Elemis pots - can I recycle them?

[alter ego]

I used to think I'd like to live forever, but they way the majority of people treat the earth, I'm actually glad that I won't.
I know that I probably won't be around in 40-50 years time, but I do worry about what's going to happen to the future generations. I do wonder if the earth will be habitable in 100 years time. Frankly, I don't think it will be.

Same here. I get as depressed and anxious thinking about the future now as I did when I protested at Greenham common (maybe I was more scared then but with some of the idiots in charge of nukes these days I think it's starting to loom over us again).

I always think of the people sorting when I put my recycling out. Let's face it, it's a shitty job that I wouldn't fancy doing so I try to make it as easy as I can for them. I was the same when I'd stay in hotels. I'd put all my rubbish in a bag in the bin, wipe the sink down with a used towel and (whispers) strip the bed before I left the room. OH was mortified that I'd do that. Said it made me look like a nutter. I hate making the bed on my own, though, and if I could help them out a bit I would.

I can never understand why most hotels don't have the maids work in pairs. It's a lot easier and quicker to make beds when there's two of you, especially with the superking beds they have in lots these days. Plus having someone to work with makes time go quicker. I'm sure some of these people in charge think they're better than the rest of the staff and like to make like as difficult as possible for them.

I used to live next door to a very unpleasant little man who was in management. I'd bet he was a right ares to work for. I challenged him about his recycling bins as he'd just throw dirty takeaway stuff in there and it was encouraging vermin (they do say birds of a feather...). He ignored me but the bin men refused to take it so he had to start washing it out (bet he though that was SO beneath him!).

He also blocked our drains by putting baby and cleaning wipes, condoms, cotton buds, fat and a load of other stuff down the drain. Ours was a shared drain so I KNEW it was him even though he denied it to the sewer man. He was arsey with him so sewer man so when he knocked my door to tell me it was clear (I'd reported it as it was coming back into ours), I explained it had only started happening when he moved it and that I didn't throw stuff like that down the loo he went back and put a warning through the door that he'd be charged next time (didn't know they could do that but I could hear neighbour ranting about it later - made my day).

I was so happy the day they moved!

 

[maymorganlondon]

Same here. I get as depressed and anxious thinking about the future now as I did when I protested at Greenham common (maybe I was more scared then but with some of the idiots in charge of nukes these days I think it's starting to loom over us again).

I always think of the people sorting when I put my recycling out. Let's face it, it's a shitty job that I wouldn't fancy doing so I try to make it as easy as I can for them. I was the same when I'd stay in hotels. I'd put all my rubbish in a bag in the bin, wipe the sink down with a used towel and (whispers) strip the bed before I left the room. OH was mortified that I'd do that. Said it made me look like a nutter. I hate making the bed on my own, though, and if I could help them out a bit I would.

I can never understand why most hotels don't have the maids work in pairs. It's a lot easier and quicker to make beds when there's two of you, especially with the superking beds they have in lots these days. Plus having someone to work with makes time go quicker. I'm sure some of these people in charge think they're better than the rest of the staff and like to make like as difficult as possible for them.

I used to live next door to a very unpleasant little man who was in management. I'd bet he was a right ares to work for. I challenged him about his recycling bins as he'd just throw dirty takeaway stuff in there and it was encouraging vermin (they do say birds of a feather...). He ignored me but the bin men refused to take it so he had to start washing it out (bet he though that was SO beneath him!).

He also blocked our drains by putting baby and cleaning wipes, condoms, cotton buds, fat and a load of other stuff down the drain. Ours was a shared drain so I KNEW it was him even though he denied it to the sewer man. He was arsey with him so sewer man so when he knocked my door to tell me it was clear (I'd reported it as it was coming back into ours), I explained it had only started happening when he moved it and that I didn't throw stuff like that down the loo he went back and put a warning through the door that he'd be charged next time (didn't know they could do that but I could hear neighbour ranting about it later - made my day).

I was so happy the day they moved!

