How Green is Recycling?

[Miss Demeanour]

With rainwater  

[Barman]

With rainwater  

[Nick]

Got a new sportsbag for the Boy yesterday. Mahoosive plaggy bag inside stuffed with more plastic and other shite so it retained its shape. Why?

PS He is currently playing Rugby  What can possibly go wrong?

[Barman]

Got a new sportsbag for the Boy yesterday. Mahoosive plaggy bag inside stuffed with more plastic and other shite so it retained its shape. Why?

Prolly stuff which has been 'recycled' by Mrs. Snoopy, shipped to China, plucked out of landfill by some underfed scavenging oik and sold to the sports bag company for 2p per tonne...

[Nick]

I shall send it on its merry way then 

[Snoopy]

We have a largish house. There are 5 of us in it. The first thing I did when we moved here in 2001 was to ask the Water Authority to install a meter.
"Oh you don't want one of those, it will cost you a fortune"
"No it won't so will you please fit one"
"How many people live in the house?"
"Five"
"Oh you'll have huge bills with a water meter"
"Why are you trying to talk me out of it?"
"I am only trying to give you our best advice"
"Thank you for trying now when will you be fitting the water meter?"

Meter fitted five weeks later. First half yearly bill = 45% of the standard charges for a house of this size.
Consistently our bills are less than half the rate they want to charge if I didn't have the meter. They have changed the meter, determined that the original was reading incorrectly ~ same result. No wonder they didn't want me to have a meter.
We have a washing machine that is used daily and a dishwasher that is used twice a day, we have a bidet which is used a lot, all of which would suggest that we use a lot of water (just think of the number of times the toilets are flushed)

I still ponder the logic of charging for water depending on how many bedrooms you have.
A neighbour has 4 bedrooms (same as us) and no water meter. There are only two living in that house, they wash up by hand and only use the washing machine twice a week yet his water bill is twice the size of mine. It makes no sense unless you see it as a blatant rip off.

[Nick]

Interesting. I may try that 

[Snoopy]

Water companies are obliged by law to fit a meter to any property where the owner/bill payer requests it ~ but they won't make it easy.
You can also ask them to remove it if your bills prove to be higher as a result of having it fitted.

[Uncle Mort]

 

[Nick]

Water companies are obliged by law to fit a meter to any property where the owner/bill payer requests it ~ but they won't make it easy.
You can also ask them to remove it if your bills prove to be higher as a result of having it fitted.

That's the clincher!

[Snoopy]

http://www.uswitch.com/water/what-water-meter/

It's all in here if you dig around.

Can I switch back to an unmeasured water bill?

If you switch from unmeasured water bills to a water meter, you have the right to ask your water company to switch you back to an unmeasured charge within the first 12 months of installation.

When you switch back to unmeasured billing the meter will remain in your property and any subsequent occupants will have to pay for their water using the meter. Similarly, if you move into a house where a meter is already installed you will not be able to switch to unmeasured water billing.

[Darwins Selection]

I then suggested that we might put such items in the dishwasher . . . .they are not in fact dishwasher proof and will melt and fvck up the machine.

This is not true.

Certainly milk 'bottles' will take boiling water, we regularly put them in the dishwasher with no problem.

[Snoopy]

Well I'd have thought that too but SWWLTBO will not hear of it.

I was always happy, when milk came in real bottles, to rinse them before putting them on the step for collection. It seemed only decent even tho' I knew they would be washed and sterilised before being refilled but these nasty plastic things 

Glass is, after all, only super heated sand and there is more than enough of that around (sand that is) so why do we need these plastic things anyway?

[Darwins Selection]

Well I'd have thought that too but SWWLTBO will not hear of it.

I was always happy, when milk came in real bottles, to rinse them before putting them on the step for collection. It seemed only decent even tho' I knew they would be washed and sterilised before being refilled but these nasty plastic things 

Glass is, after all, only super heated sand and there is more than enough of that around (sand that is) so why do we need these plastic things anyway?

Sneak one in while she isn't looking. (so to speak)

Glass is good in general but I would rather be threatened by a drunk holding a smashed plastic cup.

[barmisspah?]

And that's the other thing - how many millions of tonnes of plastic have been turned into fecking wheelie bins? I drove though Chalvey the last time I was over and each household had about four different coloured wheelie bins... the street was awash with the bastard things...  

Dear God I hope you were travelling at speed !!