Nancy Reading

Hi Seth - thank you for sharing your experiences. I'm looking forwards to hearing all about what's going on at Wheaton labs!

(Welcome to permies!)

Our council recently introduced another wheelie bin for kerbside collection. This means that they ought to be able to get better quality waste streams for recycling, which is great! However it means that I now need to separate out paper and card from cartons and metal waste, as well as from non recyclable waste, glass and compostable wastes.
At the moment I use open plastic crates by the kitchen bin. I occasionally get them in the shop with deliveries and can select ones which are stackable, so glass crate goes under paper crate which goes under cartons and metals. This means the dogs can select their milk carton 'toys' easily and it looks a bit tatty.
I'd prefer not to buy a special bin if possible, but others might appreciate a recommendation.

Does anyone have a good system or suggestion on domestic waste stream separation?

What works for you? What do you think might be good features to include in a home recycling area?

bump

Dealing with stuff like crop overspray, gick residue in soil and materials?.....sounds like cider press to me.

James Alun wrote:All you need is one vaguely competent person at the start to send them out in the right order and one at the receiving end and you don't even need to sort it afterwards.

Yep, it says they managed to move them in alphabetical order!
Still it does say something about their customer base, and local support for their community.

I think this is a valuable discussion to have. In the UK I think copper-chrome-arsenic is the most likely stuff impregnating timbers, although more recent timber doesn't have the arsenic deliberately added I believe.
The other thing to consider is that older timber that I come across is so much better quality that the new stuff we can buy - I'd far rather use it again safely if that is possible than destroy it.

I've added this thread to toxic gick. I think (although a positive thing) the discussion is best in cider press.

This (and some other posts) will disappear in a few days.

Rad Anthony wrote:All the leaves on a tree reminds me of thousands of little sails on a ship.

Oh yes! I've had more than one tree sail away....mostly evergreens - the holly and holm oak grow quickly, but their roots don't seem to hold on as well. Also hawthornes: even thought they're not evergreen, the branches are fine and dense and also catch the wind well. The other thing I get is the leaves blowing off the evergreens. Many look rather tatty by the end of the winter.
Actually, except for round the house, I'm now thinking that deciduous trees are better for me for windbreaks. They lose their leaves in winter, but I mostly need the shelter for growing things and not much happens till blossom break - so I get sunshine in winter and shelter in summer, which seems like a good compromise!

The hops did all flower in the end - but too late and too little to be useful. It's so long since I have been near fresh hop flowers that I had forgotten, or never knew, how smoky the scent is!
The hops have been through the winter and are happily sprouting just now - growing so quickly that day to day they change:



Already they are starting to twine around each other - I need to get the string back up! I've managed to transplant a few ladies' mantle roots around them to try and give a less competitive groundcover - I might see if I can transplant some clover as well. I have some zigzag clover that succeeds in out competing and smothering grass nearby this area.
I did have a nibble on a couple of shoots (raw) rather small, but quite pleasant. I could see if you had abundance then the shoots might make a useful vegetable at this time of year. I wonder whether it would be wise to pick off the later shoots anyway, so as to have more effort put into the earlier shoots. Thoughts?

We don't get that clearance of summer gardens here, as the seasons blend into one another and I just leave the garden debris to protect the soil. I notice though that the colours of death in nature are often vibrant and clashing - the scarlet of a dying sorrel leaf, bright colours of fungi on infected wood.