The next ten years will be harsh for London when it comes to finding housing for its ever-growing population. According to a report made by BBC, by the 2021 there will be a need of additional 800 000 houses and apartments on top of the already existing in order to facilitate the growing the demands.
In these hard and uncertain times, a group of enthusiasts in the field of rubbish removals, waste management and environmental protection seemingly have found a pretty unlikely solution. What we are talking about a group project by the company Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and YMCA London South West, which aims at beginning the mass production of cheap, stylish and one hundred percent environment friendly houses entirely from recycled materials.
As it was already mentioned, the materials to be used for those houses would be entirely reused from trash disposed by residents of the capital. They would be up to 280 sq. feet. The small size and the nature of the materials employed for the task would allow shortening of the period for production considerably. Yes, it would not be the mansion or penthouse everyone dreams of, but such homes can be surprisingly functional and much more comfortable than larger places. And much cheaper to maintain too, which is a factor worth considering.
This is some very exciting news. If everything goes as planned and the production actually begins, the project has the potential to fix a number of pretty serious problems that become bigger and bigger every year. The first one if of course the problem with housing. Not only new solutions are needed and are going to be needed even more in the near future, as it already became clear from the survey cited above, but property prices in London increase every year, making the capital unaffordable for many people. This would not be a problem at all with the new cheap recycled houses.
On the other hand the new recycled home solutions are going to fix the problem with waste disposal. London is one of the largest cities in the world and as such it produces towering amounts of junk that, no matter how well managed, damage the environment in a pretty bad way. We cannot afford to hurt nature anymore – the recent weather changes and the growing concern of specialists in the field show that. Using recycled materials in order to build a home for oneself will first fix the many problems with junk piling on the landfills. Then again, since no new materials would be required for building houses, they would not be produced. Mass industrial production is another major reason for pollution and finding such alternative solutions that would decrease the temps of it is the key to living an environmentally responsible life and help the planet.
That is why building recycled homes will make the world a better place. Who knows – the trend might catch and spread throughout the world? We will see pretty soon.
In case you have a major household clearance project ahead of you and you would rather carry out the job on your own, instead of relying on a junk removal company, there is only one logical way to go and that is to hire a skip in order to have something to load on and carry off your property the junk. This is practically inevitable if you have a lot of unnecessary items to get rid of.
The important thing is to know that it is unadvisable to immediately go for the cheapest quote that you find offered on the internet.
First and foremost, you are not going to be charged for the quantity of junk that you are going to clear off your property with the help of the skip, but rather based on how many skips you hire and the period of time that you are going to use them. Normally you hire a skip for a period of one week but you can always negotiate an extension of that period if you get in touch with the company in advance. Most companies include drop-off, pick up and disposal of the waste in the quote they present you with.
The type of junk you are getting rid of is also to be taken into account. It is unlikely that you are going to have any problems if you dispose of ordinary household waste, but if you might need a special kind of skip and disposal service if you are going for commercial junk or such of larger proportions and weight – hence the price will increase and you should consider whether the clearance would be worth it.
The size of the skip to hire is also of importance. It is to be determined by the amount of junk you will dispose of, as well as the space available for placing the skip. A very large skip is impossible to hire, even if you need one, in case it is going to block the street. Have in mind that some councils require special permits for placing a skip on the sidewalk or the street. Make sure that you have those in order to avoid fines and additional problems.
You should also know that batteries, tyres, electricals, liquids, oil, gas containers, asbestos, toxic waste, clinical waste are completely prohibited for loading on a skip for both safety and health reasons.
When you contact the company you are going to hire the skip from, ask when they can deliver the skip to you. Most of the contractors will require at least a week’s notice, while there are some who can deliver the skip to your property on the very day of the booking – it might cost a little more, however that would be the best solution in case the clearance you are about to tackle is an emergency. As with any project of such nature, the key to the successful outcome is to plan ahead and do your research right.
Many people make the common mistake of thinking that all skips are the same and can be used for all purpose. The truth is that there are different types of skips and we will present them to you, so that you can know the exact type of skip you may need for your project.
