| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Behemoth |
New Figs reveal surge in recyclingGovt press releaseNEW FIGURES REVEAL SURGE IN RECYCLING Recycling of household waste has doubled in the last four years, according to new provisional figures published today by Defra. The figures show that English households recycled more than a fifth of their waste, (approaching 23%) in 2004/05. They are the first signal of recycling rates in 2004/05 which, though unaudited, provide a good indication of the level being achieved. Performance around the country varies with, on average, residents in the North East recycling the least (16%) and people in East of England recycling the most (29%). The greatest leap has been in the East Midlands, up 7% on last year to 27%. Local Environmental Quality Minister, Ben Bradshaw, said: "We've doubled the amount we recycle in just four years. "These figures prove how much more people understand the importance of recycling compared to even just four years ago. "There's no doubt we can be proud of our progress to date , but now it's time to build on that and start catching up with some of Europe's top recyclers. "Every person in England is currently recycling enough to fill 8 green wheelie bins, but we could be recycling as much as 20 bins worth - up to 60% of our waste. "And local authorities will have to look at improving their recycling rates too. We want to be well on the way to our 2010 target of 30% of waste being recycled - sooner rather than later. "Some of our European counterparts are doing it, some parts of this country are too, so it is not an unrealistic goal." According to WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme), which runs the Government's national Recycle Now campaign for England, every household could recycle up to 60% of its waste. This is reflected in some European recycling rates: Germany recycles 57% of its waste; Netherlands recycles 64%; and Denmark 41% -levels of recycling that some English local authorities, like Lichfield, are already reaching. WRAP, one of the organisations tasked with improving the UK's resource efficiency, thinks the key to recycling success lies in maintaining the momentum. "We all care about the environment in one way or another, and the great thing about recycling is that it's a really easy way in which we can each make an individual contribution," explained Jennie Price, Chief Executive of WRAP. "Local authorities have been working hard to boost awareness and to make it much easier for us to recycle. Nearly 80% of England's households now have doorstep recycling schemes - now we all need to make sure we use them." In future, all local authorities will have to maintain and improve their recycling levels. Defra will publish a consultation shortly with proposals for new statutory performance standards for 2007/08. Of course all authorities are encouraged to continue to perform above any statutory minimum to meet their own local performance standards and to meet Landfill Allowance strategies and landfill tax pressures. Later in the year, Government will consult, as part of the review of Waste Strategy 2000, on the format and level of any future performance standards for local authorities. In the meantime, Defra and the WRAP are continuing to work with local authorities and retailers to pilot and roll out new ways - from new technology at recycling 'bring' banks to financial incentives such as discount vouchers - to get people recycling more. A new multi-million pilot programme of local authority household incentives is due to start in October which will pilot, test and assess various approaches to incentivising household behaviour. ENDS Recycling facts and figures * Households in England produce 25 million tonnes of waste every year. Over half of this consists of garden waste, waste paper and board, and kitchen waste. * On average every person in the UK now produces about seven times their own weight in waste a year. * What makes up household waste? Garden Waste 20%, Scrap metal/White goods 5%, Wood 5%, Dense plastic 4%, Plastic film 4%, Textiles 3%, Metal packaging 3%, Nappies 2%, Soil 3%, Paper and Board 18%, Kitchen Waste 17%, General Household Sweepings 9% and Glass 7% * Around 20% of the food we buy off supermarket shelves goes straight to the bin. This means that every household throws away £424 of wasted food each year. * Over 40 per cent of the waste in our bins is retail packaging - some 4.5 million tonnes of it. * What can be recycled? Plastics, textiles, cans, paper, wood, kitchen waste, garden waste, batteries, glass and card. * To find your nearest recycling bank and for more information on how to make a difference by recycling, visit : http://www.recyclenow.co.uk * How much does it cost to get rid of our waste? Only around £50 per household per year, but most people believe they pay up to £260 for their local waste services. * If all the aluminium drinks cans sold in the UK were recycled there would be 14 million fewer dustbins of waste each year. |
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| Andy B |
Today is the first day of our Green Box thingy where i live, how far behind is that. Still better late than never | ||||
| Lozzie |
I wonder why there is such disparity across the regions? Why is it that the South East are "better" at recycling than the North? | ||||
| Behemoth |
Economies of scale/population density perhaps? | ||||
| Andy B |
I live in Birmingham ! Loads of people !! |
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| Behemoth |
and a willingness by the local authority to get of their proverbial! | ||||
| Andy B |
More like it me thinks. |
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| cab |
Oh, drat, I really hoped this would be about figs. I love figs.
While increased recycling is to be applauded, it's still only a start. And it's also kind of lamentable that we still take materials, make them into something, melt them down and do it again rather than making something reusable at the outset. The recycling adverts talking about taking a bottle, melting it down and making another bottle really make me want to scream. |
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| judith |
And whatever happened to the "reduce" part? |
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| Behemoth |
Ah that'll be the packaging regulations that seem to have had no impact whatsoever. | ||||
| cab |
Indeed. The whole reduce part seems to be missing from the equation.
I asked a local councillor about composting a while ago, whether it's better to compost waste at home or put it into the Council bins. My opinion on this is simple, don't transport the waste and compost it on site, and we're all better off. His answer was that they have to support home composting, that's their policy, but it's better for their figures if people use the green (compostables) bins, because then a greater proportion of collected waste is composted... If I don't buy, say, jam, but I pick wild fruit and make jam (scavenging jars from friends and neighbours) then less glass gets made, less glass again gets recycled. I'm bad for the figures. As long as we measure success of such schemes by mass of recycled material, reusing and reducing will be less appealing for our councils than recycling. |
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| judith |
Probably a very accurate summation, Cab 
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| Trev |
Playing Devil's Advocate:
I think the councillor was trying to say that separating the compostable material (for council composting) from the household waste of those who would not normally compost said material, in conjunction with those who do normally compost their own compostable material, is preferable overall to just the latter section acting unilaterally. It was just unfortunate, & typically politician, that they referenced the approach against their performance targets. Or, at least, that’s what I desperately hope! Somehow I have a very disturbing feeling that I’m wrong... |
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| Andy B |
They have been set quotas for recycling, if they dont hit them we will be fined. | ||||
| cab |
I fear that Andy has hit the nail on the head.
