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Recycling, reclaiming and salvaging of yesteryear

When i lived in Kingstanding the father of my mate, who lived opposite us, kept pigs in his back garden, we had some of the best rhubarb you could find :D. He supplied all the neighbours around with a bin that was collected every Saturday usually by my mate with myself helping him now and then for a few bob, i suppose we just got used to the smell as it never seemed that bad.


bren
 
In the late 40's when I lived in Bromford Lane I can remember the horse and cart coming regularly to collect our waste food. The phrase "put it in the pig bin" was normal at that time, in fact I often slip it into my conversation today!
 
We had a "Pig Bin" on the other side of the road in Kingstanding, usally my job to take the bucket of waste veggies across the road to the bin, learnt the highway code pretty quickly then. Many years later when we moved into our house in Doe Bank Lane, (not there now) we found a bucket with a hinged lid in the back garden, you can imagine our surprise when a man walked into our garden ( we had a party drive in that house with access to our rear garden) and looking into the empty bucket. It was the local farmer, from the farm opposite or mabye from Wrights dairy farm, and low and behold after all those years we once more had a "Pig Bin". This lasted a few years before it was finally abandoned.

Goffy
 
It's the in thing here in Tamworth, a while back they issued us with little green kitchen caddies to put your waste food in prior to putting it in the green waste bin - never used mine as I didn't want the smell of rotting food outside the door - the bins are only collected fortnightly. It's improved a bit now in that you can wrap food in newspaper, so have started it.
Sue
 
Sue, I have used my green bin almost from the start. I then abandoned my compost bin (which has been recycled) because I did not really have room for in the garden which is tiny. We have found that if you use about four sheets of newspaper you get little or no smell, and once it's got grass on top of it, it is even better. You have been able to use newspaper from the start, but not the compostable paper bags, which I find a bit strange - why one kind of paper but not the other? Our bins are all in our garage, which we enter from the house, and we get no smell for the most part, it is absorbed by grass cuttings. I am quite pleased with Tamworth's recycling effort, it seems to be much better than Birmingham's, as they only have bags and not bins. We bring some of our daughter's recycling home with us, as bags look much more messy than bins.
 
veegee said:
Talking about horse and cart deliveries. During the 40s,50s and 60s my aunt and uncle had a watch repair shop in Station Road Stechford opposite The Bull, their home was at the back of the property. I used to visit regularly to play with my cousins and at the back of their home were the stables where the delivery horses were kept, we were allowed to go into these stables and help feed the horses. There was also a field where the carts were stored, we played for hours climbing and hiding around them. I believe B&Q now stands at the site now.
Click to expand...
My memory tells me rightly or wrongly, that the horse & van`s belonged to Holtoms bakery & Joyners bakery both taken over by Hardings bakery at Church Rd Yardley during WW2. Len.
 
Does anyone remember the following song,sung to the tune of 'out of town'? Say what you will, school dinners make you ill, and Robin Hood he died from shepherds pie, put your din-din in the pig-bin, or else you'll die.
 
Hi all

I remember Pig bins being our main source of amunition in Arthur St Small Heath when "our Gang" took on their gang from the bottom half of the street the only problem was the bin was nearer to them so we had to dodge the first salvo and collect the wet loaves etc before we could send it back.

regards Acklam19.
 
I remember a pig bin in the road well into the 1950s. Years ago I was staying at a hotel in Newport South Wales and there was a pig in a sty in the hotel car park. I remember saying to the hotel manager that he would have plenty of food for the pig from the kitchen waste but he said that he was not allowed to do that because he did not have the equipment for the ultra heat treatment of the food for the pig. On the other hand I was talking to siome outside caterers about the food leftover from a large party and they said that they feed it to their pigs and chickens. We must remember that one outbreak of foot and mouth a few years ago was blamed on a ham sandwich thrown away by some foreign visitors. I put my vegetable uncooked food waste in a compost bin but where did the slugs come from?
 
Yes i recall the pig bins those big galvanised bins the bin men had to carry on there shoulders
from up big yards and terraces those bin men earnt there money alright
todays bin men have got it made just picking up plastic bags you may or not beleive it but years ago there was a big waiting list
to get your self a job on the bins it was good wages but hard earnt and even the road sweepers jobs down holiday street depot and
at rotten park street to get on the bins today no one wants to know but i beleive the jobs for these now have been allocated through the job agencyies and not the council and the agencyies do not pay good rates and its temp; so you aint get the security as you did with the council employments best wishes astonian
 
There used to be a small holding in Erdington on ShortheathRoad, inside the triangle of Anderson Road and Court Lane.



The people here use to leave pig bin with at the localhouses in Shortheath.



It seems strange to think that there were still smallholdings: the one in Jerrys lane was still there until the late 90’s; was the owner called Bob Bacon?
 
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Just sorted this old thread out and there is talk of having bins for left over food but not for the pigs of course. Jean.
 
Jean we put food in our garden waste bins here in Tamworth. This has been a fairly recent thing, not sure how it is processed.
 
In Sandwell we have a little kitchen bucket for food waste, it has to be emptied into a brown bin for weekly collection for use as compost not for animal feed. It gets complicated putting all the bins out, i.e. brown for compost, green (fortnightly) for garden waste, blue lid for re-cycling, and black for everyday rubbish.
rosie.
 
