Southwark Waste and Recycling Guide

[Sue]

We probably all got one of these guides, or soon will do.

I'm confused about two things.

First, food waste. It seems you are supposed just to empty food waste into the outside food waste bin without any containing (compostable) bag.

Is that right? Aren't you then going to be constantly washing the outside bin? 

Not that it matters much to me at the moment, as my  outside food bin  was just  thrown over the garden wall after emptying and the lid broken off (which then blew away). 

Second, rubbish. The guide says "the small amount of waste left after recycling should (sic) be placed in a black bag."

But it has a picture of both a black bag and a green bin.

Surely you aren't supposed to put your non recyclable rubbish into a black bag and then into the green bin?

And if not, why does it not mention the bin, when the recycling section clearly says bin OR bag?

Does nobody read this stuff through before it goes to print? Or is it just obvious to everybody apart from me?!

I've just seen in last year's guide that they gave away a one off free roll of compostable liners with it.

And also, that they said " You can also use newspaper to line your caddy."

When I did that, the bin men just threw the newspaper on the pavement and left it there 😭

[Pugwash]

We have 2 food waste bins. One is classed as a small caddy and it is lined with compostable bags. This is used on a daily basis and when full, bag removed and tied up and then goes into a larger caddy which is kept by the kitchen door. Each Tuesday we put out larger caddy for collection.  Recycling is blue bin - any small left over waste can be put into black bag and placed in green bin. Or you can pick up recycling waste and pit in blue bin for next collection.

[Sue]

57 minutes ago, Pugwash said:

We have 2 food waste bins. One is classed as a small caddy and it is lined with compostable bags. This is used on a daily basis and when full, bag removed and tied up and then goes into a larger caddy which is kept by the kitchen door. Each Tuesday we put out larger caddy for collection.  Recycling is blue bin - any small left over waste can be put into black bag and placed in green bin. Or you can pick up recycling waste and pit in blue bin for next collection.

Have you seen the new guide?

It doesn't say  anything at all about food waste compostable bags. It says to put food waste directly as it is from the kitchen caddy to the larger outside caddy.

What do you mean by "small leftover waste"?  Recycling waste always goes in the blue bin?

Surely we aren't meant to be wasting black plastic bags every week by always putting non recyclable items into a black bag before putting them into the green bin?

Surely the whole point of the green bin is to avoid using one-use-only plastic bags?

I'm even more confused now 🤣

Edited Wednesday at 18:45 by Sue

[Peckhampam]

I put my food waste into a compostable bag and it is happily collected every week

[alice]

Our waste collectors tip the food bins straight into garden waste. 

Edited yesterday at 15:42 by alice
Terminology

[KalamityKel]

On 27/11/2024 at 17:09, Sue said:

We probably all got one of these guides, or soon will do.

I'm confused about two things.

First, food waste. It seems you are supposed just to empty food waste into the outside food waste bin without any containing (compostable) bag.

Is that right? Aren't you then going to be constantly washing the outside bin? 

Not that it matters much to me at the moment, as my  outside food bin  was just  thrown over the garden wall after emptying and the lid broken off (which then blew away). 

Second, rubbish. The guide says "the small amount of waste left after recycling should (sic) be placed in a black bag."

But it has a picture of both a black bag and a green bin.

Surely you aren't supposed to put your non recyclable rubbish into a black bag and then into the green bin?

And if not, why does it not mention the bin, when the recycling section clearly says bin OR bag?

Does nobody read this stuff through before it goes to print? Or is it just obvious to everybody apart from me?!

I've just seen in last year's guide that they gave away a one off free roll of compostable liners with it.

And also, that they said " You can also use newspaper to line your caddy."

When I did that, the bin men just threw the newspaper on the pavement and left it there 😭

Sue, are you able to upload this guide to here? 

Edited 8 hours ago by KalamityKel

[Penguin68]

The guide is being delivered to every household, I believe, mine arrived only today.

I think it's basically no change. But they are not requiring people to use compostible bags for kitchen rubbish, presumably not to impose costs on people, but you still can, and the black sack for dry non recyclables I imagine is for those without green bins. Hopefully foxes won't be interested, although they can contain baby and pet waste.

I imagine if there was a change they'd make more of it. But kitchen and garden waste are now being collected separately, even though Veolia doesn't have the plant locally to us to process them separately. So it's just for show (by Southwark, not Veolia as it just adds cost to them). Veolia does have anaerobic digesters to process kitchen waste into fuel at some of their UK sites. But I think for London it's all just composted. 

[Sue]

21 hours ago, Peckhampam said:

I put my food waste into a compostable bag and it is happily collected every week

Yes, mine has been, which is why the new guide confused me.

[Friernlocal]

Sue,

I received my leaflet today. I see that they don't mention a caddy liner, which as you say would mean the bin gets messy so I used the link on the leaflet to see what that said about food waste. The website says 'You do not have to line it, but you can buy your own compostable liners or use newspaper'. Pity that wasn't mentioned on the leaflet.

As for general rubbish the council website says 'If you have a bin you must put your waste in a bin bag first'. It's a pity the leaflet specifies black and the website doesn't. I assume they want it bagged as the examples of general rubbish on the leaflet such as crisp packaging and nappies would need bagging. Small items could fall out during rubbish collection and soiled items would need bagging to prevent contamination.

Edited 2 hours ago by Friernlocal