C&RT say don't empty your compost toilet in our bins.

[David Mack]

53 minutes ago, Maffi said:

So where do boats fit into this:- "There are three different situations in which composting toilets are used:

• Permanently sited composting toilets at private dwellings, campsites, holiday parks, National Trust properties and recreation/conservation areas.

• Portable composting toilets hired out for use at festivals and show grounds etc as an alternative to sealed chemical toilets.

• Temporary latrines which are dug into the ground and moved when the pit is full.

Number two surely!

[Alan de Enfield]

30 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Number two surely!

 

Yes - 'number ones' are just tipped into the hedge bottom, or 'over the side'..

[Ronaldo47]

My first canal holiday in 1976 was as part of a group that hired Black Prince's original fleet of two boats. One had toilets that discharged straight into the canal, the other had chemical loos, and came with a spade for digging a hole for burying the contents if no sanitary station was available. The restricted lock opening hours of that year's drought (noon to 2.00 PM on the Southern Stratford) meant that we did actually have to do this mid-week,  by digging a hole at the edge of a farmer's field next to the towpath, which was too stony to dig a hole in with just a spade.

 

I think it might have been the  last year it was allowed.  

[IanD]

2 hours ago, Ronaldo47 said:

My first canal holiday in 1976 was as part of a group that hired Black Prince's original fleet of two boats. One had toilets that discharged straight into the canal, the other had chemical loos, and came with a spade for digging a hole for burying the contents if no sanitary station was available. The restricted lock opening hours of that year's drought (noon to 2.00 PM on the Southern Stratford) meant that we did actually have to do this mid-week,  by digging a hole at the edge of a farmer's field next to the towpath, which was too stony to dig a hole in with just a spade.

 

I think it might have been the  last year it was allowed.  

I certainly remember a hire boat in the late 70s or early 80s with a "freshwater flush" toilet -- meaning, straight out into the canal. Much pleasanter inside the boat than a nasty blue chemical one, but much less so outside the boat...

[ditchcrawler]

9 hours ago, IanD said:

I certainly remember a hire boat in the late 70s or early 80s with a "freshwater flush" toilet -- meaning, straight out into the canal. Much pleasanter inside the boat than a nasty blue chemical one, but much less so outside the boat...

That blue recycling stuff was grim

[captain flint]

15 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

CRT have a different approach on the Western L&L - they have taken the bins away!

 

 

 

I know we're veering off topic here, but I notice where I am (Lee Navigation and River Stort) that there are some bin sites with only general waste and some others (not in the same vicinitty in the least) with only recycling. I have been told loose, dry recyclables in the general waste bins gets sorted and sent to recycling centres (then shipped off to Indonesian/African landfills?!), but, of course, the recycling only bins, which are the only CRT ones in the area that I'm aware of, you don't only see recyclables put there, but general waste. Bishops Stortford town centre if you're interested.

 

I always respect it and never put general waste in, I continue to ferry it up and down the cut until I get to a suitable bin - but I do ask myself what the point is when lots of others haven't and the bins are invariably half full of general waste. More than that I wonder what the hell they think the point is? You might as well not even bother with recycling bins if you don't put both types of bins out in every place. I accept that if you did ensure both bins at every site, that would not immediately and entirely magic away the problem of the wrong waste in the wrong places - but if you want to minimise such issues, with a little imagination and good layout, PR drives, etc, you'd think at least *some* progress could be made.

 

Anyway, what should be blindingly obvious to everyone - is if you don't you have both types of bins at bin sites then you make it almost impossible NOT to have these issues. It would make far more sense to justy dispense with the recycling bins altogether, as they will literally never only contain recyclables and it will only make life hard for those who have to collect and deal with the waste. I have spoken (nicely!) to someone at CRT about this, but I always get the same feeling - sympathy, a willingess to acknowledge an obvious point, and no sense whatsoever that anything will be done about it. It's not that big a deal in itself, but it does seem dumb

[LadyG]

To my mind glass could easily be recycled, but if recycling at source, ie CRT bins, it means a lorry has to make a trip just for that one commodity. This is the problem. 

The other is that boaters will just chuck cans etc into any recycling bin. In the end Biffa are going to juggle the balls in order to make the best profit from their contract. 

