See title. I realized that trash collection systems sometimes differ between streets… so this is just about where you live, whether it is one specific street/building or an entire country. No need to mention exactly where if you don’t feel comfortable.
For where I currently live. Government makes colored trash bags (plastics/metals, papers, organic, general waste, etc) that people can buy at local supermarkets, and these bags are required for trash collection. On collection day we just… place the bags outside of the houses/apartments. Some places buy their own trash bins too, but they are rare.
The place I live in seem to take recycling very seriously. I’ve heard from colleagues that putting the wrong things in a bag sometimes result in the “trash police” sending a fine to where you live. Allegedly the police do that by looking at where your last letter/Amazon/random delivery address (in your paper recycling bag) was sent to…
My understanding is that it is a surprisingly effective recycling system… but with the downside that 1) the city doesn’t look particularly great on/after trash collection day, and 2) sometimes the local wildlife will rip open the trash bags
Edit: some more details regarding where I live if anyone is interested. Most people only use four colored bags that are collected per week: blue (plastic, metal, something else…), yellow (paper-based recyclables), white (“residual”, essentially non-recyclable items), and orange (kitchen waste). There are also bags for garden waste and heavy waste, but they are not picked up from residential addresses. Glass is either returned to the supermarket (beer bottles) or disposed of at specific dropoff bins. Things like batteries/electronics are specific, I just take them back to the store. There are also pink bags, but they are only used by businesses
In Derbyshire, UK, we have three bins with different colour lids.
Green- domestic waste, generally bound for landfill, sometimes waste to energy. Anything can go in here but we are deterred from putting toxic material such as batteries in this bin.
Grey- recyclable material such as paper, metal and glass. Some have separate containers for glass.
Brown- garden waste. This one is optional and there is an additional £40 annual fee to use the service (the others are included in the council tax).
Appliances can be left by the roadside and a privately operated metal recycling company will eventually find these. Many scrap yards will buy cars and pay by the kg for the metal. I got about £200 for my 1996 Volvo V40 (~1400kg). Anything else can be disposed of at municipal waste processors which is free for domestic users and charged for commercial waste.
Ireland
It’s privatized so we pay monthly based on weight and a standing charge.
3 wheelie bins, one black for general rubbish, one green for recyclables, one brown for compost. Our collection is weekly for black bin and alternate the other bins every week.
Recycling is clean dry waste including paper, plastic, tins. Glass is brought separately yourself to bottle bins and sorted by colour. Usually there are charity run bins for old clothes there too.
We have a return system for plastic and cans too which are at supermarkets usually and you get your deposit back, 15c for small stuff, 25c for larger.
All this means we have in the kitchen… 1 rubbish bin, 1 recycling bin, 1 compost bin, 3 large bags for bottles by colour, 1 large back for return stuff. And it’s not a big space, it’s a real pain.
It’s a bit of a shit show in Australia.
Each city is responsible for it’s own waste management. Mine has 3x channels: green waste for biodegradable anything, recyclables, and everything else.
The recyclables are a furphy though because, you can put anything plastic or paper in them, but ofc it’s really only the PET plastic and the cardboard that actually gets recycled - the rest just goes to land fill.
We have a separate system for specific PET bottles vendors charge $0.10 per bottle, and you can return the bottles to a collection place to get that back.
We did have a separate system for soft plastics like plastic bags or whatever but that pretty much just wasn’t viable.
Rant triggered: we’ve aparently stopped single use plastics like takeaway boxes, plastic bags, and plastic cuttlery, but IMO that’s really just a fig leaf for companies that ship products in plastic packaging. It really shits me.
Additional rant: producers of plastic products like garbage bags have started this bullshit “ocean plastics” thing. They claim 50% or whatever of their bullshit bags are made from “ocean plastic” which they define as recycled plastic obtained from any community within 50km of the ocean (the vaaaast majority of Australians) which has no other plastic collection program. So basically… they charge city councils to disappear their plastic waste and then charge idiots to buy their “ocean plastic” garbage bags.
We have plastic recycling blue bins, but barely 9% actually gets recycled.
Yeah I think this is the story everywhere.
PET (plastic drink bottles) can be recycled to produce more drink bottles, indefinitely and cost effectively.
Soft plastics like bread bags can be converted into shopping bags but in Australia at least it doesn’t seem to be cost effective.
A few other types of plastic like yoghurt containers can be down-cycled into ugly green benches or something.
Everything else just can’t be cost effectively converted into anything useful.
Recycling is just a fig leaf for plastic producers.
My council (in the UK the rules vary between coincils) just has two bins. We have a black lidded wheelie bin for general household rubbish that is collected every week and a red lidded bin for most recycleables (glass, plastic, paper cardboard) collected every two weeks but it has restrictions on things like plastic film. If you are found to break the rules (open lids, wrong items in bin) they may refuse collection and leave a note saying why it won’t be collected. For example the black lidded general waste bin stipulates that all your rubbish must be inside refuse sacks, if you just have loose rubbish they won’t collect it.
You just make sure the bin is accessible/near the road on collection day and it gets picked up. Bins get lifted and tipped into the bin lorry then they put the bins back.
You can also leave a plastic bag on the floor next to the bin for disposal of ‘small electricals’ (chargers, dead electronics etc.).
Bins are provided by the council and collection is paid by your council tax. Both bins are 140 litres but you can ask for a 240l if you have a bigger family producing more waste.
You can pay an extra charge (I think about £80 per year) for a ‘green bin’ and associated collection which is for disposal of plant waste (i.e. if you have a decent sized garden and maintain it).
And finally if you have too much rubbish or items that can’t be easily disposed of (oil, large electronic items, diy waste) you can fill your car and take it to the local ‘tip’ (normally named something like waste management centres etc.) where you can get rid of it all.
Also UK and similar, except our council has five categories:
- General refuse
- Paper and cardboard
- Other/mixed recycling (plastic, metal, glass)
- Compostable food waste
- Garden waste (optional, at additional cost)
Food waste is collected every time, but the others alternate each week between either general refuse + paper or just mixed recycling.
If you pay for garden waste collection, it gets picked up once every two weeks during ‘gardening season’, or once a month during the winter.
We also don’t get wheelie bins - you have to provide your own general refuse container. Many people don’t bother and just leave loose bin bags out, which sometimes results in foxes scattering rubbish all over the street. Recycling goes in plastic crates and food waste in a caddy, which are provided by the council.
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How much extra did you pay for the bear service?
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