A warning about tin cans

[ged]

When you use a tin can, do you always take the top right off?

Or do you not really think about it?

This is what can happen if you don't really think about it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-18195580

A lot of people will open the can until the lid almost -- but not quite -- comes away from the can. Then after emptying the can they'll push the lid back down, a little way inside the can. This makes a perfect trap for animals roaming around the waste tip (or in the report above, the sides of the road, where some herbert left this can) looking for food. There's food in there, which attracts the animal, and it puts its snout or paw in there to get at the food, and it can't get it out again.

Then it dies a very slow and unpleasant death.

If you leave cans like this, try pushing your finger in the gap between the lid and the wall of the can. Then try, very gently, pulling it back out again.

I always take the lid completely off the can, so it can't make a trap.
Then I put the can in the stove when it's burning to get rid of all the paper, paint and food residue.
Then I crush it and put it in the scrap metal bin.

I suppose I'm a bit obsessive about it.

 

[Bucephalas]

Good point and food for thought for many I'm sure.
When out I always burn then crush (don't want to invite wildlife into camp) but at home I sometimes just poke the lid back in.

I've just educated my good lady too so thanks for the post!

 

[tomongoose]

That would only happen if you dump the can or they get in your bin as they get squashed in the bin lorry

 

[rik_uk3]

Same with the plastic loops off four packs, birds get tangled in them so cut the loops before they go in the bin.

I take the lid off completely, we have to wash cans before they go in the recycle bin, if the bin men see dirty cans they won't take the bag.

 

[Toddy]

Me too, I wash them first, and I hate those plastic can rings and the plastic nets that fruit comes in, even if they are useful. I cut them both up before they're binned.
I'll mind about the tin can though.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

I always find it ironic that we have to wash tins before recycling them. If you are on a water meter imagine the annual cost not to mention the waste of resource. I'm firmly in the do not wash them camp. Good heads up re the lid though.

 

[tiger stacker]

The plastic 4 pack waa highlighted in happy feet, my cans usuallly get stoved in. The clean before recycle is for bacteria health Safety for those who work at the recycle place. So the local council person said.

 

[lou1661]

I always find it ironic that we have to wash tins before recycling them. If you are on a water meter imagine the annual cost not to mention the waste of resource. I'm firmly in the do not wash them camp. Good heads up re the lid though.

being on a water meter, i find that leaving the cans untill i have washed up and then using the water in the bowl to wash them out makes no difference to my water usage.

 

[Toddy]

I'd struggle on a water meter I think if it did come in I'd just use a bucket of rainwater to syne them out.
The council cleansing dept won't empty wrongly filled bins, and dirty cans = a visit from the folks who do the community outreach for their recycling efforts. 40% of domestic waste is recycled and the aim is 50% by 2013, in South Lanarkshire.
They even take empty gas canisters from my camping stoves

cheers,
Toddy

 

[ged]

...The council cleansing dept ... even take empty gas canisters from my camping stoves

I thought you'd switched to a dual-burner Coleman?

 

[Toddy]

Off Topic

For Winter, I certainly did
HWMBLT's just back from Loch Tay and he took the wee stove; it's easy when it's only for one and it can be used under the flysheet porch when there are midgies about.
Besides, I think we've got about 50 cans to use up
He also likes the CAT stove, it's really fast, neat and windproof, and he can carry it when hillwalking; the Coleman's a great bit of kit, but not if it's to be carried.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[ged]

Off Topic ...

Oh, yeah. Sorry.

 

[Expat]

I always take the lid right off and squash the open end of the can closed....
The bit about animals getting stuck was featured on BLUE PETER many, many moons ago...

By the way, the bin lorries compact the rubbish .. .. .. they DON'T squash the cans....

 

[rik_uk3]

I always find it ironic that we have to wash tins before recycling them. If you are on a water meter imagine the annual cost not to mention the waste of resource. I'm firmly in the do not wash them camp. Good heads up re the lid though.

Then you'd not have your tins picked up. With us we have to put glass, plastic and cans in one clear bag, paper in another clear bag, food in a small bag in a small bin in the kitchen which you then put in a bigger lock top food bin outdoors. Bigger junk goes in a big wheelie bin. Visible dirty cans in a bag and the bag is left behind.

 

[Retired Member southey]

But how am I supposed to make canned hedge pig? good warning Ged,

All our recycling type stuff goes into one bin, cans, cardboard and plastics, glass in a tub, nothing needs to be washed,

So why are you being made to wash your stuff and we don't have to? is it a difference in sort systems, the cans would be washed and melted as is the glass any way I would have thought.

So why make you wash it prior to it being collected? just wondering.

 

[Toddy]

Most local authorities up here use wheelie bins.
One for general waste, one for recycleable, one for glass, one for garden.
I don't have the garden one since I compost everything I can.
The general waste and the recycleable waste wheelies are uplifted alternate weeks, glass once a month. You can imagine just how unsanitary unwashed food containers could be sitting for a fortnight in a bin, especially in Summer.
We wash them before they go in the bins.

Ged, it was me who took the thread OT, I wasn't getting at you besides, you started the thread

atb,
M

 

[bushwacker bob]

Our wonderful council wont even recycle glass and the only plastic they take is poythene.

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

Then you'd not have your tins picked up. With us we have to put glass, plastic and cans in one clear bag, paper in another clear bag, food in a small bag in a small bin in the kitchen which you then put in a bigger lock top food bin outdoors. Bigger junk goes in a big wheelie bin. Visible dirty cans in a bag and the bag is left behind.

ive never washed a tin but we use a wheelie so they dont see whats in it. I prefer to wash the bin when needed.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Our wonderful council wont even recycle glass and the only plastic they take is poythene.

You should move up north Shaun! they collect everything here, except bodies, they don't like to take your bodies away!

 

[The Lord Poncho]

Our wonderful council wont even recycle glass and the only plastic they take is poythene.

That is a wonderful council- most of the time recycling glass is actually worse for the environment than landfilling it. The same is also true of some plastics recycling and a lot of paper recycling....

Metals though are well worth it.