Recycling

[Maggie-Mae]

Its been on Sky News today that a lady is being taken to court for not recycling. Slightly excessive action maybe, but I do think recycling is important and make an effort to recycle as much of my household rubbish as I can. What do other AB'rs feel on the subject and if you dont recycle what are your reasons for not doing so?

[stoo_pid]

She wasn't taken to court for not recycling, she was done for persistantly putting the wrong material in her recycle bin. She had received at least 3 written warnings before finally being taken to court.

We recycle everything we possibly can (paper, glass, cans, cardboard, garden matter & plastics) but have just been recently told by our LA that they can no longer accept vegetable peelings, even though they still accept garden cuttings, grass, twigs etc. When I phoned them to query why not, they said vegetable peelings didn't decompose quick enough for them!

[hartley]

stoo_pid, the reason your LA won't take vegetable peelings is that composting food waste outdoors was made illegal by the Animal By-Products Act 2003. This was introduced after the foot and mouth crisis to limit the possibility of animals (including wild ones) feeding on animal matter (waste meat etc). The F&M crisis was linked to pigs feeding on food waste containing meat. The ban outlaws un-enclosed composting of animal by products, including material that could have come into contact with meat, such as vegetable peelings. This is the case even if the vegetable peelings are from a veggie household!

Many authorities are building or hoping to build In Vessel Composting systems - enclosed systems where animals can be excluded, minimum composting temperatures can be monitored (to ensure pathogens are sterilised) and cross contamination risks can be minimised.

Sorry for hi-jacking your question Maggie! FYI I recycle as much as I can and wish everyone would do the same. I also try to minimise the amount of waste I produce in the first place. I avoid picking up carrier bags at the supermarket and don't buy heavily packaged goods (4 apples in a plastic tray wrapped in cling film with a sticker!!! Why???). I also try to buy quality items that will last and can be repaired rather than go for the cheapest goods that are flimsy and need binning very quickly.

[Grunty]

Things could be worse. Apparently in the US, the person who inspects the contents of bins, wears a gun.

[spudqueen]

As I understood it she was putting things in the recycling bin which 'contaminated' it and therefore 'contaminated' the whole collection which then had to go to landfill instead of being recycled.

[navin123]

Poor lady has to go through tonys bureaucracy machinery!.God what is this country comming to!

[whiffey]

I have been pleasantly surprised at how much recycling it is possible to achieve. I have 2 boxes, green (glass, paper) and pink (cardboard, plastic etc) and by carefully examining all rubbish I have been able to reduce a usual weekly waste of 2 large black bags down to less than 1 normal sized carrier bag. Just about the only thing I can't recycle is food waste.

[spinchimp]

navin - don't you read what others have posted - what has this got to do with bureaurocracy?

[CLOWN TICKLE]

We recycle everything possible

[jedimistress]

To me, people not recycling when they can is just like someone dropping litter on the street.

Anti-social, lazy and thoughtless. No excuses for it, just pathetic made up ones.

[jump79]

I recycle whenever I can, but this will only make a difference if everyone (or most people) participates and becomes more responsible.

Serves her right, and at least the govt. takes the environment very seriously, if nothing else...

[caro_]

Come and live in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull (just south of Birmingham in case you were unaware). The majority of dwellers are affluent and the Borough is proud of this fact. However, the Council faces a cash shortage and therefore the following happens: we have black bin bags supplied FOC by the Council for rubbish and green bin bags which we have to buy for garden stuff. When the green collection cart cannot be bothered (I know of no other reason) to collect the refuse men put the green bags in the normal house refuse! Solihull will not provide plastic bottle recycling as it is too expensive and also cannot empty all the other recycling points because that is too expensive too. I have a box for paper collection, my parents - who also live in Solihull - do not.

When we want to recycle we have to drive around the locale seeking relatively empty recycling amenities - think of the greenhouse effect of all those 4wd vehicles on our leafy roads lol!

