Recycling

Our green bin is 'general' and blue bin is 'recyclable, both of the same size. For us at the end of two weeks at emptying time, the green is about 30% full and the blue is nearly overflowing.

By that 'scientific' view I would say our recycling comes in at around 70% by volume.

Both our wheelie bins are the same size so going on alternate collections (they are both full) 50/50 on volume. Having said that the recycling bin is always a lot easier to move so on weight about 70/30

In terms of weight my household probably recycles as much as 80%, volume similarly. This is probably because of the large garden we have, 800sq mtrs or so and the green refuse we get from cutting back, hacking down and generally, tidying the flower beds.  All that despite running a monster compost heap 2 x 3 x 1.5mtrs. Takes me a week to dig it out and then refill the uncomposted 1/2.

There was a programme on our local news yesterday about how the recycling percentages in this area of the country were below the national average of 44.8% and it set me thinking about our household average. It would seem the percentages are done on weight rather than cubic metres, or compressed dustbin lorries full. I did not know this as I thought with landfill, volume would be more important than weight. Given that it is weight and we recycle everything we can I would think our summer percentage was well above the national average. However, in the winter we have ash from solid fuel central heating and I would think it doubtful we could reach 10%. Just wonder what percentage others feel they reach?

ooops meant to add comment, do you put your ash in garden recycle bin? We can't do that with oursMind you sister in law can recycle plastic containers and we can't do that either.

We also have a 'brown' bin for garden waste, obviously in summer this takes mostly grass cuttings as there would be too much green for our small garden composter. So the brown bin has only a small volume for recycling.

Interestingly it seems there is no standard in the colour of the bins throughout the country:

For us Blue = recycleable: Brown = Garden waste: Green = general waste.

I put my green bottles in the green bin and brown ones in the brown one, but I understand it’s different in other parts of the country. It all becomes most confusing when travelling around.

and at work ally drink cans go in one bin, vending machines cups go in another & general waste goes in another. Then the cleaners collect all the different bags & put them all in the same skip! 

Our green bin is 'general' and blue bin is 'recyclable, both of the same size. For us at the end of two weeks at emptying time, the green is about 30% full and the blue is nearly overflowing.

By that 'scientific' view I would say our recycling comes in at around 70% by volume.

There’s a small flaw in your ‘rough’ calculation. Ignoring that the recycle bin is more than full, you recycle 100 out of 100+30. Or about 77%, by volume.

and at work ally drink cans go in one bin, vending machines cups go in another & general waste goes in another. Then the cleaners collect all the different bags & put them all in the same skip! 

Probably to save three separate lorries having to collect it.