Is recycling worthwhile?

[teamsaint]

Some charity shops , EG BHF can and do accept and sell electrical goods.
They just have to have them professionally tested, I think

[Old Grumpy]

Ah! It was a table lamp with a safety check sticker next to the £4.99 price tag - glowing comfortably next to me as I type! I don't believe that there's the slightest danger of

FERNEY, FERNEY - have you come round yet?

OG

[Old Grumpy]

Some charity shops , EG BHF can and do accept and sell electrical goods.
They just have to have them professionally tested, I think

Each seem to have their own list - BHF- they may all be different. I presume they have to pay for the testing.

OG

[teamsaint]

Any sign of Ferney yet?

Quite a few of our local charity shops sell electricals.
If you need a specific item,you can do a short circuit of them.

i'll get my previously loved coat.....

[Dave2002]

Leaving things by the front gate or equivalent with a note saying 'Free, please take away' can be quite effective.

Not always, apparently. I have friends who tried to lose some white goods by putting them outside, with, and/or without notes, but they didn't go. In the end they took them back in, and advertised them for something like £30, and that was surprisingly successful, and they didn't have to pay to take them away.

On the other hand, we were doing some kitchen renovations, and we promised the old microwave oven (wasn't that old) to one of the installer guys, who put it outside our front door with a pile of other things - tools etc. - not even on the road. Next time we looked - it had gone!

As it happened, we had another, so we did give that to guy we'd promised one to, but it was a bit of a pain. There are some "nice" people round here (though most are OK …).

Another story concerns a piano. Someone wanted a piano, and responded to an advert. When they went round - I think with a helper and a borrowed van - they found the piano was OK for their purposes, and then the buyer said something like "Oh - we'd better sort out the money now", whereupon the seller said - "would £50 be OK" - response "Yes" ….

at which the seller dashed inside and came out with £50 in notes!!!!

Eventually they suggested that since he simply wanted the instrument taken away, that he could donate some of the money to charity.

[french frank]

Somebody hasn't mentioned this to the Sue Ryder shop in Lytham St Anne's.

They say among 'Items we can't accept' are 'guns and ammunition (including replica guns unless, obviously, toys)'

Do they mean 'guns and ammunition (including replica guns unless obviously toys)'?

[Old Grumpy]

Not always, apparently. I have friends who tried to lose some white goods by putting them outside, with, and/or without notes, but they didn't go. In the end they took them back in, and advertised them for something like £30, and that was surprisingly successful, and they didn't have to pay to take them away.

On the other hand, we were doing some kitchen renovations, and we promised the old microwave oven (wasn't that old) to one of the installer guys, who put it outside our front door with a pile of other things - tools etc. - not even on the road. Next time we looked - it had gone!

Probably ended up fly-tipped somewhere then!

[oddoneout]

Probably ended up fly-tipped somewhere then!

Flogged for the next fix more like.

[oddoneout]

Some charity shops , EG BHF can and do accept and sell electrical goods.
They just have to have them professionally tested, I think

It's the PAT testing(I know, I know, tautology) that can be the sticking point, as it costs, which can wipe out the benefit of selling the item. A small local charity is fortunate to have a tame 'pro' so they can use such items which previously they had to refuse. Other shops in town change policy now and again, but there's usually at last one that'll accept such items.

[Serial_Apologist]

Each seem to have their own list - BHF- they may all be different. I presume they have to pay for the testing.

OG

What's this business with "candles without instructions"?? "Make sure to light the wick end"???

I had a rather strange experience over a hi-fi left outside by one of the other tenants in this block. I brought it inside, tried it out, and it didn't work. While returning it to the collecting spot, another of the tenants warned me, in a friendly manner, that my taking it was probably illegal unless I had asked permission of the person dumping it, since until the local authority came to collect it it was either technically still in her possession, or in the possession of the council.

[Dave2002]

Probably ended up fly-tipped somewhere then!

Eventually, maybe - but in the short term no - it was working - and nicked! We do have fly tippers round here, but my guess is the locals go somewhere else if they're into that sort of thing.

[oddoneout]

I had a rather strange experience over a hi-fi left outside by one of the other tenants in this block. I brought it inside, tried it out, and it didn't work. While returning it to the collecting spot, another of the tenants warned me, in a friendly manner, that my taking it was probably illegal unless I had asked permission of the person dumping it, since until the local authority came to collect it it was either technically still in her possession, or in the possession of the council.

And someone who hadn't seen the whole sequence of events might assume you were flytipping....
It's a minefield. Back in the day skip surfing was quite straightforward - see it, take it - now you have to get permission from whoever is using the skip. I came across another variation of this at work when I liberated a couple of items from the metal skip( I had permission) but was then criticised by another member of staff because the scrap had a (potential)value to the council. I countered by pointing out that since both items had been usable when thrown out they could have been sold for considerably more than was ever likely to result from the scrap merchant, and that as a council-tax payer that is what I considered they should have done. The irony was that one of the items was for use in the(extensive) gardens, which have to be maintained solely by volunteers due to lack of funds and will to employ a once a week jobbing gardener.

[Dave2002]

And someone who hadn't seen the whole sequence of events might assume you were flytipping....
It's a minefield. Back in the day skip surfing was quite straightforward - see it, take it - now you have to get permission from whoever is using the skip.

There is also skip dumping. See a skip, and put your rubbish into it! This can be a pain, though I suppose that if there's only a small amount of material it doesn't matter so much.

It's unfair if people have paid for a fairly expensive skip to have it filled by others. Our neighbours had a couple of skips recently, and I was tempted, but found other solutions to the particular disposal problems. I don't think they would have minded - but it wouldn't have been right if their stuff couldn't then fit in.

We also sometimes get stuff put in our bins by people who seem to think it's OK for them to do that.

[umslopogaas]

I recycle everything I can. Glass (mostly bottles), aluminium cans and plastic bottles go out in the black box once a fortnight. Kitchen waste that might attract rats on the compost heap is collected once a week. Other compostable waste goes on the compost heap. Electrical stuff, some plastic bottles I'm not sure about and odd bits of machinery all go to the recycle site. All that goes to landfill is broken glass, some plastic/cardboard hybrid packaging (which in winter I could burn on the woodburning stove) and odd bits like worn out dishcloths which could also be burned. I do also have a bonfire site where I burn woody garden waste and some packaging. I could burn most of what goes to landfill, but weather doesnt always allow bonfires.

Its really important to recycle aluminium items, because creating aluminium metal from bauxite takes a tremendous amount of electrical energy, but it takes far less to melt and recycle the metal.

Concerning electrical goods, I took an old CD player to the local charity shop and warned them it was broken. They said fine, we can send it away to be fixed, so I assume as well as fixing it, the electricians tested it and gave it a safety certificate.

[Dave2002]

I try to recycle almost everything, but sometimes it's just not so easy. I was reminded recently of a bed we had. We offered it on Freecycle, and tried to get rid of it for nothing. In the end we advertised it, and people were queuing up to get it. I think it made us £30. Just got rid of some old PC loudspeakers, but that's only made a small dent in the pile of stuff to lose.