[George and Dragon]

1 hour ago, captain flint said:

 

I know we're veering off topic here, but I notice where I am (Lee Navigation and River Stort) that there are some bin sites with only general waste and some others (not in the same vicinitty in the least) with only recycling. I have been told loose, dry recyclables in the general waste bins gets sorted and sent to recycling centres (then shipped off to Indonesian/African landfills?!), but, of course, the recycling only bins, which are the only CRT ones in the area that I'm aware of, you don't only see recyclables put there, but general waste. Bishops Stortford town centre if you're interested.

 

I always respect it and never put general waste in, I continue to ferry it up and down the cut until I get to a suitable bin - but I do ask myself what the point is when lots of others haven't and the bins are invariably half full of general waste. More than that I wonder what the hell they think the point is? You might as well not even bother with recycling bins if you don't put both types of bins out in every place. I accept that if you did ensure both bins at every site, that would not immediately and entirely magic away the problem of the wrong waste in the wrong places - but if you want to minimise such issues, with a little imagination and good layout, PR drives, etc, you'd think at least *some* progress could be made.

 

Anyway, what should be blindingly obvious to everyone - is if you don't you have both types of bins at bin sites then you make it almost impossible NOT to have these issues. It would make far more sense to justy dispense with the recycling bins altogether, as they will literally never only contain recyclables and it will only make life hard for those who have to collect and deal with the waste. I have spoken (nicely!) to someone at CRT about this, but I always get the same feeling - sympathy, a willingess to acknowledge an obvious point, and no sense whatsoever that anything will be done about it. It's not that big a deal in itself, but it does seem dumb

I suspect the real reason for not having recycling points at many sites (no matter whom they are operated by) is that it only takes one person to put general waste into the recycling to make the whole thing uneconomic. Same with domestic recycling collection, though the collectors do have a look inside the bins for anything obvious that shouldn't be there and, in some cases, refuse to empty offending bins.

45 minutes ago, LadyG said:

To my mind glass could easily be recycled, but if recycling at source, ie CRT bins, it means a lorry has to make a trip just for that one commodity. This is the problem. 

The other is that boaters will just chuck cans etc into any recycling bin. In the end Biffa are going to juggle the balls in order to make the best profit from their contract. 

Cans are easily separated from glass. It's other stuff that causes the problems.

And don't get me started on plastics recycling - each local authority has its own rules about what they can or cannot take - why they can't work together to agree a proper system is completely beyond me.

[cuthound]

18 hours ago, Maffi said:

So where do boats fit into this:- "There are three different situations in which composting toilets are used:

• Permanently sited composting toilets at private dwellings, campsites, holiday parks, National Trust properties and recreation/conservation areas.

• Portable composting toilets hired out for use at festivals and show grounds etc as an alternative to sealed chemical toilets.

• Temporary latrines which are dug into the ground and moved when the pit is full.

 

I suppose a boat could fit into a temporary latrine, provided it was dug deep enough and wide enough... 🤔😂

Edited March 10, 2022 by cuthound
To remove a duplicate post

[Hudds Lad]

32 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

And don't get me started on plastics recycling - each local authority has its own rules about what they can or cannot take - why they can't work together to agree a proper system is completely beyond me.

Oh so true, my LA (Kirklees) is absolutely useless at this due to the terrible contract they signed with Suez years ago. They are currently renegotiating which now means that from April we can put those plastic trays that some foods come in into the green bin but not the plastic film off the top.

[TheBiscuits]

8 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

I suppose a boat could fit into a temporary latrine, provided it was dug deep enough and wide enough... 🤔😂

 

There was that boat dug into a pond next to the Oxford(?) Canal ...

[cuthound]

2 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

There was that boat dug into a pond next to the Oxford(?) Canal ...

 

That is what gave me the inspiration for my reply. 😂

[captain flint]

48 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

I suspect the real reason for not having recycling points at many sites (no matter whom they are operated by) is that it only takes one person to put general waste into the recycling to make the whole thing uneconomic. Same with domestic recycling collection, though the collectors do have a look inside the bins for anything obvious that shouldn't be there and, in some cases, refuse to empty offending bins.

Cans are easily separated from glass. It's other stuff that causes the problems.

