Today I shall be Mainly...

[Marilyn]

Realising how much our new rubbish collection rules impact us....there is the depositing of seperate things in outside bins three times a day in our house...the mornings, after evening food prep, and after dinner clean up.
With the new GREEN WASTE guidelines (apart from recycling), I find I am now trotting out to deposit "the right thing in the right bin" three times a day. I want to do the right thing ( of course) but I think it is beyond the average citizen. I don't think ( for example) that hubby would bother with any of this if it was up to him. I know my Batchelor neighbours don't bother!
I am constantly picking stuff out of the kitchen bin, saying, "darling...this is green waste and needs to go in with the garden cuttings". So we have THREE seperate bins under the sink now ( one is organic waste, one is recycle items, one is soft plastics I take for special recycling at the supermarket each Saturday)...then there is the traditional kitchen bin that contains little at all these days except used tissues and paper towel that has been used to wipe out oily frypans!
Hubby thinks I have been possessed by aliens....
( No!!!! You can't put that THERE! etc)

I'm not complaining...I'm just saying it takes a bit of effort...and I'm not sure everyone is up to the challenge

[Wendyf]

You are so lucky being able to recycle soft plastic. I'm lucky to have large compost bins in the garden! All my kitchen waste (except meaty things and there isn't much of that) goes out to the compost including paper towels used to wipe up fat and small paper items like shop receipts.

[Marilyn]

"Meaty things" such as trimmings off Chicken etc have to go in the GREEN waste here.
I was worried about the smell, as we live in a warm climate ( winter here now so may have to change decision re smell. As things warm up...but it is ok at present if shrouded by lawn clippings!)
If we could have a compost bin, we would, but backing on to a Golf Course, we aren't even allowed to have a washing line out the back. ( who knows what Famous Folk play out there? They don't want smells or washing! Heaven forbid!)

[PanBiker]

Hang on Maz, does your house belong to the Golf Club? If not who is to stop you hanging out your washing or having whatever bins you desire for that matter.

[Marilyn]

No...we are not bound by original golf club rules any more...as secondary owners...and many years down the track from original rules, but our backyards retain the original public profile of what was set out years ago ( so the clothes line and bins are down the side behind a gate). We just have garden at the back, which is in the original planning, with low open fencing to enhance original encumbrances and views. We live with it was as it enhances the whole spirit of things. So no sun baking naked in our back yard! ( no privacy either). However, it is more than acceptable to be sat on our upper storey back deck ( and be seen) having a drink and BBQ at any time of the day.(our neighbours do that, but we don't!) we are quiet and private folk who just observe others!

[Sue]

We recycle all food waste in recyclable bags which are then placed in our garden rubbish bin. This is collected weekly. We have been provided with a small kitchen bin to put the bag in as we fill it. We could put veggie peelings etc in it but we don't it goes on our own compost bin. For the others we have bought some bags with handles from ebay. These say GLASS, PAPER, PLASTIC on them and stick together in a row with velcro. We have them in an inconspicuous place in the house (the same in France where we also have to keep metal lined cardboard boxes ie tetra pack separate) as we create rubbish we pop it in the right bag as we would any kitchen bin. Metal and foil goes in with plastics. When these bags are full we carry them out to the main bins to recycle. It saves a lot of walking to and fro. We empty them about twice a week, although paper is more often ,and the system works well. There is a usually little left for the kitchen bin. I reuse all plastic bags that come as packaging usually for storing my patterns and material which keeps it clean. We now only have a small kitchen bin, which is rarely emptied. We are not allowed tp put any food waste in our kitchen bin

[Sue]

You are so lucky being able to recycle soft plastic. I'm lucky to have large compost bins in the garden! All my kitchen waste (except meaty things and there isn't much of that) goes out to the compost including paper towels used to wipe up fat and small paper items like shop receipts.

I thought paper towels didn't recycle well, something to do with the fibres they are made of, or the treatment in the manufacture process. Thats one thing I always put in the kitchen bin.

[Wendyf]

Not sure Sue but they disappear in my compost! Perhaps because we use cheap ones from Aldi Tea bags are another matter, they go in the bin.

[Sue]

Not sure Sue but they disappear in my compost! Perhaps because we use cheap ones from Aldi Tea bags are another matter, they go in the bin.