It's infuriating when people conduct their lives without any consideration for others. Why they think they are "special" defeats me. If everyone had that mentality, what an unpleasant world we would live in!

I'm glad the sewer people were able to "bite back" at him for his lack of consideration in disposing of things.

 

[Vienna]

The house next door to us came up for rent and a Sri Lankan couple moved in with their toddler and another baby on the way. The husband worked away down London during the week and his wife didn`t speak a word of English but we had the same problem with her blocking the drains by flushing all kinds of stuff down the loo. It was impossible to explain to her that baby wipes etc weren`t to be flushed and when the guys came to unblock the drains they found all sorts down there. Thankfully they only stayed here a short while as the house was on a short term let so they moved down to London where they had family and where her husband worked Monday to Friday.
My son had similar problems when he lived in Glasgow. He was posted there with the Army and his job was actually at Glasgow Uni so they stayed in a private let instead of the usual Army houses. The house next door to them was let to a Ghurka soldier and his family of wife, kids and his Mother. His Mother refused to use the cooker and the washing machine , she was fresh from Nepal so she actually cooked on an open fire in the back garden and did her laundry out there too and hanged it over the adjoining fence and shrubs, I kid you not.
Anyway her outdoor cooking activities attracted vermin, cats and foxes, especially as she`d throw leftovers to rot at the bottom of the garden. The little kiddies would also just pee wherever they were in the garden and all in all the whole thing was a nightmare with smoke from fires, cooking smells, dripping clothes and rotting food.
The Ghurka was away on a posting and the wife and Mother didn`t speak much English so my son had to contact Army welfare to come with an interpreter and sort things. Even in barracks the Ghurkas refuse to eat in canteens or Army food and insist on doing their own cooking inside the barracks themselves and its only in recent years that they`ve been allowed to have their family join them so have been living in houses instead of barracks.

 

[Loveinamist]

Oh Vienna, how dreadful. As someone who tidies their rubbish I’d have died a hundred deaths living next door to her.

 

[AndiK]

Recycling is a mess.

I have to restrain myself from getting on a soap-box here, but at the very least it would be nice if the recycling policies were consistent across the whole country. The policies vary considerably from council to council, never mind each devolved country in the UK. If there was more consistency, perhaps they could get better rates from recycling companies.

We need to be doing better as a country than exporting our rubbish for recycling in poor and developing countries. We need to be doing better than continuing to send rubbish to landfill. We need to be doing better at converting rubbish that can't be recycled into energy, in a way that doesn't lead to more pollution. We are a wealthy country, with a long history of creativity and innovation. It shouldn't be impossible to make a better go of dealing with rubbish and recycling than we currently do.

Regarding the various beauty company recycling schemes and incentives, the best one to go for is the one where you get incentives for products you love and use, if possible.

While the idea of filling your own pots with goo - this will either mean that products will go off faster, or they have to be pumped full of even more preservatives and other chemicals to counteract the greater risk of contamination.

So true about hygiene and “shelf life”. Speaking of refilling your own containers, you may have seen the stories about the Waitrose in Oxford experimenting with letting people buy things by refilling.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48498346
https://www.theguardian.com/society...g-free-trial-waitrose-hits-the-ground-running

It’s probably the way forward but think of the cost and upheaval of completely changing the way things are presented in shops and the refits required. Not so bad if they roll it out in new builds or when stores need to update their fixtures and fittings anyway. Even the thought of what they do with the old fittings makes me shudder but I suppose they already have that problem. It’s very interesting.

I don’t usually take a bag for things like bananas but I see Waitrose now have compostable bags for weigh-your-own fruit and veg. They’re not very strong but you can re-use them in food recycling caddies.

I agree about consistency across the country with household recycling. But even if they don’t achieve that for some years, at least force local councils to make it clear to people what’s ok and what’s not.

