Recycling

In our area we are advised to add tissues and kitchen paper to the green waste. They compost quite safely. Don't put them down the loo (& certainly not wipes) as they don't disintegrate quickly enough and block the pipes.

We put tissues in the recycling, they're paper after all

Don't flush them down the loo; cottonwool blocks the drains
thinkbeforeyouflush.org/what-to-flush/
It doesn't mention tissues on that list, but a friend just blocked their drains by flushing tissues down the loo when he had a cold .
Perhaps your Council has a list of what to do with various items.

The council does have a list but it doesn't include these items. We have an amazing collection of bins:

wheelie for garden waste that is collected between Feb-Nov;
wheelie bin for glass, plastic and tins
A smaller bin for food waste
A box for newspaper with long list of things not to put in it
A box for cardboard
Another wheelie for anything that doesn't go in any of the other bins (landfill)

No mention of tissues or kitchen roll anywhere at the moment tissues go in the landfill, it's making my head spin. So sounds like flushing is a bad idea, what about putting them in the wood burner? Would that also be bad?

Woodburner sounds the best bet to me - paper is made from softwood pulp. A daily layer of tissues would act as a firelighter. Cottonwool burns well too.

Before central heating, used sanitary pads (remember those?) used to be wrapped in a bit of newspaper and put onto the fire. Cotton buds go into landfill, their plastic spines jam in the plumbing. The plastic Tampax applicators are another problem (there is a campaign on the go to return to the burnable and degradable cardboard ones)

What about disposable nappies?
Not that I have any to dispose of, but I've heard that it's a big problem.

Thanks Elegran I'm going to put them in the fire instead. Thank goodness I don't have nappies or sanitary protection to contend with as well! know this recycling is necessary but gosh it's got complicated.

Our tissues just go into the general waste bag which gets put into the "anything else" recycling bin. Don't use cotton wool very often but would also put it in there. I'm not ultra fussy about everything, sometimes it would drive you around the bend lol.

Tissue and kitchen towel plus shredded paper go into my compost heap.

We put kitchen towels in the food composting bin. As maranta says, they compost perfectly well.

Not having a compost thing, my used tissues go in the general rubbish. That is what is advised here.

Yes, in the woodburner if you have one

We use any paper we shred in the woodburner as it cannot be recycled for some reason!

Any natural fibre based waste goes on my compost heap with the garden waste and vegetable trimmings. That includes, kitchen towel, tissues, cotton wool, small bits of paper and card (unless they have a plastic coating, loo roll and kitchen towel centres, till slips, you name it, if it will crumple in my hand, in it goes. The exceptions are large paper items like newspapers and magazines which are bundled up and put in the recycling bin.

Corks of all kind and any tiny pieces of woody waste go in the wood-burner, as do Christmas present wrappings on Christmas day, fed in bit by bit across the day.

I am just about to put out my fortnightly land waste bin and food recycling bin. The black bin contains one carrier bag, just over half full. I do have the benefit of a garden, compost container, wood stove and a Council that is one of the most effective recyclers in the country so I can recycle all kinds of things other councils won't accept. I also live very close to the local tip.

M0nica does it all break down ok in the compost? My compost is generally not good so perhaps more card and bits of paper would. I think I need to move the compost bin to a warmer spot. Best be careful here before this turns into a composting thread, I'll have a look under "gardening" in case there is one there already. Thanks for your posts.

Ye, no problems, apart from having to make sure card has not been cardboard coated. The first year I had compost full of small pieces of plastic fim as the card rotted but the plastic didn't.

I find them quite useful in lighting the fire.

Has anyone noticed that toilet paper flushes away easily but tissues don't ?so why aren't tissues made of the same materials.

Toilet paper can be used to do the same things as tissues, if they run out (or even if they don't run out)

We put tissues & anything remotely 'burnable' in the woodburner

Toilet paper is not so dense as tissues. It has been formulated to break down as soon as possible so as not to block the drains. Tissues are made of sterner stuff so best not to put them down the loo!

Slight deviation sorry, but recycling needs total rethink. Amount of bins is ridiculous, where there is no rear storage , or laziness, bins at front of properties have made swathes of the country look like slums. Far too easy for councils to just decide we need yet another one.

The dog eats them!

GertrudeGrace When I had a garden with compost bin I would regularly tear up some recyclable paper and thin card to help the worms break down the vegetable peelings etc. The head of Parks and Gardens on the local council recommended mixing 1 part urine to 7 parts water and pouring it over the compost to help activate it as well.