Mini skip:
Mini skips have a capacity of 2 cubic yards (between 25 and 35 black bags) and are ideal for the amassment of common and garden waste and can be used by both commercial and residential establishment. These skips are small in size which makes them easy to place. However before you hire or buy a mini skip for your rubbish removal make sure that you have an on road permit because without one you can’t place the skip on the property for which you have hired or bought it.
Midi skip:
These skips have a capacity of 3.5 cubic yards (between 45 and 55 black bags) and are mostly used for the storage of domestic and landscaping waste. While they are slightly larger than the mini skips, midi skips are also easy to place on a property. Just like with the above mentioned skips you will require an on road permit.
Maxi skip:
Such skips have a storage capacity of 4.5 cubic yards (between 65 and 75 black bags) and are mainly used by constructing companies that are working on small scale projects. Maxi skips are much harder to place on a property because of their large size and also require an on road permit. Maxi skips come also in a capacity of 6 cubic yards and 8 cubic yards but generally all three types tend to amass between 65 and 75 black bags.
Builders skip:
This type of skips is much larger and has a capacity of 14 cubic yards (between 100 and 120 black bags). Such skips are used solely by construction companies for the collection of construction waste. To use such skips for rubbish removals one must obtain an on road permit.
Large builders skip:
These skips have a capacity of 16 cubic yards (between 120 and 140 black bags) and are used once again by construction companies that are working on large scale projects. Just like all skips until now, large builders skip also require an on road permit in order to be use.
Extra large builders skip:
These are the largest types of skips with a capacity of 20 cubic yards (between 160 and 200 black bags) and are used by both construction and industrial companies which tend to generate vast quantities of rubbish. Such skips take a lot of place and may require more than an on road permit in order to be used.
Covered skips:
All the skips that we can aforementioned can be converted into covered skips. Covered skips can be used for both domestic and commercial purposes and are use for the storage of wastes that emit nasty and dangerous odors and fumes. Such skips may also require more than an on road permit in order to be used.
Ask whoever you want – if you want your office to be a junk free zone, you need more than someone who takes out the trash at the end of every business day. Office clearance days are to held at least once every three-four months, thus ensuring clutter and rubbish do not take permanent residence in your work place. It will make your office a much more attractive and trustworthy looking space to your clients, but it will also help you increase the efficiency of your business process – it has been scientifically proven that a clean office increases the workers’ productivity.
You can approach the project of office clearance in two ways – you can either do that together with your staff members, or let a professional junk clearance company do the job for you. If you choose the latter, you are not going to have much to worry about. All that you will have to say is when and where you need the truck and the technicians to be, and inform the company about special preferences you might have as of the manner in which the project is to be completed. They will take care of the rest.
In case you want to save some money or you have another reason why you would rather not hire rubbish removal specialists to help you with the job, you should be properly prepared to face the challenges posted by the task. First and foremost, consider how employing your staff in the process of junk disposal will reflect on the morale in the office. If the negative consequences are to outweigh the positive ones, you’d better reconsider your decision.
If you are determined to proceed, then there are several things that you should absolutely do:
- Make an inventory of all items that are in your office. Decide what is going to stay and then make a list of everything that is going to be disposed of.
- Decide when you are going to proceed with carrying out the job once the planning is done. Is it going to be on a business day, but after work hours? The weekend? On some holiday? Think about what bonuses you are going to give to the employees who agree to help you with the job.
- In any case, you will need to hire a skip or a rubbish disposal truck, so check out the companies in your area that offer a skip for hire. The sooner you make the booking, the cheaper it is going to be, so do not leave this important step for the last moment possible.
- After the job is completed, go through the inventory list again and check if everything is okey indeed.
The general rule is that you should commence the planning of your office clearance at least several weeks before the actual day when you will carry out the job. Thus you will have enough time to prepare everything and reduce the stress and strain from the whole process.
If the time for you has come to carry out that house clearance that you have postponing for the past several months, you need to know several things:
- First, you should definitely get your head around doing it. Getting rid of junk accumulated on your property is the best thing to do in order to increase the levels of comfort and satisfaction that you feel at home.
