Forum Topic

Townmead Rd Recycling

Is it still busy?  What are the days I can visit, know it’s based on numberplates but can’t find on the website. Thanks

Sean Wales ● 2309d22 Comments

As far as I know they have dropped the number plate requirements now.After the first week or two, with everyone having two months of waste, it hasn't been too bad.

Al Webber ● 2308d

We went at 3pm today and had to wait about 40 minutes to get in

Chris Lucy ● 2308d

Al  Not everyone has two months of waste.  I don't know how you make so much. Perhaps you should arrange for a waste audit to see why you are having such a problem with this.

Philippa Bond ● 2308d

What a ridiculous and judgemental thing to say.  Of course after 4 months people have accumulated garden cuttings and had clear outs etc.  No need to shame someone for producing too much waste when all they are asking is how busy the facilities are so that they can either dispose of responsibly or recycle.

Antonia Claire Siddle ● 2307d

No "of course" about it.  Al Webber has complained several times about having too much waste and bins being too small.  Everybody was asked to stagger their disposal of waste and recycling in their kerbside collections and there are legal alternatives to going to the Household Reuse & Recycling Centres which are quite likely to be easier.  If you always have too much then it is a good idea to revisit the recycling pages on the Council's and on the Waste Authority's websites to work out what the problem is.  You can ask for help in a waste audit or you can do it yourself.  There is no need to blame everyone and everything else when you can help yourself.There is a waste hierarchy that we should all be following:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Waste_hierarchy.svghttps://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20128/(don't forget to click on more details)https://westlondonwaste.gov.uk/We need to move on and be treating waste as a resource.All much better than sitting in a long queue.

Philippa Bond ● 2307d

Starting soon bookings only.

Janet Higgs ● 2307d

Have just checked west London waste.  They don’t take garden waste, diy waste (old paint etc) so you would still need to go to local dump to dispose of.

Antonia Claire Siddle ● 2307d

Phillipa, we get a lot of packaging with deliveries - and we have a lot of deliveries at the moment.I have two large pieces of polystyrene here that came with a computer monitor.  They cannot be recycled and they won't fit in the puny bin.I've got more polystyrene that came as packaging for my daughter's birthday present.  We have no alternative but to drive to the tip, thus adding to pollution and congestion.It would be better to give us bigger bins.  We would still dispose of the same amount of rubbish, but it would be better for the environment as we wouldn't be driving to the tip.What's worse, as I have said before, is that a lot that packaging is polythene, which can be recycled, but Hounslow don't recycle it.A lot of stuff comes wrapped in polythene - whether delivered, or from supermarkets.  Look at toilet roll for instance.If we weren't putting a lot of polythene in the bin, then there might be room for some of the other stuff.  Either way, Hounslow need to get their act together, by starting to recycle polythene, or give us bigger bins.

Al Webber ● 2307d

West London Waste is our Waste Authority not another "tip". Their website gives more information on their role and info on how they are working towards waste reduction and where and what and how you can do this. The goal nowadays is to reduce all waste and recycle as much of what we make as possible to use as a resource.  We are lucky that both LBH and LBE have kerbside garden waste and food waste collections.  Both have wheelie bin and bag collections for this and there is nothing to stop you making your own arrangements to share with a neighbour particularly when it is something that you use rarely.  Before the kerbside garden waste collections there was a lot more home composting being carried out so that you could improve your garden soil yourself making it more accepting of the heavy rainfall we keep on experiencing and less prone to run off causing flooding.  The Council websites usually have offers for composters and other methods of composting garden waste and there are also hot composters and wormeries and more to deal with your garden waste.  Some are more complicated than others and some cheaper than others.  You may also be able to find them offered on freecycle and other websites such as this.  Some Councils and some organisations will help you to do this although it is much easier since the advent of the internet to get help and advice.We can recycle so much in our recycling nowadays that there should be very little left.

Philippa Bond ● 2306d

Al.  I agree that polystyrene is a pain.  There have been calls to ban its use and in fact many manufacturers use very little nowadays or don't use it at all.  There are other options.  Packaging 'peanuts' the things that look lie Quavers are often not actually made out of polystyrene.  Some are made out of starch and will disintegrate when they get wet (but don't taste as good as Quavers).When you have white goods delivered by the company that you ordered from pre-Covid you could get them to take away the packaging and for a small fee take away your old appliance. You can even take some gadgets back to them at a later date for disposal. It is part of a producer responsibility scheme.  It may be easier than queuing at a Household Reuse & Recycling Centre especially now.Take a look at this page from Curry's/PC World:https://trackit.teamknowhow.com/uk/deliver-and-install/delivery--recycling.aspx?country=ukI recently had a small fridge delivered and it had some polystyrene (I'm sure there is less nowadays) and just have the one piece from the base left to go in the next waste collection.  It tends to be polystyrene or nappies that fill people's bins.  Otherwise we can go months without needing a collection.  Just about everything else can go in the kerbside recycling.Polythene can go in the indoor carrier bag recycling bins at the supermarkets.And you mentioned loo rolls - a fellow CW4 forumer introduced us to these:www.whogivesacrap.comno plastic, saves a lot of hassle and has the added feel-good factor.

