Do you have a blue bin and a green bin?
Do you use both these bins to recycle your paper/card and your green waste?
Do you use these bins simply because they are there rather than because you are a committed recycler?
In other words do you recycle paper/card and green waste but bin all your other waste?

I am a researcher at Sheffield University looking for such households to participate in an exciting study.

Taking part in the study will involve a group interview with all members of your household together. There will be a REWARD for your time.

If you are interested in taking part or would like to find out more please contact me, Anna Scott:

Telephone: 0114 222 3496 (please leave a message if I am not there)
Email: anna.scott@sheffield.ac.uk

I don't use my blue bin because government statistics don't take account of the fact that Sheffield has an incinerator. Recycled paper does more harm to the environment than sustainable source paper due to the bleaching process, so if somebody can confirm how the paper stuff is being 'recycled' I'd be interested.

this may be of interest too (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37750)

We haven't got green bins yet, but there is no room for them anyhow. All along the terrace, most people have their blue bin and black bin taking up valuable yard space. Some people have really tiny gardens and have to put their bins out into the street to get a garden chair out. The green bins would make much more sense if they were neighbourhood bins rather than one each. As we don't have big gardens and a few hedge clippings won't fill them. I was astounded to see how large these green bins are going to be, it's a complete waste of plastic. As it is I often don't put my black bin out every week because I don't make much waste. Several of my neighbours sent their blue bins back because they work at Stores where they have recycling bins and can't spare the space in the garden for an additional bin.

I do use my blue bin however and it is usually quite full by the end of the month.

I think there should be a Tax on Carrier bags and excessive packaging, and that would make much more of a difference to recycling and litter.

Originally posted by muddycoffee
I think there should be a Tax on Carrier bags and excessive packaging, and that would make much more of a difference to recycling and litter.

That's my theory too! I can't believe how much packaging fruit and veg 'need' :suspect:

I would like to be able to take my clothes washing liquid bottle to a supermarket and press a button to obtain a refill :thumbsup:

I would also welcome the opportunity to take part in a ready meals container re-use scheme. To elaborate: the ready meals could come in more substantial (possibly pyrex) containers. The price of the meal includes a deposit for the container, which is refunded upon it's return when you next shop :thumbsup:

i travelled through Maltby recently and it looks to me like they have to recycle tin cans, ie dog food etc, there were blue plastic boxes outside every house hold. That means they must have to wash them or they'll get rats and flies etc! RETCH!!

I like how much they recycle in Peterborough (where we used to live)

http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/page-4121

Green bins are useless. Our area has small gardens and very little garden waste. Much more useful would be a larger blue bin and one for recycling glass and plastics.

I only have a small backyard on my terrace. After my green bin was delivered, I had to tear up the concrete (not easy with a claw hammer and a set of wood chisels) and put down grass and flower beds so I could produce some decent waste.

I am now in the process of ripping up the paving slabs in the front garden and have found some soil under those that can go in the bin. I will be laying new slabs on sand. I have some hedge clippings and have been pinching the neighbour's to try and get my bin full. I also cut all the grass verges which helps but I preferred life before the green bins came.

I use my blue bin and always have it full, although i'm interested by what Strix stated.

The green bin baffles me slightly. I fiill it with grass, come back to it a few weeks later and it's nearly all gone. What's the point in it??

Would much prefer a bin for bottles/cans and plastics

We have a blue bin and a green bin. We use them both quite a lot but must admit sometimes i can be a bit lazy and just chuck things in the normal bin in the kitchen as i cant be botherd to go outside tut tut.

hi your lucky to have a blue bin all we get in derbyshire is a blue box for tins and glass and a bag for newspapers and clothes used to have blue bin in worksop it was alot better

Anna, I live in the London Borough of Bexley (still in Kent so far as most of us are concerned), and we have, apart from the normal household bin (LB Bexley don't supply wheelies so, if we want one, we have to buy them ourselves):

(i) a green box for paper and cardboard;

(ii) a black box for glass jars and bottles;

(iii) a maroon box for plastic bottles (not food containers and carrier bags), metal cans and foil; and

(iv) a brown wheelie-bin for all garden rubbish, food waste (not meat products yet) and tea bags (with a mini bin to keep in the kitchen, to put foodstuffs in, before depositing into the main bin).

The green and the maroon boxes are used all the time; the black box not so often because I don't really buy a lot of stuff in glass bottles and jars, and the brown wheelie is usually filled to the brim during the spring/summer months, but during the rest of the year there's just the foodstuff and tea bags, so it never fills up.

We have three separate lorries come round (each Wednesday in my road), one for normal household rubbish, one for the brown wheelie, and the other either for the paper and cardboard, or on alternate weeks, for the plastic bottles etc. and glass.

I have to say that my main household rubbish is down to about a quarter of what it used to be.

