Reducing waste and doing away with the bin collection

[Mickey]

Hi everyone, I live in Wicklow town and we just got the bill for the renewal for our bins. They want €384.00 for the year and despite our having a monthly direct debit for about a hundred years they have also added a Balance Forward of €120.00. I smell a rat and I am seriously considering cutting them out altogether if I can get some advice on how exactly I should set up and dispose of my waste without breaking the bank.

I am visiting all the sites I can find on the usual Reduce, Re-use, Recycle but would love to hear if anyone has some fabulous idea that will help me make around 3/4 trips to the dump a year and also not attract rats and other charming but unwanted visitors in the meantime.

€504.00 is just legalised theft because I have seen the trucks they use for the ordinary collection and the re-cycling collection are the very same and it makes me wonder if there is more spin than win in their RRR campaigns.

[jeana]

If I fill my saloon car with my blackbags and drive to the dump- how much will that cost? My problem is that with 6 kids and 2 adults, one green bin is not enough yet they won't give me another one, I end up putting green waste in the black bin...aaarrrgghhh they pretend that they care about the environment but all they want is money!

[jeana]

I just checked- 20euro for ballyogan recycling park--- I think I'll go up myself every few weeks, it'll probably work out cheaper.

[julfren]

Hi Mickey
If you go into the website ecoshop.ie you will find a digester/composter/ green cone for approx €95 + delivery. You can actually put food waste in it - meat, bread etc. You don't need much space for it either. I intend getting one soon. You will drastically cut down on your waste charges. Going to the dump with food waste only every 3 months or so would cause smell/ etc etc problems, especially going into the summer months. Good luck.
Jul

[TheBear]

I almost certainly have a smaller household than you, but last year we put out our black bin only 5 times, and that was even having one very wasteful housemate who seemed philosophically opposed to recycling. (Actually, he was just really lazy.)

We recycled everything we could, and made trips to the local bring centre with stuff the green bin didn't take. Bi-monthly trips to recycling centres that took stuff our local one couldn't (styrofoam, etc.) also helped save stuff from the black bins.

The biggest reduction came from food waste, though. Our household compster, and now wormery too, take all the stuff that would be likely to attract rats, and condenses it down to a fraction of its initial volume, yielding a useful output at the same time.

I realise that living in Dublin means that everything other than fresh air is close at hand, and not everyone has a bring centre on their door step, but it was really remarkable how much a little effort cut down on our waste production.

[unapam]

www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

...is a great website with ideas and tips for using all the food we buy. It is estimated that we throw out one third of the food we buy!...and think of the wasted money too.
I have stopped buying bagged veg and fruit. I just think of how many carrrots will we actually eat and buy two loose ones instead of 20 and end up throwing out many of them or using then when they are less than fresh. It costs less in the long run and your food is fresh and wholesome.

We here in this household have virtually no food waste as we have three well fed dogs and chicken bones and bits are thrown into the open fire in winter.

[CleoCy]

You may not be aware but much of Ireland's recycleable waste is shipped off to china or India, to be recycled there. Like you, we decided this year to do away with the bin collection - we only used the service on average once a month anyway. So we have bought our own, cheap, black plastic bin & a number of small boxes with lids, as well as a number of both bought and made composting bins. A sealed, insulated Little Pig composts cooked kitchen waste - including meat and bones - and it doesn't attract vermin. I have been using this for the past 3 months and can attest to this. Other kitchen and garden waste is composted in the council-provided compost bin. We use paper and cardboard on our land, to act as a mulch and keep down weeds, and as a substrate for paths. Paper will also compost in a worm bin. Plastic is washed out and sorted into separate boxes for our drive to the local Civic Amenity Centre - strange name for a rubbish centre and tip! Glass, of course, is recycled locally. So far, we have not yet needed to make a trip and, I suspect, if we continue to buy little and recycle much, then this is likely to continue. One thing that I try to do is to take off packeging which I don't want, in the shop, and give it back to the retailer. Let them have the chance to do the rubbish bit instead.!

[summersun]

Oh my god what high way robbery... and i was complaining at paying Cavan Waste Disposal .... €168.81 for the year.... i will have to shut up... as they give me a large family black bin and two big recycling green bins Green Bins are collected every third week and black bins once a week except for the third week.... and they are one of the only companies in our area who dont do pay and weigh THANK GOD...

Summersun

[Glas09]

Hi Mickey,

Julfrens suggestion is spot on! Invested in Green Cone three weeks ago and between all food waste going there and recycling in local centre, kitchen bin is just half full.

Great investment worth the digging in order to install!

Cheers

[nanonano]

I've got a composter too and my black bin is a 1/3 full now. It's amazing what a composter does. So I'm thinking as well to cancel it. Was just googling for handy tips to store the paper, cans, plastic in a neat way in the house and then make maybe a monthly trip to the recycling centre.

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by nanonano

I've got a composter too and my black bin is a 1/3 full now. It's amazing what a composter does. So I'm thinking as well to cancel it. Was just googling for handy tips to store the paper, cans, plastic in a neat way in the house and then make maybe a monthly trip to the recycling centre.

Please share the info that you find on that as creating a setup that will be easy and clean to manage on a MONTHLY basis is my aim right now!

[nanonano]

Originally Posted by Mickey

Please share the info that you find on that as creating a setup that will be easy and clean to manage on a MONTHLY basis is my aim right now!

The only thing that would suit me is a system from Ikea. It's called antonius and has plastic baskets that slide out. It's cheap too. Just waiting for the Dublin Ikea.

[frantasia]

Originally Posted by julfren

Hi Mickey
If you go into the website ecoshop.ie you will find a digester/composter/ green cone for approx €95 + delivery. You can actually put food waste in it - meat, bread etc. You don't need much space for it either. I intend getting one soon. You will drastically cut down on your waste charges. Going to the dump with food waste only every 3 months or so would cause smell/ etc etc problems, especially going into the summer months. Good luck.
Jul

I got two of these Bokashi bins about six months ago and they are great for keeping down the food rubbish. I don't waste much but, as you know, cooked food can't go out on the compost heap. These bins will take cooked food scraps, including meat and fish, and will take raw trimmings as well.

The full bin, after stading outdoors for at least two weeks, can be added to the compost bin or heap, or dug into the soil and will rot down (they say) in aobut 8 weeks.

This site might be useful for more info - do a search for 'bokashi' :

www.growfruitandveg.co.uk

So far I've found they work well.

[sabbath]

Eurowaste do a black bin/ green bin weekly collection in Wicklow town for 380 euro. They are very reliable....

[nono]

Galway Bin Company (private company) in Galway give a large Grey, Green and Brown Bin for set price of 230 euro yearly, no weight charges and they also are very reliable. Nono