 

[maymorganlondon]

So true about hygiene and “shelf life”. Speaking of refilling your own containers, you may have seen the stories about the Waitrose in Oxford experimenting with letting people buy things by refilling.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48498346
https://www.theguardian.com/society...g-free-trial-waitrose-hits-the-ground-running

It’s probably the way forward but think of the cost and upheaval of completely changing the way things are presented in shops and the refits required. Not so bad if they roll it out in new builds or when stores need to update their fixtures and fittings anyway. Even the thought of what they do with the old fittings makes me shudder but I suppose they already have that problem. It’s very interesting.

I don’t usually take a bag for things like bananas but I see Waitrose now have compostable bags for weigh-your-own fruit and veg. They’re not very strong but you can re-use them in food recycling caddies.

I agree about consistency across the country with household recycling. But even if they don’t achieve that for some years, at least force local councils to make it clear to people what’s ok and what’s not.

I think it's ironic that we are now looking at having things which are not pre-packed and are dispensed when you are in the shop.

I take myself back to the 1970s, when the bakery sold bread, baps etc in paper bags, and the cakes in cardboard boxes. When the greengrocer sold most things in brown paper bags, and delivered your order courtesy of the delivery boy on a bicycle with the cardboard boxes of orders piled up on the holder in front of the handlebars. When you went to the supermarket and your bacon was cut for you at the counter rather than supplied in pre-packs, and your weekly big shop was delivered, again by a lad on a bicycle. I remember the large trailer crate that would appear on bin day, and your newspapers all went in that to be collected and recycled. When the kids would all go round and collect the empty glass pop bottles to return them to the shop and get some extra pennies.

I think progress in this sense means less convenience rather than more convenience until or unless the packaging geniuses can come up with better packaging solutions which don't involve things which take thousands of years to break down and can be reused or recycled properly.

Food recycling is a bit of a sore point where I live at the moment. I live in a block of flats (a small block of 6 flats). We have to put our food recycling bins out by 7am on the morning of collection. If you put it out too early, the urban foxes knock them over so they can get into them (they are smart cookies). Unfortunately that then means the mess of discarded food they don't want to eat is strewn all over the area in front of the main door. Repeatedly one of my neighbours puts their food bin out way too early, when the foxes are bold enough to get at it. The same neighbour recycles all their packaging - sounds virtuous doesn't it? The guidance is to flatten your cardboard boxes - but no, they go in "as is" with all the packaging (styrofoam, plastic bags, delivery notes etc) stuffed in the box... it only takes a couple of boxes to completely fill up one of the 3 recycling bins we get... and we have to wait for them to be emptied fortnightly to get a look-in on recycling ourselves. I'm now girding my loins to go and have a chat with them, because it's getting silly. I end up just going down the recycling centre with what I want to recycle, so I don't have the hassle.

 

[AndiK]

I think it's ironic that we are now looking at having things which are not pre-packed and are dispensed when you are in the shop.

I take myself back to the 1970s, when the bakery sold bread, baps etc in paper bags, and the cakes in cardboard boxes. When the greengrocer sold most things in brown paper bags, and delivered your order courtesy of the delivery boy on a bicycle with the cardboard boxes of orders piled up on the holder in front of the handlebars. When you went to the supermarket and your bacon was cut for you at the counter rather than supplied in pre-packs, and your weekly big shop was delivered, again by a lad on a bicycle. I remember the large trailer crate that would appear on bin day, and your newspapers all went in that to be collected and recycled. When the kids would all go round and collect the empty glass pop bottles to return them to the shop and get some extra pennies.

Yes, it's going/coming full circle. All this progress (whether for the better or for the worse) and people are thinking we are going to have to go back to how it was.

I think progress in this sense means less convenience rather than more convenience until or unless the packaging geniuses can come up with better packaging solutions which don't involve things which take thousands of years to break down and can be reused or recycled properly.

This is what I think it will take. It's all very well beating up the end-user but there must be more that could be done by the manufacturers.