As for carrier bags, years ago, all carriers were made of a very strong paper, similar to the ones that takeaways used to come in, but they all seem to be plastic these days. It would be nice to be able to go back to the paper bags which can be put into the recycling. However, if you want to save on using the free carrier bags, most supermarkets sell the extra strong carriers for around 10p each. What would be better, I suppose, would be for all carrier bags and food containers to be biodegradeable.

I used to have a blue bin and I was so excited when it arrived. I happily sorted out every tiny bit of paper for my lovely blue bin and it was allways full by collection day. Our house is built on a hill so my bins live on the street level on our land by the garage. The blue bin was regularly collected from there for the first 6 months. Then the problems began. The collection days started to vary and we never knew when they were coming. After my bin had been un-emptied for a couple of months I rang ONYX. I was told that my bin had to be placed at the edge of the kerb. I explained that there were cars at the edge of the kerb so it could not stand there.......especially as there was no longer a definate collection day!Also that there had not been any problems in the past! Bearing in mind that I see these blue bins stood against the walls of houses all over Sheffield on collection day and they are emptied, I could not understand just why my bin would not be emptied if it was not directly on the kerb! My bin was placed out of the way of pedestrians........just 2 foot away from the direct edge of the road..........but I was told that was no good by some little hitler in an office. Had there been a house wall behind it maybe it would have conformed to their collection policies!! Plus the bins down the road were placed around the grit bin.....which is at least 3 foot away from the kerb and they were all emptied! Anyhow.........I told the voice on the phone that if they couldn't be bothered to empty it then I won't be bothered to fill it! Within two days it had been "seen to".........totally removed and the contents dumped on the ground!!! Well done ONYX........10 out of 10 for encouraging recycling! NOT!
As for green bins I would not find much use for one. I recycle all of my kitchen waste anyhow. We have 2 compost bins and a compost heap. Just last week hubby took about 40 industrial black sacks of garden prunings/clippings to the local re-cycling centre. We have a big garden and so throughout the summer months especially there is an enormous amount of greenstuff comes out of this garden. One bin would never be enough to cope with it all.
One thing I would like to see is all the green waste being re-cycled and offered back to the cities gardeners either for free or for a small charge. Composting is big business these days and the councils coffers could be swelled if they went about it the right way. Other cities do it so why don't ours? Perhaps they do but I haven't seen it at our local dumpit site.

We should have big wooden jug which we put the food in with no packaging on, then we can carry the jugs on our heads. It would save on packaging, would also be quite practical as it would give the neck muscles some exercise

We fill our blue bin in about a month so the collections are timed about right. Never had any problems with it being emptied.
We fill our green bin every fortnight, so again the collection is timed about right.
However, I think the point about people with smaller gardens is important: we should be allowed to refuse the green bin if there isn't much room to store it or we have a small garden and don't require it?

We also recycle all our glass, tins and plastic and we've found the siting of recycle places to be very convienient: easy to throw a couple of bags of recycling into the car if you're already going to homebase or sainsburys.

I do wonder if all of it actually gets recycled: do they throw any of it away cos its too expensive to recycle?

I understand that the blue bin paper and cardboard is recycled at a depot in Beighton. It doesn't go into landfill or the incinerator.

The council have to meet a number of government targets on recyling, particularly to cut down on landfill tipping. After paper and card recycling, green waste is being targeted (in landfill sites, it creates methane gas, which then has to be flared off).

I would enourage everyone to use their blue and green bins. I have been amazed how little I now put in my black bin since starting to use my blue bin. Never realised how much paper and cardboard I get through!

Glass can still be recyled at bottle banks.

Does anyone have any idea when the bins are meant to be collected? I guess it's different all over the city, I live in S13 in Woodhouse...

I am committed to recycling and have been for many years. I think the recycling services in Sheffield are inadequate.

Until 2 months ago we lived in Harringey in North London and had weekly recycling collections. Each household had a a small box, in which one could put paper, bottles, tins and clothes, and provided you seperated them by group then all would be collected by a man in a hand cart, sorted and sent for recycling.

However, now we are in sheffield and only have monthly collections for paper only, our general waste has increased. We have to now make a seperate trip to the recycling point for glass and clothes. I have noticed that people need to use cars to reach the recycling point which seems to defeat the object!

I do not wnat a green bin as I do not have the room and I have a composter so I know exactly where the waste is going.

Please Sheffield Council - community green bins rather than one per house - or what about street composters, then everyone can have the opportunity to use the compost on their gardens.

Originally posted by hevydevy
Does anyone have any idea when the bins are meant to be collected? I guess it's different all over the city, I live in S13 in Woodhouse...
It varies through woodhouse too, if the blue bin collection is anything to go by. Try the council website for bin collection info :thumbsup:

Originally posted by redrobbo
I understand that the blue bin paper and cardboard is recycled at a depot in Beighton. It doesn't go into landfill or the incinerator.