- You should prepare for the junk removal as soon as possible, especially if you are hiring a professional contractor to help you with the job. The sooner you book the service in question, the cheaper it is going to be. Last minute calls usually result in a pretty high quote.
- There are ways to both get the rubbish clearance right, and not be left with a lot of cleaning to do in your house.
The best way to achieve a junk-free household is not to let rubbish pile up around the corners of the house. This could be achieved by either making house clearance a several-times-a-year tradition, or just not let junk to be accumulated on your property. How can I achieve that, you might ask? The answer is very simple – de-clutter more often.
De-cluttering is a process of putting your possessions in order and dispose of any household waste in due time, before it is necessary to use a fully loaded truck in order to do the job.
There are many ways in which you can approach de-cluttering so that you do not feel it like too much pressure on your shoulders, especially after a hard day at work or looking after the kids.
The easiest and cleaners way to tackle clutter in your home is to always put everything in its right place after you have used it. No matter whether we are talking about books, toys, the hair-dryer or a simple pin – everything causes clutter, but if you put it away right when you are done using it, you will reduce your problems to a minimum.
Make Sunday morning the time for de-cluttering. You can do this while you are tackling other household chores. Just remember to work one room at a time – even if that means wasting the whole couple of hours span working on that room. It is better to get a small portion of the work done properly than to accomplish literally nothing because you have set the bar too high.
If something – an appliance or any other object you need and use – check if it can be fixed immediately. If not – dispose of it. If there are unnecessary items like old furniture at your home, donate them, sell them online or simply throw them away – do not keep them because of some imaginary sentimental value.
By following those simple guidelines you ensure that there would not be too many items to dispose of when you tackle your house clearance. And you will keep your home a clutter free space without getting your hands dirty.
If you have recently have completed a house removal and Christmas is knocking on the door, there are many things that you can do in order to make full use of the situation.
Your professional removal specialists have left you with your items packed in boxes that after emptying are just going to take up space at your new property and it is much more logical to employ them in something new and original, instead of just leave all the cardboard boxes to rot away in some hidden corner or under the stairs.
Fortunately, you can do a lot of fun things with them, including decorating your new house for the holiday season. In that way you are going to both re-use the cardboard boxes and save a little money off the decoration, which we consider to be a good thing, especially having in mind the large quantity of expenses, some of them unexpected, that you have definitely had throughout the completion of the removal project.
All that you need is a little creativity, some glue, a pair of scissors, paint and a quick research online and you are going to find quite a lot of useful ideas that you can use for turning all packing boxes into beautiful Christmas decoration that you and your family are going to enjoy very much.
- For example, many websites recommend turning one or two boxes into recycled reindeer heads, like Father Christmas favorite – Rudolf. It is a big complex a task, but you can find instructions how to achieve optimal results online, and your kids are definitely going to love your new wall decoration.
- Instead of buying a living Christmas tree, you can both save some money and help protect the environment by turning several medium sized cardboard boxes into a recycled Christmas tree. It will of course not be the same as the real thing – it is going to be better, because it is something new, original and fun.
- Fold out decoration is an absolute must if you want to get the Christmas spirit into the house. You can easily make a garland of snowflakes or little trees with the material from your cardboard boxes and a scissor. Use the newly-made foldout decoration on the walls of you new home or the windows.
- A punch box made of a whole cardboard in which several holes are made and then it is wrapped with Christmas paper is definitely another great idea.
- Last but not least, no home can go without a wreath on the door during holiday season. Of course, you can again show your new neighbors creativity and fun by making a Christmas wreath out of cardboard instead of buying the dull mass-produced kind that is to be found in the local supermarket.
As you can see, there is no need to throw your packing boxes away, especially with the best of all holidays coming. Making your own decoration will definitely be fun and bring the family together.
According to new EU legislation as of twenty fifteen, UK households and businesses will be legally required to separate all recyclables from other rubbish prior to curbside collection. Paper, plastic, metal and glass will from now on be separated in order to facilitate easier and more efficient recycling.
