Household Waste Consultation

[Shirley]

Now... I know that not many of you live in Scotland, but this is something that affects us all, no matter where we live... SO.. I thought we could set about giving our answers to the questions below and see what ideas the clever lot at Selfsufficientish could come up with.

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Scotland's National Waste Strategy set an aim of 0% growth in municipal waste arisings by the year 2010.

Recycling rates have been improving (most recent results for the quarter July - September 2005) show recycling standing at 25.1%,
However, municipal waste continues to increase - by around 2% a year.

The reasons for this growth are complex:

* we have more money than ever before

* goods (especially food, clothes and electronic items) are cheaper than ever before.

* more single person households, each requiring their own set of household goods;

* people want more convenience, buying highly packaged ready meals and a vast array of disposable items; and

* changing attitudes - there is no longer an attitude of 'make do and mend'.

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NEWS from the SCOTTISH ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AGENCY

SEPA WELCOMES CONSULTATION ON PREVENTING HOUSEHOLD WASTE

The amount of household waste produced in Scotland is growing at an alarming rate and if changes aren't made it may double within 20 years.

The average Scottish consumer wastes £1597 per year on goods and services that they don't use, £438 of this is uneaten food.

In a bid to stem this disturbing growth in waste, the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) have published a consultation paper detailing actions which could be taken by everyone.

Questions are being asked of designers, retailers, consumers and local authorities and include;

What more can be done to promote ecodesign in Scotland, and what can be done to lengthen the lifespan of products?

What further action could be taken to minimise packaging waste and would deposit-refund schemes be the answer?

What information on products should be used to help people choose low waste alternatives?

Should we look further at charging households for the amount of waste they produce?

What could be done to reduce the amount of junk mail we all receive, and the numbers of plastic bags that we consume?

Make sure your opinions are heard. For further information, download the consultation from
www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations It closes on 28 April 2006.


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[Wombat]

What more can be done to promote ecodesign in Scotland, and what can be done to lengthen the lifespan of products?

Educate people; require lifecycle analysis on all new products and build in resource recovery into the cost (ie the true cost of a product) Introduce a tax structure inversely proportional to the level of recyclble/recoverable components.

What further action could be taken to minimise packaging waste and would deposit-refund schemes be the answer?

See above but insert packaging. Encourage bulk food supply outlets, ban the use of plastic packaging wherever possible, particlarly polystyrene foam, which is sort of recyclable but in practice most seems to end up in landfill most of the time. replace with paper, cardboard etc.

What information on products should be used to help people choose low waste alternatives?
Educate people. Develop a rating system in a similar way to the energy/water consumption rating - maybe a wholistic system, call it footprint, that could be used to rate similar products.

Should we look further at charging households for the amount of waste they produce?

A hesitant yes ! nothing motivates like a pain in the hip pocket nerve, so long as it doesn't just become revenue raising. Perhaps syphon off the funds generated to fund other initiatives such as education.

What could be done to reduce the amount of junk mail we all receive, and the numbers of plastic bags that we consume?

Educate people! A combination of charging for plastic bags, providing re-useable alternatives and eduction is reducing the use of plastic bags here. I like some junk mail but most end up straight in the recycling. Develop a less materialistic culture by reduction in all forms of advertising. Ban all advertising that targets children, with public floggings for the perpetrators (sorry John, only joking)

My two bobs worth!

Nev

[ina]

Saved it on the desktop and will get round to it later.

I think that unless it costs money, all the education won't have much effect... It has to be realistic, though: Don't just make it more expensive for folk with a lot of waste, make it considerably cheaper for those who have little.

Problem here is, of course - fly tipping.

[Wombat]

fly tipping?

[ina]

Sorry - chucking waste away in the countryside.

Btw, I've just sent a mail to the council asking why we still have to put our (trade) waste into black bags, although we now have been given bins? The bin men take the bags out of the bins and chuck them onto their truck... They want us to reduce waste, but force us to use bags, which in themselves are waste!

Also: The trade waste (which is the same stuff, mostly, as household waste, as we have separate disposal for clinical waste, oils, incinerator waste etc) gets picked up separately, on a weekly basis. Household waste gets picked up fortnightly, with a different truck. That means two trucks coming out to us - not terribly energy (and time) efficient, is it!

[Shirley]

Ahhh but no doubt you will be paying a premium for the trade waste so they won't give a hoot.

I doubt I will be across to see you today Ina... so much for a good weather forecast - we have snow Might not even get across to Banchory.

[ina]

Drizzle in the morning, sunny intervals in the afternoon - all in all not too bad. Frost last night, but no snow. At least I got a bit done outside. Maybe we'll manage to meet up next weekend? I'll be off then, which might make it easier, too.

[Shirley]

snow has melted a bit and the roads are fine - ventured to Alford and once we got over the other side of the hill the snow hadn't fallen (fairly usual for us) - disappointed not to have got to the farmers' market as I was going to have a veggie week this week but hey... is there a market near you next week??

Will email you or give you a phone to sort something out.

[woolcraft]

We also have bad fly tipping problems; however Council have got tougher over past 2-3 years and larger fines been raised and problem does (??) seem to be lessening - at least there are fewer incidents reported it seems. A bugbear of ours is that the recycling from homes only happens every two weeks - we have too much but deal with ours by taking it to recycling centre - and I think that many people do not bother because of this. Recycling needs to be weekly with the bins not separate - just my opinion. Sue

[ina]

Btw, I've just sent a mail to the council asking why we still have to put our (trade) waste into black bags, although we now have been given bins? The bin men take the bags out of the bins and chuck them onto their truck... They want us to reduce waste, but force us to use bags, which in themselves are waste!

Also: The trade waste (which is the same stuff, mostly, as household waste, as we have separate disposal for clinical waste, oils, incinerator waste etc) gets picked up separately, on a weekly basis. Household waste gets picked up fortnightly, with a different truck. That means two trucks coming out to us - not terribly energy (and time) efficient, is it!

I actually did get a reply from the council...

We don't have to use black bags, but it is easier for the binmen to take the bags out of the bins than to empty the bins direct. (Question: Why did they invest in the bins in the first place???) And, I was told, the bags also help to keep our bins clean. Well, we don't have "dirty" waste, so they wouldn't get mucky anyway... And, since nobody intends to eat out of them, why should the bins have to be that clean? I find that's a British obsession, too - never seen anybody in Germany cleaning their bins out.

And they HAVE to pick it up separately "for operational and accounting" reasons. Hhmm. Don't quite get that. Oh well, it's only the taxpayers' money that pays for the separate vehicles.