Forum Topic

I think a very big problem is that we are encouraged and fall victim to marketing and buy too much - especially perishable food.  BOGOFs are a classic example of this.  The idea of sharing with a friend or neighbour is great but you can fall victim to a lack of time or energy and then you haven't asked them - and by the tie you get around to it whatever you bought is past its best.There is always something new to learn about food storage.  My today's new confirmation when looking for ideas for what to do with a very ripe brie is to freeze it now while it is running beautifully - so that I don't have to eat it all at once giving me time to find another recipe.Many more people may have another go at using their food waste bins again if the Council comes up with a free roll of bags.  I believe that Sarah Felstead puts her bin in the dishwasher every so often.  Numbering your FWB makes it much more likely that you will get your own one back and so you won't be faced with someone else's never ever been washed one with food waste stuck like concrete in it.  This is why lining with newspaper works - it enables the food waste to slide out of the FWB.  There were an awful lot of green boxes available in LBE and many have now left the borough.It would be really good to see something being set up with the schools so that they are using these for growing plants in.  LBE had loads of other ideas for them and there was a little film.  I still use one for taking garden cuttings to Stirling Road every so often.

Philippa Bond ● 3008d

What the public see is not as it is.For years the public, residents up and down the country have been diligently recycling and here and in Ealing separating most things.Plastics, Glass, Cardboard, Paper, Foodstuffs, Garden waste, Tins and Aluminium.All separated. In Ealing we even separated Glass by colour for a while.So job done, In it goes to the corresponding inlet on the truck and done by two trucks.But what happens next?Well there's a good reason that some recycling centres have more security than MoD installations. Most of it simply got tipped into one container and compressed for landfill.Only the garden waste went elsewhere, as it does not to be turned into profitable products and the glass was not recycled as we were all led to believe.Too many incompatibility issues and sheer cost of energy.So what happens now?  Well most of it gets collected separately but still ends up being merged and incinerated. Some goes to landfill and some ends up recycled.  But under such secrecy that something can't quite be as it seems.Except now we have collections that take up to 12 times longer, use more vehicles, cost far more money, a public recycling centre that's closed to the Public most of the time and a constantly tatty looking local environment. What is dubious are the claims by authorities that Recycling is up by X %Up from what?People still chuck out the same stuff more or less in the same way . All that's changed is the container.In fact, evident all over the borough, people clearly chuck out less. Some now burn waste and more than a few a few dump it in other peoples homes or on the street.Garden waste is collected from just 6 out of 54 homes now. If that's not a waste of resources, I don't know what is.So how has recycling increased?  Massaging of statistics no doubt. No wonder people are not bothering any more.  They do their bit and the authorities cock it up.

Raymond Havelock ● 3012d

The bins are huge (nearly everybody except those homes with incontinence pad users - babies AND adults should have more recycling than residual waste) and the space to store them is often small and they need a turning circle which has not been taken into consideration so that it takes a lot of effort to have the right one ready to push out on the right day. Plenty of people cannot manoeuvre the bins so they are left out on the street - and there are I'm sure extra requests for assisted collections - they're should be or there will be more people in hospital.Weekly recycling collections should be much better.  You are lucky not to have two wheelie bins.  The streets are blighted by them.  Don't forget to try and reduce the amount of packaging you buy - and flatten tins, plastic bottles and cardboard.  If the cardboard is from Amazon deliveries then always comment on their feedback about it ESPECIALLY if it is excessive. Make a note of other recycling banks convenient to you especially if you are driving to buy groceries from a supermarket.LBH recycling should be of a far better quality than that of LBE.I'm surprised at the box that won't flatten.  Nowadays most of them have been specificaly designed for recycling ie flattening and just have a strip of adhesive tape along the bottom which can be ripped off. Separating the food waste out makes a lot of difference and it is a weekly collection.  It means cleaner and sweeter smelling black wheelies. Change is a pain and just as with everything else it is easier to tweak what you do until you find the best solution.  Packaging also continues to change.

Philippa Bond ● 3017d

This is yet another example of how this borough with it's one size fits all and dictatorial administration gets it spectacularly wrong on what is a simple issue.If it ai't broke don't try to fix it. Unfortunately there's no fixing for the cracked egos of Council leaders.The wheelie Bins clearly don't work in certain areas. This being one.Almost all are for days on end overflowing and spend whole days and nights blocking pavements causing constant hazards.The collections take and age and bins never get returned to properties and when they do get dumped on doorsteps blocking doorways and advertising an empty house.Do the puppet Police raise the crime risk with the council? Or the Chief Fire officer raise the fire risk of fortnightly collections? Not a chance as they are all under the thumb of political masters.Many of the bins stink, I've not seen anyone wash them out ( which is supposed to be done weekly)These Boxes are going to have residue deposited on them and again, terraced houses don't have a facility to store them or hose them out . Most terraced houses don't come with a housekeeper either.The current mess indicates that these boxes that will not fit into tiny homes will be permanent blight to what were once neat tidy streets in exactly the same way as the wheel bins.The boxes can be stacked. But only when empty. That will be for a day possibly.Early anyone will bother and those tatty places where no-one can be bothered will probably mushroom.No doubt, our councillors will remain silent or avoid the issue in the usual way.I not the only response is over the rather insignificant point of who delivers leaflets.It won't make a jot of difference to recycling. Just satisfies statistical collation.Come on Hounslow, start thinking practically. it costs a lot less.

Raymond Havelock ● 3022d