[gessoo]

We have two huge wheelie bins, one for rubbish and one for recycling. However, we are only allowed to put certain things in the recycling bins: plastic bottles, tin cans, card and paper. All the other metal and plastic stuff which is recyclable has to go into the rubbish bin because the machinery that North Norfolk District Council use won't accept certain things, i.e. yoghurt pots and other plastic containers. They won't take away glass so we cart our own bottles and glass items away. When we go to the recycling centre there are no bins for recyclable plastic so this has to go into general household waste!

I am all for recycling and we certainly do our bit - what I am cross about is our local district councils failure to do things properly. If recycling is to take place there should be a firm commitment to do it properly.

[rockyracoon]

We have just recently got wheelie bins and was told collections will only be once every two weeks. At first I thought I'd never cope with 2 weeks worth of rubbish, but after recycling practically everything I find that the wheelie bin is just the right size and manage perfectly well. Our local council do recycle everything except kitchen waste as posted above, I don't think I would cope if they did'nt recycle plastic bottles and cartons though

[souldriver]

I'm all for recycling, i try to put as much glass, cans and paper in the tiny blue box that Rotherham council supplies as i can. My only gripe is they won't take plastics, and that seems to be the majority of waste that goes out of my house.

[shaneystar2]

We recycle as much as possible but our local authorities go about it in such a cackhanded manner...we have a green and grey bin.The green bin is for paper ,plastic bottles,tins,etc. but we are not allowed to put envelopes or shredded paper into it.Or plastic yogurt pots.They are very fussy about the shape ,size and type of plastic!! You can bin the plastic bottle but not the plastic bottle top.On querying this I was told that it because they dont have the plant to deal with it.
As for garden waste ..we have a composter but it takes ages to rot down and now you are only allowed to take one bag of garden waste to the tip at a time.
Even the dustmen have become power crazy going through the bins and leaving things they don't think should be in the green bins strewn over our drive.We call them the wheelie bin Gestapo.I am all for recycling but the local authorities need to get their act together and provide more plant and glass recycling doodahs. Fly tipping is becoming a huge problem in our area.
.

[gessoo]

Hi Shaney, So you have the same problems as us on the other side of the County! Typical Norfolk - can't get anything right!!!!

[tell-me-more]

I heard the lady in question being interviewed on the radio, and although she made some good points along the lines of it being futile to recycle unless other forces such as aviation are going to be tackled, I think it is entirely justified if she is sabotaging the efforts of others by putting the wrong items in recycling bins.

I feel that far too much emphasis is placed on recycling, and not enough on reduction and re-use. For instance, why recycle plastic milk cartons, when we could be re-using good old-fashioned glass milk bottles? It would probably save on food miles, and would save us all the bother of walking half a mile across Tesco extra to the milk aisle, which seems invariably to be placed in the back left hand corner of their stores.

I find the government to be strangely inconsistent on the environment. They can't be serious about tackling climate change whilst driving around in Jags and flying all over the place can they?

[Roadmissile]

I was given a box by the council to put glass, cardboard/paper and cans in for recycling.

It was stolen (along with many other peoples' boxes) the night I put it out!!!

This is one reason why many people are not doing so.

[roomby]

Our coucil - Cambridge - are very hot on recycling. We have a black box for bottles, cans and paper, a blue box for plastic bottles, a green box for green waste including kitchen scraps such as peelings, bones, meat and so on and a black bin for everything else. We fill one bin bag a fortnight with rubbish that can't be recycled - mostly packaging.

Regarding the governments' keeness on recycling and lack of regard for vehicle emissions etc, I think they llike recycling not because they are trying to save the environment but because they are running out of landfill space. They are not really green at all. What do you reckon?

[Epiphany74]

In the Republic of Ireland householders must pay to have their bins emptied. The fees are levied by weight or by frequency of collection. When this was introduced the government also started a huge campaign to encourage recycling (www.raceagaingstwaste.ie) which has been really successful. Now almost all households and businesses make some effort to recycle. Incidentaly, in ROI a tax is also levied on all plastic bags, so when you go to a supermarket they don't automatically put all your groceries into a bag, they ask you if you want one and you must pay extra if you do. So now most people also reduce their waste by bringing their own reusable shopping bags.