The council have to meet a number of government targets on recyling, particularly to cut down on landfill tipping. ......

I think you may have missed the point I was trying to make. If Sheffield is incinerating the contents of it's black bins, surely this is the best place for paper and we should be taking plastics out of the black bins for recycling first?

If the paper is being recycled back into paper, this causes the environment more harm than it can by other disposal methods.

And there should be a tax on flyer production too :rant: which should be doubled for credit card mailshots :rant: :rant:

Originally posted by JaneG
Please Sheffield Council - community green bins rather than one per house - or what about street composters, then everyone can have the opportunity to use the compost on their gardens.
I like this idea too. In Peterborough we were able to purchase compost from the recycling centre

IN my household we use blue and green bins regularly but when it comes to getting rid of electrical items then we have to drive to the nearest tip which is annoying plus our nearest one has closed down

Originally posted by Kerry_Lou
when it comes to getting rid of electrical items then we have to drive to the nearest tip which is annoying

Annoying? I bet you don't say that about going to buy a new one :rant:

I'm still looking for households...

Originally posted by anna_scott
Do you have a blue bin and a green bin?
Do you use both these bins to recycle your paper/card and your green waste?
Do you use these bins simply because they are there rather than because you are a committed recycler?
In other words do you recycle paper/card and green waste but bin all your other waste?

I am a researcher at Sheffield University looking for such households to participate in an exciting study.

Taking part in the study will involve a group interview with all members of your household together. There will be a REWARD for your time.

If you are interested in taking part or would like to find out more please contact me, Anna Scott:

Telephone: 0114 222 3496 (please leave a message if I am not there)
Email: anna.scott@sheffield.ac.uk

Whilst I am for recycling I now have a black wheely bin, a blue wheely bin and a green wheely bin. They take up so much space that I have had to sacrifice my driveway parking space for them, meaning that the car is now parked on the road. And then they stopped emptying them because the car was in the way!

Oh, and if you've got a green bin, don't waste your money buying those special green bin liners to put the waste in first; they won't empty them! Instead just throw all your grass cuttings etc in there, leave for a few days, and watch in awe when you next open it and thousands of baby flies swarm around you, exploring their strange new world!

I've not enquired yet but....

Will ONYX take away the bin if you don't want it?

Yeah we have a blue bin it was left full by the previous tenants, I've left out for two solid weeks and hasn't been emptied, I'm all for recycling but I can't put things in the bin till it's empty. Does anyone know if you have to do something special to get it emptied?

In parts of BURY (Gtr Manchester) they have council provided BROWN bins for garden waste.....why not green I dont know....so most houses have a black, blue and brown bin stacked up outside...

Originally posted by redrobbo
I would enourage everyone to use their blue and green bins. I have been amazed how little I now put in my black bin since starting to use my blue bin. Never realised how much paper and cardboard I get through!


redrobbo,
Where I live, we have one blue bin between 12 flats. I don't know if it's ever been emptied, but I've never been able to use it since it's always full. In fact, it's often too full, and the newspapers blow out and make a soggy mess on the floor. Who should I contact to get a bigger/additional blue bin? Will we have to pay a fee or will one be provided for free?


I do re-use carrier bags, although sometimes people in the supermarket look at me like I've got two heads when I start filling my own bags instead of theirs. Tescos I've noticed have a recycle bin for old carrier bags too, although I tend to use them as bin-liners when the handles go.

purelygold82:
Call Onyx and they will give you a sticker with collection dates for your address.

Andy:
Call Onyx and request a blue bin for your property.

Onyx Blue Bin HelpLine is on 0845 355 5515

Originally posted by anna_scott
1/ Do you have a blue bin and a green bin?
2/ Do you use both these bins to recycle your paper/card and your green waste?
3/ Do you use these bins simply because they are there rather than because you are a committed recycler?
4/ In other words do you recycle paper/card and green waste but bin all your other waste?1 I did, I got rid of them.
2 No, I put my regular waste in the blue one.
3 It's there, I might as well use it as the black bin isn't bin enough.
4 I don't.

I don't have any interest in recycling, I don't care, I can't be bothered, I don't want to make the time, and I still pay as much council tax for the bin men I'm expected to do part of their job... Erm, me don't think so !!I am a researcher at Sheffield University looking for such households to participate in an exciting study.Do you mean the University of Sheffield ?

we only have a black and blue bin

but would really welcome a green one

S14 Needs green bins, Anyone out there who can make this happen????

I've got a blue bin and a black bin. Haven't got a green bin and, like others have said, I don't know where I'd put it if I was given one (garden is small enough as it is). I use the blue bin for card/paper etc as mentioned, and save and take all my plastic and glass bottles to bottle bank on Infirmary Road. Also take 'dead' batteries into 'work' as we have a scheme for recycling them there.