Philippa Bond ● 2306d

Well I've had a look at the websites for all the constituent members of the West London Waste Authority of which LBH and LBR and LBE are three and none of them appear to recycle polythene in their kerbside collections.The repeated advice is to recycle polythene in the recycling banks at the larger supermarkets.  Richmond's website is lovely and clear.Online buying and delivery of large items will presumably reduce a lot now that we are no longer all in lockdown.I know that it is over 30 years since I last bought any kind of fridge!https://www.richmond.gov.uk/services/waste_and_recycling/household_recycling/plastic_recyclingI have always liked Richmond's garden waste website input.

Philippa Bond ● 2305d

If everyone started recycling poythene at supermarkets, they wouldn't be able to cope.  The local authorities should be doing it.

Al Webber ● 2304d

It is the shops which have so much more polythene and I expect they will be baling it out the back.  Most householders only occasionally buy large items with large amounts of polythene or polystyrene.  Most producers have reduced the amount of plastic packaging.  Did you buy anything from Currys/PC World?  It is worth looking at the link I provided.  Companies like that would normally take all their packaging back with them when they deliver. Also see their take-back of electricals.

Philippa Bond ● 2304d

I've mentioned this before, David Attenborough says we need to stop throwing things away if the planet has any chance of surviving. Apart from garden waste (and polystyrene) what the hell are you all throwing away that causes such long queues every single day??? At this rate how long before landfills run out of space??

Juliet Hogg ● 2304d

Think people started sorting out at home during lockdown and only now able to take to the recycling centre.

Janice Evans ● 2304d

"I know that it is over 30 years since I last bought any kind of fridge!"Philippa, You really should get rid of it. It will be using massively larger amounts of electricity than a new model. It is much more damaging for the environment to keep running old white goods, ovens etc. There are any number of examples on the web eg the below link, but the upshot is you could be using up to 80% less electric with new versus old. Time to switch - You'll recoup the cost in a couple of years and help save the planet at the same time. http://www.t2c.org.uk/chilling/case-study/

Rob Reynolds ● 2304d

Rob  I have a new small temporary fridge.  I'm awaiting a kitchen redesign and I'll be choosing appliances that will hopefully last well.  I've no intention of changing  kitchen every couple of years! Thanks for the links I'll look at them - they're sure to help with business of choosing.

Philippa Bond ● 2304d

Ahh, when you said you hadn't bought a fridge in 30 years, I assumed you meant your fridge was 30 years old. As you previously stated in another thread that your oven was very old (30 years or so from memory?)  and you use it to heat the house by opening its door, I thought you may not be aware of the need to keep electrical goods up to date to some degree. Clearly not every couple of years, but maybe it's worth checking every 10 or so to make sure you're not inadvertently costing yourself money and having a larger carbon footprint than necessary.

Rob Reynolds ● 2304d

I wouldn't buy anything from Currys/PC World.Last time I went in PC World was when I needed a SATA cable in a hurry, and didn't want to wait for delivery.  Asked a shop assistant where the SATA cables were, and he didn't even know what a SATA cable is.  It was probably about 50% more than a SATA cable should have cost.More importantly than the clueless staff, the PC I've just built would have cost me around £250 more if I had bought something ready made PC World with similar specs.PC World tend to cheap out on the components though.  There is a machine that nominally looks similar to mine, but the memory is only running at 2400 MHz not 3200MhZ because they have cheaped out on the memory and the motherboard.  Wouldn't go near them with a bargepole.If you are ordering stuff online, you are at the mercy of whatever the online shop sends you in the way of packaging.Getting back on topic, we either need the local authority to start recycling polythene, or give us bigger bins to put all this packaging in.

Al Webber ● 2304d

Rob  There's always a new crisis to get in the way of plans...  At least lockdown has given us a bit more time torethink.  I'll have to check whether the companies are now moving large appliances - they were only delivering items that one person could carry/deliver.  Then there's the access...

Philippa Bond ● 2304d

I preferred Maplins for bits and pieces but they are now only online.You can't work on more than one PC at a time or are you the man who fell to earth?I rather hoped that someone would test out the PC World/Curry's situation.  It is an alternative to going to the Household Reuse Recycling Centre, presumably because they are not contributing to the running of the HRRCs.

Philippa Bond ● 2304d

and the disposal.  I just can't hack too much hassle.

Philippa Bond ● 2304d