I asked city govmt here why they don't make separation of recyclables from trash mandatory. It was explained to me that this would not work in a small community, though it works in larger cities. I think it would be a good idea, and people would not have to participate in curbside recycling. They could still take their recycling to the center on their own if they wish. The only requirement would be that they separate recyclables from trash in order to reduce what goes to a landfill.

we have alternate weeks, one week recyclin, one week rubbish, but living in a 5 person student house we produce a LOT of rubbish, we usually have 2 bags of just beer cans/soft drink bottles per fortnight,but they only take 3 bags per household so we have backlogs and usually put it in the huge bins owned by the nearby pub at 2oclock in the morning.

A few years ago, the grocery stores started locking their garbage bins, ostensibly so that homeless people would not take food that had been thrown out, but the real reason they locked them is so that people would not try to save on garbage and recycling fees by dumping their garbage in them at night. Now, people dump their used appliances and clothing at the second-hand shops in the middle of the night. It is illegal to do that, but they still do it.

I live in a college town, meaning the biggest thing here is the college.
Each year when students leave town after graduating, they dump appliances by the side of the road, rather than pay for proper disposal.

We have bi-weekly recycling collections around here.

Where I live (NC,usa) most major cities provide weekly recycling pickups. Most, if not all, rural counties have collection centers, some for both trash and recyclables.

My city charges $50 US for a "yard waste" container. Things like grass clippings, dead flowers; this goes to a city run composting center. Fall leaf collections (city service) also go to this center.

I often wonder how "green" this really is. Trucks running through every street in the city; it takes them four days to cover the city. Leaf collection: giant gasoline powered vacuums that suck the leaves into a truck which, when full, goes to the composting center.

There's a lot of fuel being burned to pick all this stuff up.

-mark

There are people here who have electric vehicles, and the feeling of moral superiority that goes along with that

What if we all decided to get electric vehicles, though, the electric power plants and the distribution grid would not be able to handle the load. I don't think someone who has an electric vehicle is really that "green" unless they are using solar or wind power to charge the thing.

You are serious, wow, how incredibly naive. I don't know those folks here but do know a neighbor that has an electric Honda. When I pointed out the power here comes from a coal powered plant she blinked her eyes three or four times and said "Oh." The context of the conversation was my offering to till her garden space with a gasoline powered tiller; she declined my offer initially but changed her mind after 6 hours or so of hand work with a shovel.

I suppose 2 hours of gasoline exhaust produced less green house gases than the 6+ hours of her manual labor ;-)

-mark

We get rubbish one year and green waste the next year. Not in the US

However the council rarely have to clear much away the local residents steal it al

I had a discussion with someone yesterday about this and she told me that electric vehicles produce no emissions. Then I told her that they do, though indirectly, because the plants that provide the energy use fossil fuels and that even the nuclear ones produce other types of waste (heat and radioactive waste). So the only people who should feel "superior" are the ones who use solar or wind power to charge their vehicles.

I assume you meant that the people who think they are morally superior because they have an electric car are naive. Yes, in most cases that is true.

Recycling is somthing that i agree with. However, i have worked in the recycling industry as a computer dismantling technician, its shocking how much money is in recycling, and how toxic the items that need to be recycled are. Recycling programs should be implemented in my opinion.

Currently i work for a non-profit organization which is funded partly by recycling. The funds raised aid members of the community with developmental dissabilities. Recycling can do a lot of positive things for any commmunity.

That might work for larger communities, because they recycle enough to pay for their recycling programs. I live in a small town and city government has to subsidize recycling because the company that operates the recycling center does not break even. We have a tax on garbage collection (one pays the tax for each garbage can they have picked up) to pay for recycling. Originally, the city concealed this tax in water bills, but a lawsuit forced the city to change the practice. I think the way it is now makes more sense.