Chipped Wheeliebins!

[securespark]

Well, having done Food Technology, a part of which was a module on Packaging, I can give you a bit of an insight...

Packaging serves several functions: protection of the product, promotion of the product, to contain it, and identification and storage of the product.

Protection in several ways:


Protection from contamination.

Some packaging is there to prevent tampering with the product, like toothpaste tubes that have foil seals on them, and are further sealed in a box, or baby food with tamper-evident seals round the lids. Personally, I believe the pop-up button is sufficient, but customers have been known to miss this. That is why they started using plastic seals.

Protection during transit.

Protection from damage.

Either way, we pay twice for this packaging: the cost of the materials and the cost of disposal.


The best way to start a reduction of packaging is to make the manufacturers pay for the disposal of the packaging. True, they would pass it onto the buyer, but they would then have responsibility for disposal. However, this may work for appliances, but is not very workable in this case.

 

[Steve]

removed

 

[securespark]

Better get yourself in the store in Edlington, then...

 

[2scoops0406]

even in the ferrous section, you're going to get stainless / cast / plated / galvanised. Put all that into a smelter, and god knows what you're going to end up with.

I think you'll find that most of it gets burned off in the converter. The rest will only add to the quality of the steel.

Err. how does that work? Burn off Zinc, Chromium? Hmm maybe, but I'm doubtful.

 

[Thermo]

ok certain types of food i can understand the necessity, but many other products are over packaged just to sell them and not for necessity. Childrens toys for example.

 

[eggplant]

Well heres a few of my comments on recyclind and such.

If wheely bins are to be chipped- whos paying for it? like £100 a month isnt enough council tax alreay?, will this go up again or will we be introduced to wheelybin tax - the more you put in - the more you pay? And will they come once a week then?
What about areas where you dont get your own bin back and its just forst come first served?

Now I'm not aginst recycling, however why is it made so difficult? I filled the white bag thing with papers and some old books, the bin fella took out the books and said they couldnt take them as the covers wernt paper! erm what is cardboard if it isnt thick paper? anyway the books went straight into the wheelybin. along with the white bag, why should I bother to go out of my way, waste my time to try and recycle paper when all I end up doing is wasting more time.
Those green plastic boxes for recycling - you know, the ones with holes in the bottom to let everything drip out - not a problem if you have an outside area/garage or whatever to keep it on - but what if you dont? OOOHH yes I forgot - wash and dry your cans and such - yeah ok - if you are on a water meter do you get money back for washing your rubbish - NO, so you now have to PAY to recycle - or just chuck it all in the wheely bin.
I went to the tip a while ago - was moving house. Borrowed a friends tranny to dispose of the carpets prior to getting new ones only to be told "no commercial waste without a permit!" After much arguing and trying to explain to the dimwit that the carpet was out of my HOUSE and I wasnt putting a carpet in the back seat of my car, I was told I simply couldnt do it without a permit - which I should have applied for a week before listing EVERY item I wasnted to dispose of in a commercial vehicle! needless to say, the carpet got cut up in bits and gradually put in the wheelybin.
The next trip to the tip was with an old unit (in my car) these were wood - apart from the door which had a mirror glued to it, after removing the door, I located the bit for disposing of wood - up a flight of steel steps into a big container - hmm, wood=heavy, paper=light, wheres the paper one - oh at ground level. Anyway, asked the bloke to give me a hand lifting the unit up these steps but he was "busy" so I smashed it apart with a large rock that some kind person had left, and disposed of it. Then I asked where does the mirror go - "oh you need to remove the mirror from the wood - wood cant go with glass, and glass cant go with wood" The mirror was GLUED ON ! Anyway, back home with it and into a black binbag with some other rubbish, back to the tip and into the non recyclable waste bit!
same as when our wheelybin that is only emptied every 2 weeks is full, I just take a black back full of "whatever" down to the tip and chuck it in the non recyclable waste.
Anyway, theres a couple of stories on me trying to recycle, hardly any wonder people dont bother, or just chuck their rubbish at the side somewhere, my carpet almost ended up that way.

 

[2scoops0406]

I think you might have started foaming slightly towards the end there. The reason you should dump waste is very simple it affects your environment and council tax bill.

 

[eggplant]

One thing I forgot.....

I'm sure you will agree, that the rougher the area = the more rubbish all over the place i.e. not in bins. In that case, why do those areaws pay less council tax? Surely it should be the other wy around?

 

[2scoops0406]

One thing I forgot.....

I'm sure you will agree, that the rougher the area = the more rubbish all over the place i.e. not in bins. In that case, why do those areaws pay less council tax? Surely it should be the other wy around?

It's called society, where we more fortunate individuals pay more than the less fortunate.

 

[Thermo]

he has got a point though, allthough were told to recycle its not made easy for people and they wont do it if not. Our council is changing the system of rubbish and recyling collection. theyve put out a postcard you can vote on, but you know theyll go for the cheapest option. So people will have rubbish and recylcing laying about. So some stuff will just get tossed out into the black bags to stop the recycling box overflowing.

we dont recycle half the stuff we should, beacuse one week they take it, another week they dont and another week they just throw it all over the road, because they use agency staff all the time.

Go to the tip, ok but if it gets made as difficult as above then people will simply not bother and fly tip or put it in there rubbish.

Now dont get me wrong im all for recycling and getting rid of waste in my work is the bane of my life. Why because it costs an arm and a leg and we have to go through so many hoops to do it. We just seem to make things so difficult and complicated that we (or the red tape(which never gets runs out or gets recycled)wielding officials) lose sight of the reason we do it

 

[eggplant]

It's called society, where we more fortunate individuals pay more than the less fortunate

I could reword that but I dont want to go off topic


Dont get me wrong, I'm not against recycling, I just dont see why I should have to go out of my way, pay, or otherwise struggle to try and recycle.
Whats wrong with having a few smaller wheelybins, say red for plastic, blue for glass, or whatever, then its dead easy - go outside, lift the lid - thats all.

 

[RF Lighting]

Whats wrong with having a few smaller wheelybins, say red for plastic, blue for glass, or whatever, then its dead easy - go outside, lift the lid - thats all.

Don't know about anyone else, but where I live we have:

Green wheelie bin : General waste
Black wheelie bin : paper (news & office, including junk mail)
Blue wheelie bin : Glass & tin cans (steel & aluminium)
Green bags : Garden waste (grass cuttings, tree & plant cuttings etc.)

The only problem is remembering when they are coming to empty them all.

Week 1 : Green bin
Week 2 : Green & Black bins
Week 3 : Green bin & Green bags
Week 4 : Green, black & blue bins.

 

[eggplant]

All we have is a brown one for garden waste, and a grey one for general waste. Plus a stupid little green and black tub for cans, tubs and such, and a white bag for paper.
Why cant the bin trucks have compartments as well so each week they could take all the lot?!

 

[RF Lighting]

Why cant the bin trucks have compartments as well so each week they could take all the lot?!

Because that would make it far too easy

 

[JohnD]

There was some woman prosecuted recently, for repeatedly refusing to put the right waste in the right bin... if I recall her lawyer got her off on the grounds that the council could not prove that no-one else had put stuff in her bins while they weren't watching