Recycle Bin

Is “The recycle bin ” what your friends call your house? There are much worse things to be known for!

Three Reasons For Recycling Waste

  1. To save money
  2. To make money
  3. Help the environment.

I’m cynical enough to believe that the government lies to us so much that we don’t know enough to take action on the third one.

1. Thrifty second hand reuse. When I got married, my boss told me that I had furnished my whole house for less than he had paid for one bed. I haunted auctions for good bargains.

Now I would do it even more cheaply. I see no reason at all for newlyweds to get deeply into debt for their furniture. Most councils now have an annual rubbish collection at the side of the road. You just borrow a utility vehicle and drive round until you find beds, wardrobes, dressing tables, tables, televisions, computers, washing machines, bicycles… you name it, if you’re patient enough you’ll find it… free for recycling.

I already had a couch but no armchairs. So I bought a three-piece suite at the auction. The auctioneer asked us to start him an a quarter of a pound sterling. I offered him an eighth and he knocked it down to me. When I got it home I chopped up the couch. The fabric was put aside for patchwork quilts, the padding was burned to heat the house, the brass springs were reserved for future use (I made a baby bouncer and some automatic animal feeders with them) and the wooden frame was burned to heat the house.

The armchairs were old-fashioned and enormous so my alsatian bitch could curl up in my lap while I read a book.

I tell this story to illustrate that the recycling uses may have nothing at all to do with the original purpose of second hand goods.

2. Where to recycle to make money. There is an old Yorkshire saying that where there’s muck there’s money. But you may have to look for it.

I knew an X-ray technician who became quite wealthy by recycling x-ray plates. Each day he had bags full of the old plates to get rid of, so he took them home. There he steeped them in a chemical bath that dissolved the silver salts off of the celluloid. He disposed of the celluloid sheets, and extracted and sold the silver.

I’m not a good enough chemist to know if this form of metals scrap reuse could be applied to gold-plated boards for computers recycling. I vaguely remember that gold is very difficult to dissolve, but it might bring enough money to be worth it.

Of course home recycling is probably the most lucrative idea that everyone has heard of. You buy a horrible mess of a home, do it up, and sell at a big profit. I’ve heard of an even more lucrative electronics recycling idea that I’ll probably describe here soon.

Bins Recycle

I have two bins in the kitchen - one for food scraps to compost, and the other for non recycle waste.

Recycling newspaper needs another bin, and cardboard recycle could use yet another container.

When I talk about recycling kids, I don’t mean eating them or even composting them, although the temptation is always there when they annoy me. Kids should be shown how to recycle for pocket money. If you live in the country, they can collect old bottles with deposits from the side of the road and take them back for the deposits. That is an easy way for recycled glass.

Or they may prefer to pull the handle to crush and recycle can metal scrap.

An oil recycle idea that converted waste oil to bio-diesel allowed one family to tour all over the USA without buying any fuel. Recycling styrofoam and other plastics needs more knowledge and finding buyers centers can be a problem. Just keep alert for opportunities. If I knew of a lucrative recycling idea that I wanted to use I would probably keep it secret. I do know of a lucrative recycling idea, but I don’t want to be distracted from my computing, so I’ll post it here one day.

Meanwhile I’ll continue to use my recycle bin, or two, or three…