We have had reams of info abyut recycling; what goes in which bin, where to take our plastic bottles to, who to contact in the council for advice, but nothing urging us to consume less, produce less waste, compost our own kitchen and garden waste, etc. We do put waste into our composting bin; the woody stuff that wouldn't work well in our heap, stones from damsons used for winemaking, bones and fat waste wrapped up in newspaper, that kind of thing. And there's always something in recycling too. But I can't help thinking that greater energy and savings could be made by focussing on reducing and reusing also. If I use a jam jar for storing jam in it, I'd rather use it again for storing dried mushrooms, pulses, seeds, nails... or even more jam, than smash it, melt it and turn it into another jar. Recycling targets don't address that. |
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| Trev |
To ignore the Reduce, Reuse point for the moment and address the disparate levels of recycling throughout the country:
My Inlaws live in the NorthEast and the list of items they can recycle is very restricted in comparison to ours and I feel that ours is very restricted anyway - particularly when it comes to plastics. The list of “dos’n’don’ts” for our plastics is confusing enough to then have manufactures add the complication of not indicating what the plastic is that they’ve marked with a recycle symbol or they’ve opted for the number system instead of the anagram system of identication. Another problem for the NE seems to be the attitude to recycling - in the Inlaws cul-de-sac they and only one other house amongst twelve use the recycle facilities provided. Their next door but one neighbour parties almost every weekend and produces a small mountain of cans that he then throws into his neighbours normal bins (doesn’t use his own wheelie-bin at all). A sad tale of something I feel is more widespread. |
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| ele |
Are you sure that bones and fat are allowed?, we're not even permitted to put vegetable peelings in our brown (composter) bin because of the legislations. I find it great for woody stuff and conifer prunings though 
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| cab |
Yeah, I've checked what we can put in, and they're happy with pretty much anything along those lines. But there's a lot of variation between different local authorities. |
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| ele |
That's great that they're not so red-tapey (is that a word ?  )
I think Derby may be responsible for the huge recycling surge in the East Midlands as it's brought in comprehensive kerb side collections in the last year. Before, I don't think many people bothered with recycling at all, but now my suburb is awash with diligent recycling. Changing the black bin collections to once a fortnight probably gave people a little bit ot a kick in the right direction 
I do agree about the reduce and reuse bit getting a little forgotten along the way though, I wish for example more people got door stop milk as plastic milk cartons seem to be a large proportion of the plastic waste. |
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| tawny owl |
I was very impressed with the numbers of people queuing (very patiently!) to buy cheap compost bins at the New Forest DC sale on Saturday. There were 4 huge lorries of bins, and when we arrived (the sale was on from 10 till 3) there were at least 200 people in the queue. The 330-litre bins with base and door were £3 each (restricted to 3 per household), with kitchen bins at £2 for a 7-litre and £3 for a 10-litre, plus a free bottle of Biotal or box of Garotta per household. Excellent value - shame they couldn't have got the water companies to subsidise butts as well. | ||||
| culpepper |
we are in the south east and found that when we were on holiday in cumbria,they recycled more than us.They had a green garden waste bin,ordinary bin ,paper,bottles and cans boxes.
We have paper,glass and the ordinary rubbish collected and they will collect garden waste but only if we buy the green bags from the town hall at £1.50 for 5. There are numerous recyling banks beside supermarkets here but You have to remember to take your recyclables when you go.I dont know of anywhere here that will take plastic or cardboard. |
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| Trev |
[quote]There are numerous recyling banks beside supermarkets here but You have to remember to take your recyclables when you go.[/quote]
I've taken to carrying around bags of various "recyclables" (sp?) in the boot of the car for whenever we happen to visit a place that does have a bin for such'n'such. We're using the draws of an old freezer in a frame I constucted as our recycle sorting thingy for foil, glass & plastic bags along with the local authorities buckets for paper and certain plastics & cans. Once one of these is full I bag it and bung it in the boot of the car. The trick is then remembering its there when we're out'n'about. The differences between what various local authorities will handle & how is a right pain. We're only just starting to address this issue in this country - nice for the local authorities to pat themselves on the back for getting this far - but we've a very long way to go. [quote]Are you sure that bones and fat are allowed?, [/quote] I've been thinking about collecting the fat, like my grandparents used to (mmmmm beef drippin' on toast), and keeping the birds happy with a "fat ball" since I'm not allowed to eat it anymore... |
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| judith |
We do that in the Winter. If you find a technique that allows the fat ball to stay in one piece for more than half an hour, please share it. I find that my home-made ones disintigrate very quickly, fall on the ground and then the starlings and jackdaws swoop down and scoff the lot. |
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| ele |
I've never saved my fat from roasts for the birds cos I'm worried it might be too salty for them, is that right? or am I worrying unnecessarily? I wouldn't want my sparrows to get dehydration or hypertension 
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| Trev |
[quote]If you find a technique that allows the fat ball to stay in one piece for more than half an hour[/quote]
I thought I saw someone stuffing one in a hairnet or stocking... and I remember the old primary school festooned with upside down half coconut shells. [quote]I've never saved my fat from roasts for the birds cos I'm worried it might be too salty for them[/quote] Hadn't thought of that one... hummmmmmmmmmm....... |