sorry that should read "local recycling centre")

[Frnc]

Not really thought about it. I've thought about a bug in situation with no power or water, and the sewers blocked. How to deal with that kind of waste.

For the bins, like you say, paper can be burned. Some could go in a compost heap. I've stopped composting, but still have the bin, can go back to using it. We clean plastic and tins anyway usually, as it's better for recycling, so these would get crushed, stored or re-purposed. Everything that goes in the landfill bin is clean.

Stuff that is just rubbish would have to be disposed of, not sure where. Depends what it is. Landfill stuff. Tricky one. I'm not sure what the council do with it all. Ours says the burn plastic that can't be recycled, to generate power.

I reckon a lot of stuff that goes in the landfill bin you could think of some sort of use for it. Eg the other day I chucked some polystyrene foam packing blocks. These are good insulation material. You could break it down and fill a bag with the bits, and use it as insulation somewhere.

[Arzosah]

Great topic! One thing I'm concerned with is fabric - I wear my clothes till they've got holes in, literally, or until the zip breaks (a much loved fleece finally did this over the winter). They're no good to take to the charity shop in the condition I leave them, of course, so I often cut squares of material out of them and take the rest to the CS as rags to dispose of - I check each time, because I'm aware that the recycling capability might change, but so far they've always taken them.

The squares etc of fabric, I use for various things - I've replaced the drawstring on an old pair of winter trackie bottoms, I've made cases for sunglasses, flycovers for bowls of defrosting veg, and I'm about to use an old, very thin sleeve by sewing up one end and using it to put delicate ribbon etc in the washing machine - uses less water that way, win win. I also cut the buttons off, of course, to use them elsewhere.

[Yorkshire Andy]

I've a incinerator bin on the allotment ....

[GillyBee]

I am much the same with fabric. Some charity shops will accept bags of "rags" as they still get a pittance for them. I reuse what I can and notice I am veering toward buying natural materials as these are easier to deal with at the end of their life. Worst case I can compost them.
The recycling centre takes them too - but of course if that was closed........

[grenfell]

I have wondered about this in the past. Primarily when I've seen film of a dustman's strike and great piles of rubbish start to accumulate on the streets and I've wondered how much rubbish some people can generate. We have the regular sized wheelie bins , one for garden waste , one for recycling and one for everything else that supposedly is burnt to generate electricity in the same way that Frnc mentioned. To be honest it takes a while to fill the bin. The recyling bin fills even more slowly now certain things can't now go in. We don't as a rule flatten tins but in a non collecting scenerio we could to increase capacity. Aluminium drink cans and aerosols go into another bag anyway as they get sold for scrap. A lot of our organic waste goes on the compost heap except for weed roots and seed heads. Our garden bin often has other people's waste in it. The general waste is often other people's waste too and if it's only our own waste it could take ages to fill. We have a woodburner which takes care of excess paper and we put bones in there too as I feel they then break down better in the garden and don't attract rats. I won't burn plastic , treated or painted wood though.
Our local council will supply free of charge an additional recycling bin which we have done and in a long term situation would or could serve as a useful store for bags of uncollected rubbish ( well it would but I'd have to empty other stuff out of it first) . If other councils do that and one has room it might be a prep to get one.
I don't have any particular concerns about what to do with a month or two of our own rubbish but I could see some going into a panic after a few days.

[GillyBee]

It is noticable on our street that some households generate a lot more waste than others. We are in the low to middle end of things. I know we could do better but sometimes it feels like an achievement with my mob to just get them to put stuff in the correct bin.
And if you have never thought about it, you might easily have several weeks worth of smelly mixed waste before you realise that you could have avoided that mess by doing what you should have have been doing what in the first place.

[grenfell]

It is noticable on our street that some households generate a lot more waste than others.

As part of my job I cut a few lawns and yesterday I went to the house I dislike the most. Ignoring the flight of steps I have to pull the mower up to the "garden" which is little more than a dog toilet. They never clean it up and I have to spend ten minutes picking up the shit before I can start. Add to this between three adults and two kids they produce a huge amount of rubbish , there's a general waste bin and three recycling bins and still rubbish outside the house. Inside is a tip too. How they would manage if there was a prolonged strike or disruption to collections I don't know and I fear they aren't alone in living like this. In reality in such an event while we might do our best to minimise the impact I feel we'd see exactly what has happened in the past , big heaps of bags on the side of the roads...

[GillyBee]

You have me wanting to top up my stash of rat poison and traps now. Just in case......

[Arzosah]

... the "garden" which is little more than a dog toilet. They never clean it up and I have to spend ten minutes picking up the shit before I can start. Add to this between three adults and two kids they produce a huge amount of rubbish , there's a general waste bin and three recycling bins and still rubbish outside the house. Inside is a tip too. How they would manage if there was a prolonged strike or disruption to collections I don't know and I fear they aren't alone in living like this. In reality in such an event while we might do our best to minimise the impact I feel we'd see exactly what has happened in the past , big heaps of bags on the side of the roads...

This is a good point: if it's widespread, its about what your neighbours are doing as well as you. The neighbours I have via the party wall are just like this. Their back garden, which I can see from the back windows of my house, is full of broken plastic, weeds, a broken jacuzzi, the shed where their outside dog is imprisoned, collapsed brickwork, old double glazing, its horrible. Lots of places for rats to hide. They definitely wouldn't care about where they put their rubbish in a grid down or even just a strike situation.