Food recycling is a bit of a sore point where I live at the moment. I live in a block of flats (a small block of 6 flats). We have to put our food recycling bins out by 7am on the morning of collection. If you put it out too early, the urban foxes knock them over so they can get into them (they are smart cookies). Unfortunately that then means the mess of discarded food they don't want to eat is strewn all over the area in front of the main door. Repeatedly one of my neighbours puts their food bin out way too early, when the foxes are bold enough to get at it. The same neighbour recycles all their packaging - sounds virtuous doesn't it? The guidance is to flatten your cardboard boxes - but no, they go in "as is" with all the packaging (styrofoam, plastic bags, delivery notes etc) stuffed in the box... it only takes a couple of boxes to completely fill up one of the 3 recycling bins we get... and we have to wait for them to be emptied fortnightly to get a look-in on recycling ourselves. I'm now girding my loins to go and have a chat with them, because it's getting silly. I end up just going down the recycling centre with what I want to recycle, so I don't have the hassle.

What an absolute nightmare. So no matter now conscientious you are, certain neighbours eff it all up. The thing you describe with someone putting whole boxes in the recycling container "as is", without separating the card from the polystyrene, etc, makes my blood boil. I hate the "someone else's problem" mentality. And there am I separating the plastic bubble from the cardboard back from the toothbrush packaging, to be recycled!!

 

[SisterBliss]

Same here. I get as depressed and anxious thinking about the future now as I did when I protested at Greenham common (maybe I was more scared then but with some of the idiots in charge of nukes these days I think it's starting to loom over us again).

I always think of the people sorting when I put my recycling out. Let's face it, it's a shitty job that I wouldn't fancy doing so I try to make it as easy as I can for them. I was the same when I'd stay in hotels. I'd put all my rubbish in a bag in the bin, wipe the sink down with a used towel and (whispers) strip the bed before I left the room. OH was mortified that I'd do that. Said it made me look like a nutter. I hate making the bed on my own, though, and if I could help them out a bit I would.

I can never understand why most hotels don't have the maids work in pairs. It's a lot easier and quicker to make beds when there's two of you, especially with the superking beds they have in lots these days. Plus having someone to work with makes time go quicker. I'm sure some of these people in charge think they're better than the rest of the staff and like to make like as difficult as possible for them.

I used to live next door to a very unpleasant little man who was in management. I'd bet he was a right ares to work for. I challenged him about his recycling bins as he'd just throw dirty takeaway stuff in there and it was encouraging vermin (they do say birds of a feather...). He ignored me but the bin men refused to take it so he had to start washing it out (bet he though that was SO beneath him!).

He also blocked our drains by putting baby and cleaning wipes, condoms, cotton buds, fat and a load of other stuff down the drain. Ours was a shared drain so I KNEW it was him even though he denied it to the sewer man. He was arsey with him so sewer man so when he knocked my door to tell me it was clear (I'd reported it as it was coming back into ours), I explained it had only started happening when he moved it and that I didn't throw stuff like that down the loo he went back and put a warning through the door that he'd be charged next time (didn't know they could do that but I could hear neighbour ranting about it later - made my day).

I was so happy the day they moved!

Condoms down the loo........yuk!

I'd be so embarrassed if the man came out & saw all that stuff.....and poo!

My disgusting neighbours (students) put dirty cartons in the recycling & dirty tins etc, even plastic egg boxes with egg shells in. Then they fail to put them out for the lorries. Add filthy black bin bags (with food waste in) all left in the back garden next to us, & the recent heat. So many bluebottles we couldn't open the windows. Some of this trash would be there for up to 4 weeks (before I complained). Once, Mr B saw 2 good sized rats at their open bin bags,a t 11am!!! He didn't tell me for a while, but when he did I cried.....& then complained to the L.lord, who is an ineffectual limp-dick.

Grrrrr

 

[AndiK]

My disgusting neighbours (students) put dirty cartons in the recycling & dirty tins etc, even plastic egg boxes with egg shells in. Then they fail to put them out for the lorries. Add filthy black bin bags (with food waste in) all left in the back garden next to us, & the recent heat. So many bluebottles we couldn't open the windows. Some of this trash would be there for up to 4 weeks (before I complained). Once, Mr B saw 2 good sized rats at their open bin bags,a t 11am!!! He didn't tell me for a while, but when he did I cried.....& then complained to the L.lord, who is an ineffectual limp-dick.