The European Union regulations which are also valid and applicable in the UK, were brought upon by the need to meet the set target of fifty percent rubbish recycling rate by the year twenty twenty. Naturally, people are opposing this, perhaps not so much the effort and intent to improve and develop recycling, but opposing the need to do their own rubbish separation. This is understandable to an extent as there are UK local councils which are currently requiring residents to separate rubbish in nine different bins. Those opposing the new EU directives fear too many bins outside homes.
Separating recyclables from general household rubbish is nothing new as the recently passed EU waste separation directives meet those already in place throughout many UK councils. In the case of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, locals are forced to separate nine different types of rubbish, namely food slops, clothing, paper, plastics, cardboard, food waste, cans and bottles, general rubbish, garden waste – a much more elaborate separation scheme than the one imposed by the EU. At the moment, twenty one local councils collect rubbish from seven or more bins, fifty eight local councils collect waste from six or more bins, and hundred and thirty six collect from five or more bins.
Local councils are tasked with maintaining separate streams of recyclables in order to allow for higher quality raw materials through taking all reasonable steps. The problem for households and businesses is the effort and time it takes to separate each type of waste from general rubbish, and the fact that there will be even more bins waiting out the front for curbside collection each week. This issue has been resolved by some local authorities who have implemented the so called curbside sort system where rubbish is separated on the spot prior to collection.
Some local councils are worried about the overall cost of rubbish collection and disposal under the new EU regulations as more bins mean more collection time and money. For many local authorities the EU directive comes at a rather bad time as budgets are decreased, but waste management requirements are increasing in number and complexity.
One issue to be addressed is the quality of recyclates – a better separation system will ensure higher quality raw materials, as mentioned above people are worried and bothered by the complexity of rubbish separation rules. There was a proposal to supply residents with a separate plastic crate for each type of rubbish but that was dismissed as it would have created a serious storage space problem for many households. Thus the problem of effective rubbish separation still remains.
Community groups, local councils and waste management experts are working together in devising and implementing an efficient and resident-friendly method of separating rubbish prior to collection.
A group of enthusiasts and environmental protection activists have recently gathered and decided that there is still very much to do in order to reduce the levels of pollution on the planet.
What is the best way to approach the problem they have asked themselves? Clearly stricter environmental restrictions on big international companies are simply not enough, so what is needed is to get down on an every-day, common-people level. That is why this year was the first International Plastic Bag-Free Day – 3 July, that in addition to refusal to use plastic bags on part of all participants, has also been celebrated with a hash-tag on Twitter, which definitely helped spread the awareness of the issue.
The effect of the campaign has been pretty interesting:
- On an entirely European administration level, all EU ministers have been encouraged to pass a bill for severely limiting the use of single-use plastic bags throughout the Union, because they are known for being among the major causes for pollution of the environment.
- Brussels became the scene for a giant photo action event at which young people protested against the use of plastic bags.
- The campaign went world-wide when in the town of Pucon in Chile the local administration approved a law, that would be applied throughout this major South American tourist attraction, according to which a customer at any kind of shop would be permitted to purchase no more than one plastic bag at a time.
- Debates, radio programs and workshops on the issue of the use of plastic bags have been extensively organized and covered in Argentina too.
- Greece joined the cause with a performance given by the famous actress of Greek and American descent Angela Delichatsiou, who is a strong supporter of the ban on plastic bags in the European Union because of the disastrous effects that these products have on nature.
- A flash mob has been organized in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia on the Plastic Bag Free day too.
The list of related events is too long to be cited in its entirety, but you can easily get the gist – the awareness of that how everyday items and actions that we have perceived as a given only several years ago turn out be much more important than we can imagine. Pollution and climate change are according to some of the most renowned scientists of our time the biggest problem mankind is going to face in the 21st century, and is why causes such as the Plastic Bag Free Day are important. They spread awareness and educate the population of the planet on how they can help make the world a better place to live – for us and the generations to come.
If you want to join the fight for better protection of nature, you can do it by optimizing your waste clearance and junk removal processes, by recycling more and avoiding using materials that pollute the eco-system when there are greener and actually better alternatives.
