Hi everyone,

I´ve moved to Sheffield very recently and it seems to me a great shame that there are not more recycling points in the city. Yes I´ve got a blue bin for paper recycling, but that´s a bit lame when I have to go miles to recycle glass, plastic, tetra paks etc. I live in Nether Green and I have to go all the way to Sharrowvale Road for my nearest plastic and cans recycling point. As I don´t have a car this is impractical, and in any case driving to recycling points is hardly green, is it?! Is anybody interested in joining me to put pressure on the council to provide better facilities?

Hope to hear from you soon,

Jo

You probably want to contact the Green party who are very active in the city centre and ask them to support you.

I agree there is a lack of recycling points and the ones I go to are usually overflowing because they are not emptied often enough. It seemed the people are quite willing to make efforts to recycle but the council is only responding in a half hearted way.

I like the boxes they have in some places, don't need to take it anywhere then! Encourages everyone to do their bit I think!

Granted recycling in Sheffield is a bit hit and miss, some areas get green bins, some don't but after a trip to Florida I have to say we make a lot of effort compared with the Americans. Where I stayed it was a dustbin and a couple of sacks collected from the roadside twice a week. Here we start to get twitchy when we can't recycle a yoghurt pot.

It would be good if the council let small company's use the recycling facilities then their targets would be more acheivable.

Hi Dizzyblonde,

It´s not enough to say we´re doing better than America. Of course we should be doing better than the world´s biggest polluter! It´s not just the odd yoghurt pot, you just check how many plastic trays, milk containers, detergent bottles etc you throw away in a week. I bet you have at least a bin liner full. If that could be reused instead of going into a landfill, surely we should be doing something about it. Really we should be working towards reusing containers, like in the old days when you used to get a few pennies back for your lemonade bottles. This already happens in countries like Germany and Holland - for instance their plastic Coke bottles are thicker than ours and you can get a bit of money for them if you bring them back to the supermarket.

Recycling in this country is a lottery. It should be centralised and there should be government campaigns on TV to get people to recycle and convince them it´s not just for tree-hugging losers!

I agree with Tintsexpert and yes Classicrock I´m going to find out about joining the green party!

Have a good Monday!

I like the boxes they have in some places, don't need to take it anywhere then! Encourages everyone to do their bit I think!

Used to have a green box where I lived in London. It was great. all cans bottles and papers went in the green box and were collected every Thursday. However, we just had plastic sacks for the rubbish and the amount of rats and mice that thrived was scary. To think we have them here with wheelie bins is making me wonder how bad it is in London now.

I don't have a car so all my recyclable waste goes in the normal bin unfortunately. I really feel that on glass products we should return to the deposit system where you get money back for returning the bottles. I remember as a kid collecting discarded pop bottles and getting the money back on them. It was a nice little addition to my pocket money.

When I was staying in Germany they used to have a yellow sack for Plastics and tins. Green wheelie bin for biodegradable waste a brown wheelie bin for paper and cardboard and a black bin for non recyclable waste. There were very heavy fines for contaminating a bin with the wrong type of waste and collections were phased so green bin and yellow sacks once a fortnight and black and brown bins once a fortnight. With the yellow sacks it did not matter how many you put out. There was a party while we were there and there were 8 sacks full of cans and plastics, all were taken but there were the same rules about the wheelie bins. They had to be closed properly.

I would say the only problem was the space in the kitchen for the separated rubbish.

I like the idea of box collections for tins, bottles and recyclable plastics, however I get the feeling that this idea hasn't been implemented because of the man power/extra dustbin lorries that might be needed. It can't cost much to provide or even sell recycling boxes to the public, and if they require specific recycling lorries this surely would create more jobs?

Just my thoughts, I've always wondered why it's not already happening!

We could certainly do with some recycling facilities at most if not all supermarkets with car parks, i.e. Somerfields Eccy Rd if boxes aren't introduced. (I'm sick of the accumulating bottles and tins in our cellar waiting to be taken to overflowing Tesco facilities).

Where I used to live down south they have a regular blue bin collection (fortnightly now I think). You could put pretty much anything recyclable (paper, card, tin, plastic bottles) except glass into it and everything is sorted out later at a recycling facility. So rather than having 3 seperate boxes and collections for card/tin/plastic it was a case of just having one collection from the kerbside. :) I'd love to see Sheffield City Council introduce a scheme like that.

