Do you regularly recycle or compost at home?

Do you regularly recycle or compost at home?

  • Paper and cardboard

    Votes: 61 51.7%

  • Plastic

    Votes: 65 55.1%

  • Glass

    Votes: 59 50.0%

  • Metal - cans and tins

    Votes: 55 46.6%

  • Compost - food scraps

    Votes: 37 31.4%

  • E-waste - batteries and electronics

    Votes: 37 31.4%

  • I don't recycle or compost

    Votes: 36 30.5%
  • Total voters
    118
BCoetzer

BCoetzer

MyBroadband Staff
Staff member
Super Moderator
Joined
May 17, 2023
Messages
187
Reaction score
126
Do you regularly recycle or compost at home?

(Select all that apply.)
 
I used to do the compost thing, but eh. I didn't tick e-waste, but I do have an e-waste recycler that comes to collect.
 
None of the above, but lately I do recycle alot of water even with the borehole I have. I'm learning to use less water and re-use water.
 
Compost: yes, it has benefits like reducing the maggot population in the bin in summer, and you get free plant food.

E-waste: yes, sending electronics to landfill is sacrilegious.

Paper/card: yes, in winter I burn it.

Everything else: is up to the bin pickers. If they don't want it, that's a strong indication it costs money to recycle, and that means it's worse for the environment to try.

People who waste their own valuable time sorting plastic and then pay a guy with a bakkie to burn fuel to pick it up (and take it, let's be honest, to ordinary landfill, this is South Africa) are just engaging in a weird form of consumption expenditure as far as I'm concerned, basically entertainment.

Also, even landfill is basically recycling on a longer timescale. Eventually dumps will be mined for energy and materials - when it becomes economically viable to do so. If you are concerned about the impact on the environment in the mean time then your only consistent option is to consume less in the first place.
 
Last edited:
CoCT has a recycling service that comes around twice a week to collect carboard, plastic, glass and cans.

Always do my best to recycle as much as I can. Do more recycling bags than garbage bags these days.
 
Used to, but then Pikitup stopped caring.
 
Got 10 baths of red wriggler composting worms, there's very little that gets throwaway, then I got three composting piles in various stages in the veggie garden for cardboard, grass cuttings and manure
 
Compost the garden waste along with the poop from our pups. We don’t use the end product on food crops.
 
The available yard space that needs to be sacrificed isn't worth it and it is unsightly at best of times. And the economics of buying compost vs making compost also comes into play.
 
Tomtomtom said:
Compost: yes, it has benefits like reducing the maggot population in the bin in summer, and you get free plant food.

E-waste: yes, sending electronics to landfill is sacrilegious.

Paper/card: yes, in winter I burn it.

Everything else: is up to the bin pickers. If they don't want it, that's a strong indication it costs money to recycle, and that means it's worse for the environment to try.

People who waste their own valuable time sorting plastic and then pay a guy with a bakkie to burn fuel to pick it up (and take it, let's be honest, to ordinary landfill, this is South Africa) are just engaging in a weird form of consumption expenditure as far as I'm concerned, basically entertainment.

Also, even landfill is basically recycling on a longer timescale. Eventually dumps will be mined for energy and materials - when it becomes economically viable to do so. If you are concerned about the impact on the environment in the mean time then your only consistent option is to consume less in the first place.
Click to expand...
Lots of wisdom there.

Landfills are not infinite though.
https://cbn.co.za/featured/one-of-c...of-capacity-left-warns-infrastructure-report/

Which means that when they run out, you do need to then incur even more cost of getting the trash to a new landfill, so there is an economic reason to try and keep as much out of them as possible.
 
konfab said:
Which means that when they run out, you do need to then incur even more cost of getting the trash to a new landfill, so there is an economic reason to try and keep as much out of them as possible.
Click to expand...

Agree, and this could & should be transmitted through the price mechanism, i.e. the wheelie bins line item on your rates bill. If/when we reach a landfill crisis point (ideally before lol but this is government), these charges should go up, and there would be options to get fewer collections, smaller bins, etc. and recycling would get a boost.

But it would still not necessarily be the best alternative because if any of it ends up thrown into landfill anyway it also goes up in price. Consuming less is always 100% reliable.
 
I created a compost area, by using scrap shutterly and painting with used motor oil. Holding up well.

All food scraps, grass clippings and wood ash goes into it. Does not smell.

Have not used it yet. Not sure what else I can throw there in.
 
I recycle glass. Plastic is a waste of time. Paper, meh. I don’t produce a lot of paper waste.

Compost? Hell no. I eat the organic material in my house.
 
Yup all of the above, luckily the glass/paper/plastic/tin are easy enough as they get collected from the house once a week.

Electronics get put aside until the next trip to a drop off point.
 
All of it as required here.

In South Africa family doesn't do compost, does do the rest, grew up with that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X