"jim" k wrote in message
...
"tim..." Wrote in message:
I have half of a 5L can of emulsion paint that I don't need.

I am told by my LA that I am not allowed to throw it away whilst it is
still
soft (yes I know that I can ignore this advice and nothing will happen).

So OOI, if leave the top off the can how long will it take to dry out?

(It's been open for 48 hours already with no sign of any change in the
consistency)

Years.
Pour it out on newspapers.

As with so many things, Sod's Law applies and the rate of the effect is
inversely proportional to how much you want it to happen :-) If you want to
keep the paint for future use, it will dry out quickly in the tin; if you
want it to dry up so you can throw it away, it will take f-ing ages :-(


It really annoys me that recycling centres charge for taking so much stuff
these days. The concept of paying to throw something away (when I do the
delivering to the tip, rather than having it collected) is absurd.

I have to pay for:

- waste oil, if it's more than the amount that would result from changing a
car's engine oil

- rubble: plasterboard, cement, stones dug out of garden

Not sure about paint. I've not investigated that.


The previous owners of our house left a 5-gallon drum of unspecified oil and
a bag of semi-solid cement in a tumbledown shed (*******s!). When I removed
a cupboard in the kitchen, I removed several large sheets of plasterboard. I
dug our garden and removed lots of flat sheets of sandstone that were
naturally-occurring just below the surface (I could crazy-pave the garden
several times over). I was able to take some of the stone and broken-up
plasterboard to the tip when they let you do it for free, but restricted you
to two rubble sacks per month - so I took two bags to each of three
different tips in the area each month for several months. Now I'd have to
pay for each bag - something like £10/bag.

A nearby council (not the one where we live) has closed all its recycling
centres because they say that everything can be collected at the roadside.
Right, so they'll take several dustbinfuls of twigs, branches and stems? And
they'll take a shedful of general waste, if I sort it into metal, wood and
landfill? I thought not. They will take garden waste - but only one wheely
bin at a time and you have to pay £35/year. At least where we live, there is
the alternative of not paying for garden waste and taking it to the time
myself.

I bet a lot of people from that area take stuff to the tips run by
neighbouring councils.

The problem is that you need to get rid of large amounts of waste
infrequently, and don't want to have to keep a huge pile of it so you can
drip-feed it, one binful per fortnight.