I was interested in this Gazette article that our green bins will not be emptied if they are contaminated with normal, non-recyclable waste.
http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/disp...mptied.php
Firstly, why am I hearing this from the Gazette? Surely this is something our council should be telling us about. I haven't had a leaflet through the door or stuck to the bin. Not everyone buys the Gazette and we should be informed.
Secondly it seems that already a green bin isn't emptied if it has been used for household waste. However, it is emptied if it has been contaminated. Now, normal household waste is a mixture of recyclable and non-recyclable rubbish so where do they draw the line between contamination and using for household waste?
The idea of putting on a sticker to tell you why your bin hasn't been emptied sounds like a good idea if, say, you thought it was ok to leave tops on bottles and genuinely didn't realise you need to take them off. I hope the stickers give detail of what the problem is to help anyone making a genuine mistake. However, I can't imagine the bin men having time to write little notes (as they don't have time to bring my bin back to my house
) so I am worried that there will be some kind of standard sticker saying your bin is contaminated with non-recyclable rubbish, leaving you to guess which item has broken the rules. Does anyone know the details?
my family try hard to recycle, but i don't think its really made that accessible; like your example, my mother only told me the other week that plastic bottle lids AREN'T recyclable, and we got a letter from the council cos apparently yoghurt pots are made out of some unique plastic or something, so they're not recyclable. i don't know - i don't know enough on the subject, but obviously recycling is a very important thing to do, but it needs to be a lot clearer and easier to use, and like you're saying della, i wouldn't be surprised if the council are so lazy/tight-up they manufacture one generic label rather than specific stickers that let you know what you're doing wrong.
the world feels so doom and gloom right now, i'm only 17 and i think i'm turning into a marxist or something.
A while back i was given a recycle wheel from the council. It has a list of paper, metals, plastics etc and you turn it to say yoghurt pots and it tells you if it can go in your bin. It was put through the door, it's pretty handy.
They sound good. I didn't get one. Were they meant for everyone?
So far as I know yoghurt pots are made of HDPE or PP and both are recyclable but I think the contractors use huge machines to crush the bottles and anything smaller than a bottle can get stuck in the machine and then it costs a lots of money to stop the line to unjam it - well something like that anyway. Basically the food manufacturers have done their bit by using the right plastic but the contractors don't have the right machines to handle it.
Similarly the council won't take shredded paper. At work we shred everything and eventually found a contractor who would take huge quantities of shredded paper to be recycled so it can be done.
I've told lots of people about them Della but no one else has had one.
(20-09-2008 06:32 AM)Butterflygirl Wrote: [ -> ]A while back i was given a recycle wheel from the council. It has a list of paper, metals, plastics etc and you turn it to say yoghurt pots and it tells you if it can go in your bin. It was put through the door, it's pretty handy.
Yeah i had one of those two. It came with a list as well, which turned out to be on sticky back paper. So I've stuck mine on the cabinet above the bins - No excuse for anyone getting it wrong in my kitchen
"I was interested in this Gazette article that our green bins will not be emptied if they are contaminated with normal, non-recyclable waste.
http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/disp...mptied.php
Firstly, why am I hearing this from the Gazette? Surely this is something our council should be telling us about. I haven't had a leaflet through the door or stuck to the bin. Not everyone buys the Gazette and we should be informed."
Actually, the Gazette article says 'could be' not 'will be'. Do you expect a leaflet through the door every time an idea is floated?
Let's not fly off the handle here.
On a related theme, I heard on the radio that several councils in the UK are signing up certain contractors who install machinery that sorts out all the waste from one bin.
Obviously these contractors probably cost more than your average 'chuck it and see gang?' But the technology is there if only the council decided to choose the right one.
The public shouldn't have to decide which piece of rubbish is which as we're paying huge amounts of tax for them to do this for us. Don't doubt it.
While we're talking about funds, I wonder where our council has invested the tax money we expect them to use on our services. I hope it's not in Iceland or some other risky place, but I hope they pull it out soon and spend it on us like they're supposed to be doing......nuff said I reckon!
(11-10-2008 08:25 AM)Brian Wrote: [ -> ]On a related theme, I heard on the radio that several councils in the UK are signing up certain contractors who install machinery that sorts out all the waste from one bin.
Obviously these contractors probably cost more than your average 'chuck it and see gang?' But the technology is there if only the council decided to choose the right one.
The public shouldn't have to decide which piece of rubbish is which as we're paying huge amounts of tax for them to do this for us. Don't doubt it.
While we're talking about funds, I wonder where our council has invested the tax money we expect them to use on our services. I hope it's not in Iceland or some other risky place, but I hope they pull it out soon and spend it on us like they're supposed to be doing......nuff said I reckon!
Small Council Tax hike.
Clean Streets.
Well maintained grass areas.
Thriving town centre.
Excellent Leisure Facilities.
Shall i go on? Just dont understand people who moan about council funds with flippant comments. Read somewhere that the local council only get about 8% of each individual council tax bill as income so there not doing bad in my book. Rather than "nuff said" tell me what you would like the money to be spent on - i have always wondered this and then debate whether its possible or not.