Yes, the OP is a lucky man. The local 'recycling Centre' here doesn't actually allow any recycling/re-use, if items can't be discreetly intercepted on the journey from someone's car boot to the actual tip, then it's gone.

You can't get anything at our recycle tip either. It's a pity, many times there's odd pieces of good timber

Roy

We have a recycle shop at our dump but the council staff stock it with useless junk like clapped out filthy old furniture, china, ancient Mills and Boon paper backs, cracked windows, broken exercise machines and the like. All the lovely bits of aluminium, steel and brass go straight into scrap metal merchants' skips and the public is verboten der gerfingerpoken unt mittengraben.

I have never seen anything I have wanted at my recycling centre.

I sort of believe that anything with scrap value might reduce my council tax.

JA

The skip yard on Portland, and its Weymouth colleague, is fairly good at recovering for re-sale domestic items that can still be used, and the Portland yard even has a shed "showroom" for small items!

Timber though… no. That goes into a huge skip in the Weymouth yard or through a hole-in-the-wall with a twenty-foot drop into an enormous bunker, on Portland.

I once asked about cycles and was told that they used to sell them but someone in the Council was persuaded by some dealer or other of a better return by taking them in one go in a container at £8 a bike. I pointed out selling the good ones publicly for a fair price, and putting the bad ones left over in the scrap-metal, would be rather better. The yard man agreed, but said management would not believe you!

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If the scrap-yards are less co-operative now it might be understandable. Too much Elfinsafe-Tea more likely from ignorant insurers than from anyone who understands the trade; too many metal thieves so they don't want the joint casing; and both by those trying to steal from the yards, and those wanting to "launder" stolen metal.

(I do wish the Press would not keep calling metal thieves, "scrap-metal" thieves. Most of their hauls are not scrap at all, but part of property in use by its legal owners.)

Last time I visited a Pre-Loved Metals Stockist I was allowed to rummage for myself in the large yard; but was lent a yellow jacket to wear while on site.

I have a neighbour friend who works at our local recycling centre, he brings me model engineering and classic motorcycle mags that he has "rescued".

I then read and recycle them around a few more friends.

Edited By Phil P on 09/06/2023 19:59:00

We have a re-use area at my local tip. Sadly no one deposits metal rod etc in it!

Everyone seems to have jumped on the recycle bandwagon. Whilst I agree it's a 'good thing', it should be the third option after reduce and re-use, but there's not as much profit in those. I cannot believe that smashing up glass bottles, melting them down and making new bottles uses less power than washing them out, we seem to manage that with milk bottles. Beer and wine suppliers would soon adopt a standard bottle if non standard ones were taxed heavily.

[quote]"……I once asked about cycles and was told that they used to sell them but someone in the Council was persuaded by some dealer or other of a better return by taking them in one go in a container at £8 a bike. I pointed out selling the good ones publicly for a fair price, and putting the bad ones left over in the scrap-metal, would be rather better. The yard man agreed, but said management would not believe you!………"[/quote]

In the past, people like us – who knew what they were doing – would obtain an old bike and do it up and fix it. But in this day and age, there are too many numpties who would take a bike from a recycling centre, pump up the tyres and use it without checking or realising that the brakes did not work, for example. You can imagine the horrendous consequences.

And for a recycling yard to decide whether an old bike was safe or not for sale, would be well beyond their expertise, time, and – dare I say – their insurance.

So, sadly machines of any kind probably cannot be sold or permitted to be taken off site. I don't agree with it either, but until courts start saying that people need to take their own responsibility, things are not likely to change.

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Edited By John Doe 2 on 20/06/2023 11:48:39

Sounds like Daily Mail logic to me! Nothing to do with the Courts or individuals taking their own responsibility.

Look at it from the perspective of the Council. Given they're an accountable public body responsible for disposing many thousands of tons of mixed domestic and commercial waste, what's the most effective way of doing it?

Bicycles are a tiny part of a much larger problem, but OK, let's concentrate on them.

One way is for the public sector to employ someone to do old bikes up and sell them. Not a bad idea except: there isn't a roaring trade in second-hand bicycles; it's a business operation competing with the private sector; and employing people means taking on payroll, recruitment, and pension overheads. Also risk of building a costly indoor bike mountain because no-one wants them, and taking a loss. Retail selling has considerable risks and overheads, and selling stuff isn't "core business'.

Giving discarded bikes away is unacceptable because Councils have to minimise cost – voters don't like paying taxes and old bikes have scrap value. The Public Sector is supposed to protect taxpayers in general, not help passing scroungers pick up bargains!

Selling old bikes in bulk to a private sector buyer is a good compromise. The council gets at least scrap value, and the private sector buyer has the opportunity to make money by fixing some of the bikes. They take any profit in exchange for taking responsibility for storage, tooling, safety and employing people to do the work.

All in line with long established Conservative economic policy. It's efficient and fair. There's nothing to stop John Doe competing to buy old bikes from the Council and making a fortune by recycling them. It only becomes a court issue when John Doe supplies a faulty bike and the customer takes umbrage.

I'm sure the existing system can be improved, but it's not simple.

Dave

Hi, as far as smashing up glass bottles and melting them down to make new bottles, it doesn't quite work like that. You can't make new bottles just from used smashed up bottles. Glass bottles are turned into cutlet and is then mixed with new sand in the correct proportions to make new glass bottles, this helps preserving the raw material resources as well. Even milk bottles can only be reused so many times, as the cleaning process weakens them over time. I went on a Green King brewery visit many years ago, and bottles from pubs etc. came in from anywhere and any brewery house, they all went into a automatic cleaning plant, where upon the labels would be removed and various cleaning cycles where used, followed by a steaming hot sterilisation process, and inferior bottles got automatically rejected, and finally went into the bottling area. It is quite likely that the run of the mill glass jars and bottles from the shops, wouldn't stand up to the same rigorous cleaning process as not all glass bottles are the same, and window glass is different.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 20/06/2023 22:03:30