Recycling is a great way to make your life much more environment-responsible and efficient. All that you have to do in order to embrace all the good practices of the industry is do a little research and make the effort to turn recycling into a habit for you and your family. Thanks to the comprehensive guide that has been offered below, you can even spare yourself the first step.
If you want to do your recycling duties as well as possible, you should either hire a rubbish removal company that has the policy of recycling the junk their clients produce, or alternatively take the responsibility of junk disposal on your own, so that you can be sure everything is done exactly in the way it is supposed to.
You should try recycling everything that you possibly can. Have a trashcan for plastic, one for paper, one for glass and another for cans and other metal goods. If you are really into the idea, you can even have a separate trashcan for decomposed food.
Another way to make your life really environment responsible and efficient is to avoid using any disposable items like plastic plates and forks, as well as plastic bottles or cups. Use their substitutes that can be used multiple times after washing. It might be a little inconvenient at first, but it will definitely be worth the effort. Also, plastic and paper shopping bags are highly inadvisable, because the alternative is first greener, then much more useful and handy. Dropping disposable batteries for the sake of rechargeable ones is another great thing that you can do in the same line of thought.
The next tip might sound a bit too obvious, but it is needed to say this – plastic should get out of your life as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. Use reusable containers and bottles instead of plastic ones – they never break and they do not cause massive losses of water, energy etc. to be produced. They are simply better, and they are also much more environmentally responsible.
Toilet paper is another thing you can save on. Instead of unwinding a mile of paper from the
roll, make a habit of using just as much as you need. The same goes for the paper towels – the little you use, the better. Unlike the toilet paper, you can completely substitute the towels with clothes or kitchen sponges and you are going to get as much work done with their help.
If you have just had a baby and you want it to live in a better, cleaner world, you might consider dropping common diapers and using cloth ones instead. This is not something unheard of – cloth diapers have been around for much longer than those you know find in every supermarket. Yes, you will have to wash them quite often, but after all, every effort you make goes for a very good cause, so it must be worth it not only for us, but for you too, right?
Recycling is an integral part of the way we live today. No matter whether you bring your trash to the depot, or you have your rubbish removal company do that environment responsible job for you, it is unlikely that you often think about what the process of recycling, which is a vital part of waste management, actually is.
But it is always good to know a little more about the things that you do almost on a daily basis, especially if they have such a great impact not only to a limited field like rubbish removals, but also on the global picture and even if you will – the future of the world as we know it.
Steel is one of the most widely used materials in the world and probably for that reason one of those that are recycled in the greatest quantity. Only in the past decade there has been a nearly 80% increase in the amount of steel that went to recycling depots on a global scale.
Despite the popular misconception that recycling is a product of the modern age, big industry is making use of the benefits of the process for over a century and a half now. There are several reasons for that, and protecting the environment, even though it sounds like the most noble one, is not the most important among them. At least that is not the reason big companies would do recycling, unless there are government regulations about that. The main purpose of recycling from a businessman’s point of view is actually meeting up with the goals of every industry – optimizing profit margins. The simple truth is that recycling materials and then re-using them for the purpose of one’s operation is much cheaper than producing or purchasing newly produced materials.
So, the great financial savings, mainly due to the reduction of energy required for recycling in contrast to the energy needed for production of the material, especially steel, is the main reason why it becomes more and more popular nowadays. Actually, there have been estimates made recently, according to which the industry saves up to 75% from recycling – enough quantity for powering just below 18 million homes for a whole year. Even if you do not believe in things such as Global Warming and the negative effects of polluting the environment, this fact alone should suffice to embrace the practice of recycling – not only steel, but also paper, plastic etc.
Actually, recycling steel is one of the most efficient processes known to man, because unlike paper for example, which can go through the process just 2 or 3 times, steel fully regains its properties after each and every recycling – that is what makes it so special, and the practice of recycling steel so widely spread.
If the big industries can do it, then you can do it too – instead of giving your old exercising equipment, kitchenware or anything else to the rubbish removal company, simply bring those items to the recycling depot and make the world a better, more efficient place.