Recycling (2)
The epic 'redd oot' (clearing out) in our household has coincided with a strike of the city's refuse collectors. It's not cause and effect, I hasten to add. The solution was a visit to one of Edinburgh's recycling centres (known locally and less politically correctly as 'the dump'). We had already taken furniture to the Bethany Christian Trust the previous weekend, so for this trip we were left with the normal household recycling that isn't being collected just now, and rather too many bags for landfill.
I'd never been to the dump before, and it was a revelation. I loved it! There are stations for offloading still-working electrical goods, and furniture. There's a station for chemical disposal, and since the European Union has banned many commonly used UK garden pesticides this should be well used. I'm sure it's not. Then there's a series of bays for different categories of waste: solid wood, laminates, cardboard, garden waste and of course landfill. Containers for different colours of glass are further along, together with bins for paper, plastic, aluminium, clothes and shoes. (You can tell I'm enthralled by all of this). I didn't see anything for battery recycling - we're not very good at this in the UK. It was one of the happiest moments of the summer for me - a guilty pleasure, as I flung black bags into containers destined for landfill. Now that I know the array of possibilities, I'll do more pre-sorting next time, so that less goes into landfill. And there will be a next time - we haven't even started on the loft yet.
Along one edge of the 'facility' is this carefully tended garden. Bright annuals, hanging baskets, tomato plants, various ornaments and statues, topped off by tiki torches. I would love to visit at dusk when the torches are lit. Perhaps the bistro tables will come out then, and a barbecue. I'll have to time my next visit carefully.
What a lovely picture you paint of Seafield dump. I've spent many an hour wheeching ripped up old laminate floors, vast cardboard boxes, electrical wiring, plasterboard etc into the appropriate recepticle out there. Good fun.
ReplyDeleteThe bistro idea's a cracker but, i fear doomed to fail when Seafield sewerage plant does whatever it does to generates that famous East Leith miasma. Not nice.
And if you don't mind...please bring your camera along for the trip!
ReplyDeletePS..love the moody sky in the first shot.
Here in the United States we have these roads that you drive down into a hole. As stuff is dumped the big earth movers cover it with dirt. You feel like you are driving into the pits of hell. In the old days you could pick up good antiques but now everything just gets covered up. I never thought about taking my camera though. Good for you to get things out of your house.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for recycling, glad to see you doing your bit. We have a choice of two such centres, the one in Forres being the best because it also has a garden created using as much 'green' materials as possible. And much like a charity shop, anything coming in which still has use is put up for sale. One man's 'junk' is another man's 'just what I needed'.
ReplyDeleteThe only problem is you could end up going home with more than you took in!
I love going to the dump. Though its not nearly as much fun as it used to be. Back some years you were allowed to pick stuff out of the dump. So when you brought things to the dump you would usually come home with some good stuff too. You would be surprised what people through away.
ReplyDeleteWe have curbside recycling in our town which is really nice. I hate to think of all the plastic, glass and paper that would end up in landfills if our garbage collectors were ever to strike. I fear not many would bother to make the drive to the recycling center south of town.
ReplyDeleteWe go there once a week or so to drop off our yard clippings. No flowers to make it pretty--just one large pile of grass, branches and leaves. I've never thought to take the camera along! :)
Unfortunately Utah hasn't heard of sorting garbage, but then maybe that's because we have so much open space to dump it all in. It's sad sometimes the amount of garbage we come across in beautiful places.
ReplyDeleteYou've got me really excited now Linda, I'm going to the Forres dump tomorrow, with camera at the ready
ReplyDeleteYour cleanup project is to be admired. So often we tend or hoard. Unfortunately however we couldn't help but notice that a need for the dicarded item arises almost as quickly as the door has closed. lol.
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool - you love the dump!
ReplyDeleteNicely described in both pics & words.
(You really nailed it with your comment about taking pictures alongside the road - my husband says, just tell me when to stop & I will. I have to be careful not to say "now there is a nice such & such" - have to add but you don't have to stop...:)
Summertime is good time to do that. I can´t say that I love those places but there is something I like about them.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid I loved to go to the dump with my dad and uncles!
ReplyDeleteWe have giant 96 gallon curbside recycle bins here now and they charge hefty fees to visit the dump yourself.
I have been on a mission to clean out the entire place for a little over a year now, doing very well week by week!
Congratulations on the clean out!