Where I used to live down south they have a regular blue bin collection (fortnightly now I think). You could put pretty much anything recyclable (paper, card, tin, plastic bottles) except glass into it and everything is sorted out later at a recycling facility. So rather than having 3 seperate boxes and collections for card/tin/plastic it was a case of just having one collection from the kerbside. :) I'd love to see Sheffield City Council introduce a scheme like that. Our house can fill up the blue bin by the time it's irregular 4-6 week time period is up and without a car it makes recycling as much as possible nigh on impossible.

I have given up with my blue bin. I kept leaving it out and it was not being emptied. I put the unwanted paper into my fire pit now. It is easier.

It´s not enough to say we´re doing better than America. Of course we should be doing better than the world´s biggest polluter!

Isn't China the world's biggest polluter?

Near me the Asda/Morrisons and some chapels have paper banks, glass, plastic and can banks as well as the charity collection banks where I take all these items. If you take them when shopping or just passing it is no extra trouble.

Now that electrical waste is under the spot light why can we not have a bank where you can deposit your unwanted small electical items like toasters, hi-fi's etc as not everybody (myself included) has a car to take things to the local tip.

Hi Hook!

Wow, you´re right, China has recently overtaken the US as the world´s biggest producer of CO2. You learn something new every day. Still, we should be aspiring to be more like greener countries like Germany and Holland instead of sitting back and comparing ourselves with the 2nd worst polluters!

Hi Hook!

Wow, you´re right, China has recently overtaken the US as the world´s biggest producer of CO2. You learn something new every day. Still, we should be aspiring to be more like greener countries like Germany and Holland instead of sitting back and comparing ourselves with the 2nd worst polluters!

Sorry yeah I wasn't disagreeing with your point... after just being to China and seeing the extent of the pollution in Beijing I would have just been surprised if they weren't the number 1 polluter in the world!

I think we should have more recycling points and there should be a greater effort on behalf of the council to make recycling more accessible to people. However I fear that because Veolia have the incinerator and therefore don't have to worry about landfill taxes that they're quite content with the way things are. :(

Everywhere else in the world is poluting like no tomorro & gordon thinks that by taxing our little island to death, it's going to make a massive difference,
Get real for gods sake:rant:

Everywhere else in the world is poluting like no tomorro & gordon thinks that by taxing our little island to death, it's going to make a massive difference,
Get real for gods sake:rant:

Why shouldn't we lead by example?

Get onto Veola or whoever - we got a load of poly bags about two years ago that you could segregate various things into - and then leave it out with the blue bin once a month. It means you've got to store the bags but if you phone up, you can get a second blue bin.

I only recycle paper/card, BTW. I don't want a yoghurt pot festering for 4 weeks while I wait for the recycling lorry.

EDIT

Just found the original label about the recycling - "recycling is in the bag" scheme. It was for textiles and cans, on a trial basis in 2005 - 2006. Not sure if it's still ongoing - but people around our way do leave stuff out on blue bin day.

However, when putting cans out - you had to clean them first - OK if you have some spare washing up water but if you have a dishwasher, a bit of an increase in water use.

Why shouldn't we lead by example?

Why should the British population, which is tiny by comparison, be taxed due to other countries failings?

I like the idea of box collections for tins, bottles and recyclable plastics, however I get the feeling that this idea hasn't been implemented because of the man power/extra dustbin lorries that might be needed. It can't cost much to provide or even sell recycling boxes to the public, and if they require specific recycling lorries this surely would create more jobs?

Just my thoughts, I've always wondered why it's not already happening!

We could certainly do with some recycling facilities at most if not all supermarkets with car parks, i.e. Somerfields Eccy Rd if boxes aren't introduced. (I'm sick of the accumulating bottles and tins in our cellar waiting to be taken to overflowing Tesco facilities).


Home Bargins (the one in Hillsborough) selld recycle bags (blue, green & yellow - tins, plastic and paper) I would be quite happy to fill these and put them outside once a week, month etc if they were collected as it is I have to drive to recycle which is ok but most of the time I can't get so my other half puts the stuff in the normal bin.

Since having my daughter I have started recyclining more and cannot belive the amount of stuff we waste.

We have one of those green boxes for plastic bottles etc, which gets emptied every wednesday, but the size of it is nowhere near big enough for the amount we have, so I've taken to putting the plastic bottles etc into a black bin bag, and that way I can send more stuff back for recycling. The box still gets emptied (none of this "we're not taking that" rubbish, just because it's in a black bag

I have to agree with you on this. I've just returned from my holiday in France and I've got to say that there are more recycling points there than in this country. However, France don't have many home recycling services (like the blue bins for example).

I'm sure I noticed bins with recycling ones next to them somwhere in Sheffield, but we could do with a few more of those as well so you can throw your empty plastic bottle in the recycling bin rather than in the normal one.