Grrrrr

Aren't the younger generation meant to be worried about the environment and moaning that generations above them are ruining the planet? Infuriating.

 

[maymorganlondon]

Aren't the younger generation meant to be worried about the environment and moaning that generations above them are ruining the planet? Infuriating.

As with every generation there is a mixed bag of attitudes and behaviours.

 

[SisterBliss]

Aren't the younger generation meant to be worried about the environment and moaning that generations above them are ruining the planet? Infuriating.

Indeed......

 

[Lemonpop]

But where are the collection points?

I believe they take waste from council collections. One of the companies was called Crapper (?)and the staff were allowed to take anything. Lorry loads of returned goods were sent because companies couldn't be bothered to repackage items. They had large flat screen TV's,bags and bags of chocolates that were not out of date. One of the young men had plastic boxes full of toys for his baby as well as loads of other things.

 

[Lemonpop]

I think it's ironic that we are now looking at having things which are not pre-packed and are dispensed when you are in the shop.

I take myself back to the 1970s, when the bakery sold bread, baps etc in paper bags, and the cakes in cardboard boxes. When the greengrocer sold most things in brown paper bags, and delivered your order courtesy of the delivery boy on a bicycle with the cardboard boxes of orders piled up on the holder in front of the handlebars. When you went to the supermarket and your bacon was cut for you at the counter rather than supplied in pre-packs, and your weekly big shop was delivered, again by a lad on a bicycle. I remember the large trailer crate that would appear on bin day, and your newspapers all went in that to be collected and recycled. When the kids would all go round and collect the empty glass pop bottles to return them to the shop and get some extra pennies.

I think progress in this sense means less convenience rather than more convenience until or unless the packaging geniuses can come up with better packaging solutions which don't involve things which take thousands of years to break down and can be reused or recycled properly.

Food recycling is a bit of a sore point where I live at the moment. I live in a block of flats (a small block of 6 flats). We have to put our food recycling bins out by 7am on the morning of collection. If you put it out too early, the urban foxes knock them over so they can get into them (they are smart cookies). Unfortunately that then means the mess of discarded food they don't want to eat is strewn all over the area in front of the main door. Repeatedly one of my neighbours puts their food bin out way too early, when the foxes are bold enough to get at it. The same neighbour recycles all their packaging - sounds virtuous doesn't it? The guidance is to flatten your cardboard boxes - but no, they go in "as is" with all the packaging (styrofoam, plastic bags, delivery notes etc) stuffed in the box... it only takes a couple of boxes to completely fill up one of the 3 recycling bins we get... and we have to wait for them to be emptied fortnightly to get a look-in on recycling ourselves. I'm now girding my loins to go and have a chat with them, because it's getting silly. I end up just going down the recycling centre with what I want to recycle, so I don't have the hassle.

Your potatoes were wrapped in newspaper at the greengrocers. I also remember the rag and bone man coming round for clothes etc Newspapers were taken to the greengrocers or fish and chip shop.

 

[Lemonpop]

Condoms down the loo........yuk!

I'd be so embarrassed if the man came out & saw all that stuff.....and poo!

My disgusting neighbours (students) put dirty cartons in the recycling & dirty tins etc, even plastic egg boxes with egg shells in. Then they fail to put them out for the lorries. Add filthy black bin bags (with food waste in) all left in the back garden next to us, & the recent heat. So many bluebottles we couldn't open the windows. Some of this trash would be there for up to 4 weeks (before I complained). Once, Mr B saw 2 good sized rats at their open bin bags,a t 11am!!! He didn't tell me for a while, but when he did I cried.....& then complained to the L.lord, who is an ineffectual limp-dick.

Grrrrr

Report it to the Environmental Health at your local council.