Recycling if you live in a flat.

Barty · Post by **Barty** » 18 Mar 2009 10:21

The Bromley Composting thread got me thinking about recycling.

If you live in a flat over a shop, you aren't provided with a wheelie bin and a recycling bin/box, you have to put all your rubbish in bright orange LBL plastic bin sacks and leave it out on the street, where it is collected during three one-hour slots every day.

What can you do about recycling if you are in this situation?

(and, as a slighty off-topic aside, what do you do with hot ash and broken glass, which the orange bags say you cannot put inside them)

(no lambchops, my bin bags don't talk

)

Konqi · Post by **Konqi** » 18 Mar 2009 12:35

Depends what kind of broken glass, if its just broken wine bottles, honey jars can just slip that into a nearby bottle bank (it all gets broken in those anyway)

Other glass like windows would have to package it carefully, mark it up as broken and post it off to some glass recycling centre that accepts it.

Barty · Post by **Barty** » 18 Mar 2009 19:42

Nearest bottle bank being Savacentre, am I right?

ALIB · Post by **ALIB** » 18 Mar 2009 20:03

i live in an upper floor flat. Our bins are located to the side of our driveway. Our flats (ground floor and upper floor) were supplied with a green box each for recylcling.
When i telephoned Lewisham, they kindly supplied a big green wheelie bin which is sufficient for both flats and sits to the side of our driveway.

Our neighbours have done the same.

Best of luck Barty

Konqi · Post by **Konqi** » 18 Mar 2009 20:03

Enter your postcode on this site and it should tell you:

http://www.recycle-more.co.uk/

southernmoose · Post by **southernmoose** » 18 Mar 2009 21:06

Hi Barty,

I live above a shop too, and was getting frustrated about not being able to recycle stuff easily. I emailed the council to ask for a big recycling bin to be installed next to the large domestic waste bins that get emptied every few days (on the corner of Maynow Road and Sydenham Mews) on behalf of all the other local tenants, and think we're making progress. Keep your fingers crossed!

Savacentre recycle bins always seem to be full to overflowing...

Barty · Post by **Barty** » 19 Mar 2009 18:29

For reasons which I won't go into here, I have given up on collaborating with the neighbours.

But I will certainly email the council and see what they say. Thanks for your suggestions everyone

southernmoose · Post by **southernmoose** » 19 Mar 2009 23:12

No probs,

Good luck!

biscuitman1978 · Post by **biscuitman1978** » 30 Mar 2009 23:22

I live in a flat and take my recyling to the bins behind Lidl. But more often than not they're full, and sometimes overflowing.

I emailed Envirocall at the Council about this over the weekend, and to their credit they got back to me by close of play Monday. Envirocall have 'requested' that the bins are emptied ASAP and that the area is tidied. They've also 'requested' that the bins are emptied more regularly.

Assuming these requests are acted upon, well done to the Council - credit where credit's due.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » 31 Mar 2009 08:27

I live in a small block of (private) flats in the borough of Lewisham, and we only have conventional blue bins. The nearest recycling facilities are several minutes walk away, which is certainly not ideal.

I was in Germany a few years ago visiting a friend who lives there, and we went into a supermarket where you could put your bottles into a machine, and you got a voucher in return which you could spend at that shop - what chance of something similar happening here?

Barty · Post by **Barty** » 31 Mar 2009 08:59

Yes, Thomas, leads me nicely to another point - if I can't get a recycling bin from the Council, it means I must put my non-recyclable stuff out for the daily street collection, and make a trip to recycling facilities every time the pile of plastic and cardboard in the flat gets so high as to be unmanageable!

If the council want more people to recycle (advert pg13, Lewisham Life) then they need to make it more convenient. Only hardcore environmentalists would ride round looking for an emplty recycling centre to dump their rubbish!

biscuitman1978 · Post by **biscuitman1978** » 31 Mar 2009 09:09

Barty wrote:If the council want more people to recycle (advert pg13, Lewisham Life) then they need to make it more convenient.

I entirely agree.

Barty wrote:Only hardcore environmentalists would ride round looking for an emplty recycling centre to dump their rubbish!

I must be quite hardcore!

bag lady · Post by **bag lady** » 1 Apr 2009 13:05

Rubbish picked up every day???! Wow.

Every Tuesday where i am.

I live in a flat above a shop, have a normal big bin and after having several recycling boxes nicked i finally got a big green bin, which was..nicked.

Now I use the neighbour around the corners recycling bin. Hope they don't mind, although they don't seem to use it.

Sydenham Town Forum

The Community Voice for London SE26 since 2004

Recycling if you live in a flat.

Recycling if you live in a flat.

Big recycle bins available on demand

:)

Recycling bins near Somerfield/behind Lidl