I think the daughters collection comes under Sandwell, they seem to have a bin for everything, wheelie bins, boxes, tubs etc

bren
 
Wendy and Rosie. I hope that is just vegetable food waste that goes for composting and not meat and bones otherwise your areas are goiong to have terrible fox and rat problems. We have been threatened with wheelie bins in Birmingham. I live near to Bearwood so I have seen all the bins that you have in Sandwell cluttering up the front gardens
 
Rosie that seems a bit fiddly to me and Wendy that isn't so bad mixing it in with your garden waste. Mind you Brum council are planning to charge for removal of green waste. I suppose people will start dumping again then. David our one son has the bins but a large front to put them on and a closed entry to store them during the week. He thinks they are brilliant. Agree with you they are unsightly when people have very small fronts or none at all. Bren that sounds mindboggling!!!.
 
All the food waste from Tamworth along with garden waste, goes for composting - I understand it is at a farm which is not right on our doorstep.

On television a few weeks ago was a processing plant for food waste, which turned all green waste into fertilizer etc. I am assuming that it is a system that will eventually be in use all over England. As for foxes and rats, we have foxes in our street during the night (but I am just two houses away from open countryside) and apparently whereever you live in the UK, you are never more than about 15feet from a rat - a scary thought indeed. When I used to work in Hurst Street in the late 1980's it was reported to us that during the night Hurst Street was heaving with rats from the sewers. I suspect the Chinese restaurants, of which this area is awash, did not help the situation.
 
Down here in Torquay we have similar. A bin to keep in the kitchen for all food waste which is emptied into a larger bin (kept outside) which is collected weekly. One bin for paper, glass bottles, foil etc. Another bin for tin cans, plastic bottles and cardboard. These two are also collected weekly. Then we have a black bin for all other rubbish which is collected on a fortnightly basis. Quite easy once you get into the swing of it, and saves having to go to the recycling bank! The dustmen sort the recycling as they go as the refuse lorry has different compartments which the rubbish is put into as it is collected from each house.
Judy
 
We do have fox problems and they used to rip the black bags, but there is a lid on the bin which locks down when the handle comes up....but foxes are clever!! I must confess I don't use mine, don't really need to and it's enough to struggle with the other bins!
rosie.
 
I remember the pig bins in the City Centre in the late sixties/early seventies when I worked as a milkman. They were still collecting from the restaurants then. I can also remember going down to Hay-on-Wye with my Dad, who also worked for the Dairy, with a load (around 70) 10 gallon churns with stale milk, we used to tip the churns into huge open gavanised tanks which already had food waste in the smell was, well just imagine!! It used to stay with you for days afterwards, and the bluebottles in the Summer were nearly as big as birds!! These days, as mentioned earlier, it is not allowed due to DEFRA regulations.
I also live in Bearwood and the recycling bins are supposed to be at the back of houses, we all have entry's, trouble is no standards any more! The food waste is supposed to be going for 'Anerobic Digestion' where it is heated, to accelerate the decaying process, and the resulting methane gas is used to power a diesel engine powering a generator which produces electricity for local use and the surplus goes to the national grid. Once the process is started the coolant water from the engine is used to heat the tank with the food waste and the whole process is self perpetuating and very economical. the waste food is then ready for use as fertiliser as it is full of nitrates but no longer smells.
 
Here in Lincoln we are about to be charged an additional fee for collection of our garden waste, apparently they say that councils

are not obliged to offer the service. I shall be taking my grass cuttings to the local tip, on the bus once a week...

Our council don't want food waste in any bin at any price, so we have to eat up everything on our plates. (Just like school dinners hahaha)
 
Yes, I remember them well. We still had one in 1958/9 when I lived in Ward St, Newtown. I then moved to Bromford lane to a block of flats where we had a rubbish shoot! My sister lives in Somerset and her council issued food waste bins a couple of years ago, what an excellent idea. She has a small bin for her sink/worktop which has a bio degradable bag in it. She then puts it into a bigger bin outside which is emptied every couple of days. I dont know what happens to it but its certainly a damn good idea shame a few more councils dont put it into practice.
 
Here in North Ayrshire, they have just issued us with these small bins for food waste. Its a 5ltr box that you keep in the kitchen, and when the bio-degradable bag is full, you put it in the bin outside that contains all garden rubbish. This will then be emptied weekly. It wont take long to fill though, as you can also deposit used tea bags & coffee grinds too. Im afraid I drink a heck of a lot of tea. The downside to this food waste idea is that my wife wont go near the thing. She doesnt like the idea of a (smelly) bin being in her kitchen.
 
There’s nothing new about recycling. It was the norm in war years when materials and products weren’t as readily available. The ironic thing about this pile of rubber is Wellington boots were recycled and, among other things, were turned into Goloshes. I always thought Wellies and Goloshes were the same thing. Viv.
B2F389C5-2FD1-4126-A5A8-50E8B28F217C.jpeg
Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
Vivienne14 said:
There’s nothing new about recycling. It was the norm in war years when materials and products weren’t as readily available. The ironic thing about this pile of rubber is Wellington boots were recycled and, among other things, were turned into Goloshes. I always thought Wellies and Goloshes were the same thing. Viv.
View attachment 154280
Source: British Newspaper Archive
Click to expand...
Wellingtons are to knee height, galoshes were a waterproof overshoe, my posh grandmother from Slade Road had a pair which she put on when shr went out on wet days.

Bob
 
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