Rubbish!

[New Judge]

I was recently in Greece. House to house rubbish collection is not undertaken there, but large communal dustbins are provided at convenient intervals. These are emptied daily and into them goes everything - paper, glass, plastic, kitchen scraps, old mattresses, the lot. When I spoke to one or two locals and explained the draconian arrangements in the UK they were highly amused.

When I last checked, Greece was in the same EU as the UK, so I assume are bound by the same directives. So how is it that people in the UK are warned of dire consequences in the form of fines from the EU if we do not sort our rubbish into 58 different categories for collection once a fortnight, but people in Greece chuck all their junk into one bin and have it collected daily?

[Gromit]

In short, Greece have a bigger problem than the UK with regard to burying their waste in landfill, so it is taking them longer to sort the problem out. They are planning to meet their target in the EU Landfill Directive.

Everything you wanted to know about refuse waste management in Greece in one pdf document.

http://www.lumes.lu.se/database/Alumni/03.04/t heses/christopoulous_takis.pdf

[Gromit]

They also have a more rural and smaller population, making UK style recycling shcemes not cost effective.

[anotheoldgit]

There is much to be desired regarding their sanitary arrangements also.

[hc4361]

The same thing happens in Spain.

[jake-the-peg]

As Gromit says Greece is well behind the rest of us.

We are actually better than Spain

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/462004 1.stm

Environmental and pollution is a prime example of why we need the EU.

Without binding EU wide regulations companies in one country would (probably quite rightly) moan about not having a level playing field in that they had to pay much more to be environmentally responsible.

The result would be a case of the lowest common denominator.

[buildersmate]

In Italy we discovered recently that rubbish is separated into glass, paper/cardboard for recycling, then 'all the rest'. The difference is that it is done communally and you have to take the stuff to the nearest communal site - for us it was about one kilometre away. None of the namby-pamby we'll-come-to-your-door-and-collect-it business. No big piles of rubbish left on odd corners - people just did it. Pride in their community, I guess.

[DaisyMae]

Except in Naples !!!

[New Judge]

Why do companies in Europe need a level playing field, jake?

Some countries are naturally more or less competeitive in various fields than others. Why do we need a supra-national federation to level everybody up (or, more probably, down)?

This country does far more business with the rest of the world than it does with Europe, but I don't hear cries for the entire world to be on the same "level playing field".

I believe EU directives such as those covering rubbish are the very reason why we do not need the EU. The UK is more than capable of deciding for itself what is best for its citizens and businesses and that may (and very often does not) coincide with the requirements of the other 26 nations.

[jake-the-peg]

If you don't hear cries for a level playing field you should re-read your own question!!!

"how is it that people in the UK are warned of dire consequences ....., but people in Greece..."

What is that if it's not a call for a level playing field???

[jake-the-peg]

But lets look at it commercially

If you were running a company and your main competitor in France started to massively undercut you and you found that it was because the French Government had given him a massive subsidy - what would you say?

"Fair enough some industries are more competetive than others? I'll just pack up and go home?"

What if you were a Chemical factory and you were getting undercut because your Dutch competitor was being allowed to dump his waste in the North sea and you were having to process it responsibly?

Would you say "We don't need a level playing field" ?

I think not!

[New Judge]

Quite a lot I should imagine. Hence my original question.

Some interesting answers. Thanks everybody.