Just done a quick google and it says they are biodegradable but take some time, it can be 1 to 2 months. We are thinking of swapping to tea leaves from bags. My mum always put them round the roses. As a child I thought that was why they were called Tea Roses. Now there is a question , why are they called tea roses?

[Wendyf]

Good question! My compost probably gets a year at least to rot down.
Originally called Tea Scented China Roses because the blossoms smelled of a freshly opened packet of China tea.

[Sue]

Not far wrong then, but they don’t smell like tea!

[Marilyn]

When we lived in the city, our council supplied biodegradable bags for food scraps and a plastic lidded holder for the bags. I always used them. When we moved here, they hadn't got up and running as far as green waste went. Now they have, our green bin is collected once a fortnight (having been monthly prior to the new system). So, for me, it is just a matter of getting back to what I used to do.
This council won't provide the biodegradable bags for free...they want you to purchase them from the council. I refuse to! I will lightly wrap meat scraps in newspaper and the rest can just go in the green bin with the lawn and garden clippings. ( how dare they expect folk to buy bags when our rates here are double what we paid in the city?! If they were serious about us using them, they should provide them. They provide dog poo bags from dispensers all over town. They could do the same with these bags).

Sunny but incredibly windy here today and it really is unpleasant. If it calms down a bit we will go for our walk. Shopping done and stowed away. Might curl up with my nose in a book.

[Stanley]

Living as a singleton, waste management is no hassle. I put what is allowed in the recycled, card and paper in a separate bin and everything else goes in the waste. It takes me about six weeks to fill a bin and I only put them out when they are full, never noticed any smell, largely because apart from outer leaves off cabbage etc I don't make any food waste. (Waste not want not!) All workshop scrap goes in the recycling.
Today I shall be looking after myself as usual and considering article writing, no pressing need yet but I have ideas banked up in my brain.....
Serious reading at the moment. That requires full concentration and absolute quiet. So good for the brain!

[Marilyn]

The wind is howling outside our house tonight -strange as it is not cold and haven't put the heater on this evening - but the "wuthering heights" outside is calling me to bed for a good night's sleep...( could be the 2 glasses of wine I suppose)..
Hubby will sit up to watch Soccer...

[Stanley]

I love it in winter when we have a Northerly with heavy rain and I can lie snug in bed listening to the rain rattling on the window. I suspect that's a very primitive response.
Occasionally a piece of little used shed equipment comes to mind and I have to go and look for it to see if it is safe! I have one such item in mind and might have a furtle this morning.....
By the way, I never did find my Gilbow tin snips. A bloody mystery and I had to cure it by getting a new pair! (Then there's my 36" bolt cutters.....)
Apart from that, being kind to myself and continuing the improvement after Tuesday's treatment.

[Cathy]

Stanley, maybe you 'lent' your missing tools to someone

[Marilyn]

We did a country drive. Very green and pleasant, with lots of baby lambs jumping about. We walked a country town famous for antique shops (they draw a long bow - a lot of it was tat!). It was nice to walk about somewhere a little bit different though.
In one shop, we stood in front of a very large display case of watches...all shapes/sizes/ages. I turned to Dave and said "what happened to all the arms that wore all these watches?"
"They are all in the Cemetery, Maz!"
Didn't buy a thing. I've reached that time of life where I'm trying to rid myself of rubbish, not gather more.

[Stanley]

That's a possibility Cathy. Although I don't normally lend tools. (Although you have reminded me that Kev owes me a tool.....)

[Big Kev]

So I do. I will drop it off today

[Stanley]

(But I might be in bed so do something sensible with it.



Had a furtle Cathy. One result! I found my bolt cutters and the replacement jaws. Record are out of business now it seems bu there are still some available new in obscure corners of the web,£180 for the cutter and £100 for the replacement jaws for hard steel. A profitable furtle!

[Marilyn]

always on my list of "have to have"...bolt cutters !

[chinatyke]

How can you mislay something like that? It isn't as though they could drop down the back of a cushion! Another thought: when was the last time you used them? Would you use an angle grinder instead?

[Big Kev]

(But I might be in bed so do something sensible with it

If I can't see you through the window I will put it in a bag and hang it on the door handle

[Marilyn]

...and you can't exactly flush them down the pan accidently after a few drinks, China...like false teeth!

[Cathy]

Oh my goodness... My name might be said in Barlick!!
I am imagining Stanley saying to Big Kev "It's all good mate, no worries, it's only because Cathy said ..."
Love it