And don't get me started on plastics recycling - each local authority has its own rules about what they can or cannot take - why they can't work together to agree a proper system is completely beyond me.

Yes, general waste only I can understand. Recycling bins only seems really dumb

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

There was that boat dug into a pond next to the Oxford(?) Canal ...

But what sort of toilet has it got, no chance nipping down to Thrupp for a pump out

[David Mack]

11 hours ago, captain flint said:

You might as well not even bother with recycling bins if you don't put both types of bins out in every place. I accept that if you did ensure both bins at every site,

Todmorden has bins marked for recycling and for general waste. But I'm told all the contents go into the general waste stream. Because the bins marked for glass, paper etc. aren't there for that purpose - they just happen to be ones that CRT have pulled out of the canal!

[Alan de Enfield]

Our Local Authority has awarded their re-cycling contract to an Australian company and the 'rules' are now veerrry different to last year.

This means that we now have approximately 2x the waste going into the 'black-bin' (land fill) than we had previously.

 

We now have a 'Purple' bin.

Clean dry paper and cardboard, no food containers / boxes that have been in contact with food (which is an increasing amout due to supermarkets doing away with 'food in a poly bag, bag in the box' packaging. No cardboard boxes that have packaging tape on them, no chip-shop papers (in case they have grease on them).

 

The Green bin

Only - Clean dry (washed) tins, plastic containers and glass.

No packaging that has been in contact with food that has not been washed, no 'crisp' type foil bags, no thin foil wrapping, such as found on cakes/buns etc. no paper of any sort, now "thin" plastic bags or packaging, (magazine delivery plastic bags) no bin-bags or carrier bags, no hard plastics (such as coathangers, toys etc) No plastic (polypropylene) string or rope, no clingfilm.

 

Black Bin

Everything else.
Previously ALL plastics and paper/card went into the Green bin, no any 'contaminated' cardboard, paper or plastics must go in the Black bin. This has resulted in us putting twice as much into the Black bin (which was always full anyway), and the need for us to have an additional Veolia (Commercial) wheely bin where we just throw everything left over.

 

Now we have 3 bins our collections have gone out to "3-weekly" so we actually have, not only more waste due to not being able to re-cycle much of the stuff that was previously recycled, but we have an extra weeks worth to get rid of as well.

Edited March 11, 2022 by Alan de Enfield

[Tony Brooks]

I am increasingly coming to the view that the recycling undertaken by local authorities is not much more than tick-box exercise and not a lot gets actually recycled. Wokingham have recently updated their policy  and now say they want hard plastic but not soft where as previously they only wanted soft plastic (their terms) like milk cartons. No glass bottles, we are supposed to take them to a bottle bank - fin if you can walk or have transport - and when tackled say put glass into the general waste bin. Now it seems, as an example, I can recycle the top off an Ovaltine container (hard plastic) but not the container itself (soft plastic) even though it seems to be made from the same plastic as milk cartons and they say they will accept clean food containers. It seems simple enough to extract the aluminum and steel from the general waste but the plastics must be a problem and I think the way plastics are used and marked needs considerably tightening so a glance or a video camera can instantly sort the plastics into different output streams. As more and more consumer products come in shrink wrap art work I don't understand why the containers can't be color coded according the plastic they are made from.

 

The lack of national standards for dealing with domestic refuse, and I count boat refuse in that, and the way local authorities are ever increasing the access to recycling centers is beyond me.

[captain flint]

2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

not only more waste due to not being able to re-cycle much of the stuff that was previously collected in such a manner as to suggest it would be recycled

 

 

Made a slight change to the sentence there! As Tony implied what actually happens to waste once it is collected can vary greatly from authority to authority/provider to provider, and not everything put into recycling bins ends up being recycled. It's even possible that the new system you have means more is actually recycled, if people stick to it properly. Then again, possibly not. So hard to actually know what happens to our waste, and obviously a lot of it is eventually simply shipped overseas

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, captain flint said:

Made a slight change to the sentence there! As Tony implied what actually happens to waste once it is collected can vary greatly from authority to authority/provider to provider, and not everything put into recycling bins ends up being recycled

 

What happened previously was that all waste (Black-bag / Black bin and Green bin ) was all (on the relevant days) tipped onto a conveyor belt and hand sorted (loads of Eastern Europeans) so even if 'the wrong stuff' was in a bin it could be re-directed.

