Recycling is a con

[justskint]

I moved from another council 7-8 years ago, they used to send newspaper to landfill when they had a glut. My present council sends to landfill what it calls contaminated, ie something gets mixed up or gets left on the ground at what they call "bring" centres.

All that co2 getting it there just to dumped.

[Eigon]

I'm not in favour of weighing bins or charging for collection. We already pay for bin collection through the council tax - and I think it is a matter of public health. If people start being charged for their rubbish to be collected, they will start trying to dispose of it in other ways.
Here in Powys, we have very good kerbside collection for recycling - some of it is sent overseas at the moment, but the local paper reports that a new recycling plant will be opening in the UK shortly (Wolverhampton?) and our rubbish will be going there.

[Chickenlady]

Sadly, our recycling system is far from fantastic. This is because the government sets targets but doesn't seem to care how the councils meet them. fortunately my local council doesn't do this, but there seem to be many collecting all sorts in one bin for recycling. There is no way paper and cardboard will be fit for recycling when they have been slung in a wheelie bin full of dripping wine bottles, etc. So they meet their targets for weight but then the contaminated loads go off either to landfill or are shipped to China.

this is a quite ridiculous situation, but is happening more and more. There are also frequent stories in the papers about similar situations to Stoney's, or about how people spy their carefully sorted rubbish all going in the same compartment for general rubbish on the refuse vehicles because they have already filled up all the recycling compartments.

I agree that a letter to the paper is in order. It is important to shame the councils into doing the right thing.

Jane

[justskint]

Impossible to shame my C council, they have every slippery answer ready. I know I write letters and bloggs all the time. They claim to have reached a 35% recycling target, this is of course is a blatant lie. When audited at the end of March they will say in a carefully prepared press release, slightly less than we expected but we have met the central government's target.

Cynical! Who me.

[kiery]

But thank goodness we are not in Naples.

I read their rubbish still hasn't been collected. Schools have shut because the rubbish on the streets is such a public health hazard.

Something about the mob being involved in blocking planning permission for rubbish handling sites I think.

[multiveg]

Was reading the Telegraph magazine on Saturday and came across an interesting article which is online here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.j ... one123.xml

Its about mobile phones - manufacture and recycling. Some phones sent to recycling get dumped. The article is an edited extract from Confessions of an Eco Sinner by Fred Pearce. Anyone read the book?

[johnhcrf]

I am running a campaign to reduce my bin waste to zero. Having removed food waste from the bin totally, What remains? Mostly packaging, hence the campaign ZeroWastePackaging. Shop local, accept no plastic packaging. Soon there is no packaging waste.

Roll on the next campaign.

John

[johnhcrf]

I am running a campaign to reduce my bin waste to zero. Having removed food waste from the bin totally, What remains? Mostly packaging, hence the campaign ZeroWastePackaging. Shop local, accept no plastic packaging. Soon there is no packaging waste.

Roll on the next campaign.

John

[Sky]

I am running a campaign to reduce my bin waste to zero. Having removed food waste from the bin totally, What remains? Mostly packaging, hence the campaign ZeroWastePackaging. Shop local, accept no plastic packaging. Soon there is no packaging waste.

Roll on the next campaign.

John

Yes we're trying that at the moment, it's amazing how little waste there is after you've sorted stuff out.
We've been buying what we can in bulk. I'm trying to grow some veggies too so less need to go to the shop and spend our limited cash.

[johnhcrf]

Your country must have less landfill than the UK. Here, some are reaching the maximum capacity. Surely it is not such a problem in New Zealand?

John

[lsm1066]

Impossible to shame my C council, they have every slippery answer ready. I know I write letters and bloggs all the time. They claim to have reached a 35% recycling target, this is of course is a blatant lie. When audited at the end of March they will say in a carefully prepared press release, slightly less than we expected but we have met the central government's target.

I live in South Holland, home of what MP Richard Body once described as "the most corrupt local authority in the UK, with the possible exception of Hastings". (I'm quoting here. This is not necessarily my opinion, just in case there are lawyers listening). They recently changed our recyling collection so that we no longer sort it. We just put it all into recycled plastic sacks and, apparently, they sort it all at the depot.

Recycling is up to 60% here, according to last year's figures, which is amazing. Certainly if you look down the road at all the bags that are put out in our village, the ratio is about 2 recycling bags to one black sack, which actualy makes me quite proud of the people who live here. You can only hope that the council is actually doing what they say they are.

Lynne

[multiveg]

Hi Lynne,
I think you live in the same council area as my mother.
Compared with where I live, the recycling is a lot better - even plastics, and weekly. My mother doesn't want a compost bin in her garden (rats), but green waste gets taken to the recycling centre for vouchers - 3? vouchers is worth a bag of compost.
My council doesn't always pick up the recycling left out on time - on occasions, I have found that they have dumped it in the bin.

[johnhcrf]

Sorry to hear about rats in compost. I thought this only occcurred where meat/fish waste was present. These waste items should be in Green Cone/Bokashi sealed units. Compost bins used properly are excellent ways to deal with fruit/veg waste etc.

Hope that is helpful,

John.

[multiveg]

Its the idea that rats (or other 4-legged creatures) could be hiding in the compost. She had no problem with compost bins down the allotment 10+ years ago.
She even bought me one of the dalek bins with the bottom to stop rats getting in, but she doesn't want one of those for herself. She has a phobia about mice (there was one in the house), but she is ok with rats but doesn't want them to be encouraged...

[johnhcrf]

I have used a compost bin, plastic with lifting shutter, for 2 years+. For the first year, I filled from the top lid not touching the ground shutter. Initial placement involved embedding firmly in the ground. When I eventually lifted the shutter the compost filled the whole cavity, no space for any vermin. Are vermin attracted to fruit/veg peeling, I doubt that?
There are more robust designs where the shutter is in a rigid support to maintain a sound seal. My own has lost its shape after I pushed too much material in but there is no sign of vermin even so.

John.