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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[cave_dweller]

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.

The Vale of Glamorgan was the same until recently - when it was pointed out that the carefully separated waste was all being chucked into the same lorry, where it got mixed up again! Now they collect 'comingled' waste (their word) - we still have to wash it out though, which I think is appropriate, given that somebody has to handle it at some point afterwards.

The OPs point about the cans is a good one - I always take the lid off completely, but not (until now) for the right reasons.

[wattsy]

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.

i don't see how chucking it in a hole where it will remain for hundreds of years polluting the environment is better than recycling it

[Wayne]

I almost never use tin cans. When I do I remove the lid completely and wash them before they go into the recycle bin. On exped the lids are completely removed then the tins are burnt to remove food smell crushed and packed out in a food barrel.

[rik_uk3]

The Vale of Glamorgan was the same until recently - when it was pointed out that the carefully separated waste was all being chucked into the same lorry, where it got mixed up again! Now they collect 'comingled' waste (their word) - we still have to wash it out though, which I think is appropriate, given that somebody has to handle it at some point afterwards.

The OPs point about the cans is a good one - I always take the lid off completely, but not (until now) for the right reasons.

We have one wagon for the wheelie bin, then a separate truck with no compactor for the recycled stuff. The council did say that a lot of the rubbish is still hand sorted hence the need for clean tins. Personally I would think most of the stuff goes into land fill sites.

[The Lord Poncho]

i don't see how chucking it in a hole where it will remain for hundreds of years polluting the environment is better than recycling it

Landfilling waste- in properly constructed modern landfills is not an environmental problem, rather a logistical problem (where the number of holes in the ground are running out!). Landfills these days generally don't leak gallons of leachate unlike those of old. Better still is the wastes use in waste to energy plants to generate electricity or heat. But uninformed Nimbyism impacts on the number of those plants.

The trouble with recycling is the energy and resources used in recycling is often more than that used to generate the raw product. Using glass as a case study- recycled glass needs to be washed by you (using water, and indirectly a proportion of the resource use and energy that goes into the system of water distribution), collected by the council (energy use-fuel+ resource use in their vehicles), processed at a material recycling facility (washed again, sorted, crushed- resource use, energy use), transported again to another plant that could be somewhere distant in the country, or often in another country altogether (energy use, resource use by the transport network), processed into a new product (energy use), distributed to the consumer (energy and resource use).

Virgin glass comes from melted sand- not a scarce resource. Certainly creating a product from fresh involves some of the above stages, but not all. Its worth pointing out that the above is a worst case example, better life cycle energy/resource performance can be gained by producing a low grade product that requires less sorting and processing of the material to be recycled.

I was involved in an Environment Agency investigation into possible illegal exporting of waste out of the country- it somewhat opened my eyes top the realities of recycling. A huge amount of recycled paper for instance is baled and shipped to India or China for supposed recycling. The reality is, that much of it is simply dumped in open air landfills (and those ones aren't sealed at all!). Where paper is recycled, to any grade other than low grade (i.e. newspaper) uses huge amounts of water, energy and chemicals (i.e. bleaches). Think also about all the energy used to collect and distribute the paper for recycling. On the other hand, paper can be sourced from sustainable forests, which also play their part in carbon capture and support an ecosystem.

I could go on, but won't! What we need to realise is that blind recycling of all our materials isn't necessarily as green as it is sold as. Recycling (in this country at least) is driven by a logistical need, landfill taxes, and European targets translated into government targets. It is just the government have decided the best way to sell it to the masses is to make people feel they are doing their bit for the environment (i.e. in the same way that hybrid and electric cars -generally far more polluting than petrol/diesal offerings-are missold to people). Certainly for some recycling, you are doing the right thing- but don't be unquestionably lead into it!

[ex member pyrophil]

I do that with cans, the tops lift up just before you get to the end so you can fold it back.
If i open the can all the way round i then need a knife to get the cut top out of the can.
my cans go in the recycling bag after so shouldnt end up in a tip.
If out all my rubish comes home with me.

[santaman2000]

i don't see how chucking it in a hole where it will remain for hundreds of years polluting the environment is better than recycling it

It doesn't always. But some items take a great deal of water and energy to clean and recycle. Sometimes that process is more harmful than manufacturing new product (particularly with paper which biodegrades rather quickly)

[santaman2000]

Back to the OP; how many cans over there still need a can opener? The newer ones with pull off lids don't leave any option other than full removal anyway.

[rik_uk3]

Cheaper food often needs a can opener. I've noticed corned beef is showing up in ring pull these days. The only ring pull cans I don't like are the flat cans of fish, more often than not no matter how careful you get juice spillage, I do at least.

[santaman2000]

Yeah me too Rik. And IIRC those are the first cans they showed up on.