 

Which brings us back to the thread subject ............

 

This is why I disagreed with Dr Bob when discussing putting the 'part composted' output from 'composting' toilets in the genral waste bins.

Our nearest neighbour has a severly handicapped child and they have a special "Tiger striped" bin in which they must deposit their 'human waste' packed in 'Tiger striped bin bags'.

 

Despite me quoting the 'Offensive waste' legislation he was adament that it was fine to put it in a standard 'C&RT biffa bin' in a normal bin bag.

 

Human faeces is 'Offensive Waste' and must be handled in accordance with the laws of the land.

 

So what actually IS offensive waste? Well it’s not waste that shouts obscenities at you from across the street, but rather the name given to a collection of wastes deemed; non-infectious, non-hazardous and not needing a specialist means of disposal – but does cause offence to those who may come into contact with it. Such waste includes:

• human and animal faeces
• vomit
• urine
• nappies
• sanitary waste

Be sure to check out our Colour Code Guide for more information.

However, offensive waste can still cause infections like conjunctivitis if germs and bacteria are allowed to spread. That being said, it’s imperative that the disposal of such waste is carried out in a safe and controlled manner in order to avoid any bacteria spreading and minimising the risks associated. Here’s a few DO’s and DON’Ts to bear in mind when disposing of offensive waste:

DO: Dispose of all offensive waste in the correctly coloured bags… That being the yellow and black striped bag (tiger bag).

DON’T: Manually compact bags and overfill them so much so that they cannot be carried by the neck.

DO: Clearly mark/label ALL waste disposal bags/bins, otherwise your collector/loader may not be able to remove them.

DON’T: Place any sharps in offensive waste bags. If such an event occurs, please contact your waste collector for advice on the safest means of disposal.

[Hudds Lad]

2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Now we have 3 bins our collections have gone out to "3-weekly" so we actually have, not only more waste due to not being able to re-cycle much of the stuff that was previously recycled, but we have an extra weeks worth to get rid of as well.

I can’t imagine what a 3 week cycle would be like, ours is 2 weeks. This means on the run up to the festive period every year they manage to schedule it so the last pickup is the green bin before the staff have Xmas off, and the first collection when back at work is also green. This basically means the grey/black bin is not emptied for four weeks!

[Alan de Enfield]

6 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

I can’t imagine what a 3 week cycle would be like,

 

 

Maggots in the black bin - but that is because the Local Authority have huge posters / painting on the side of the bin lorries saying do not put dead Pheasants in the recycle bins.

 

Edited March 11, 2022 by Alan de Enfield

[David Mack]

2 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

I think the way plastics are used and marked needs considerably tightening so a glance or a video camera can instantly sort the plastics into different output streams. As more and more consumer products come in shrink wrap art work I don't understand why the containers can't be color coded according the plastic they are made from.

Many plastic packaging items are indeed marked with a code indicating the material they are made from. Look for a symbol like this on the bottom:

 

https://ismwaste.co.uk/help/seven-different-plastic-types

[Hudds Lad]

I’ve recycled a few dead pheasants in my time, comes from having a father-in-law who was a gamekeeper  

[captain flint]

22 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

That's interesting and helpful, thanks - and what a shame your recycling system has taken a nosedive. I'm sure up and down the country loads of areas which previously employed loads of Eastern Europeans and other migrant workers are having a hard time keeping up standards after Brexit....

I do not remotely think disposal of a few nappies is equivalent to black bags full of a week's worth of adult poo mixed with sawdust, but it's interesting to note - having read your post and the definition of offensive waste - that CRT do not insist on nappies being properly bagged/disposed of elsewhere than CRT bins.  

3 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Many plastic packaging items are indeed marked with a code indicating the material they are made from. Look for a symbol like this on the bottom:

 

https://ismwaste.co.uk/help/seven-different-plastic-types

 

... and then keep your fingers crossed that it actually gets recycled at all

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/17/plastic-recycling-myth-what-really-happens-your-rubbish

 

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

I’ve recycled a few dead pheasants in my time, comes from having a father-in-law who was a gamekeeper  

 

Dropping one or two into the septic tank everynow and again keeps it working properly