Sick of recycling - should I stop?

JennyB

well I don't know about anyone else but I fancy living where you live liz545! :j i just don't understand why all councils don't provide the same recycling collections - does anyone know? surely they all have the same recycling targets and pressure from central government. i'd love to see a council recycling league table to find out who provide the best and worst services... don't know what I'd do with the information but I'd love to see it!

liz545

JennyB wrote:

well I don't know about anyone else but I fancy living where you live liz545! :j i just don't understand why all councils don't provide the same recycling collections - does anyone know? surely they all have the same recycling targets and pressure from central government. i'd love to see a council recycling league table to find out who provide the best and worst services... don't know what I'd do with the information but I'd love to see it!

I live in London, and I think my council (Southwark) was named and shamed a few years back for it's record, hence the zeal with which they recycle now :rolleyes: As far as league tables go, this is from 2004 but it's a start:
http://www.letsrecycle.com/info/localauth/league/2004ranked.htm
-according to this my borough was in the bottom 15, so they *really* got shamed!
Sadly, there's a real lack of coherence when it comes to council services - you'd think that there could be a standardised performance for things like schools, council tax, environmental services etc, but it's so hit and miss. And probably any attempt of the Government to standardise things would be met with more cries of "Nanny State"!

fran_from_willesden

Cardew wrote:

Back to the point - there is absolutely no way I will wash bottles, jars & plastic containers etc before dumping them as rubbish - and thats what they are - garbage!!

Eventually you'll have to recycle as the amount of waste that goes to landfill has to be reduced by LAW. Also, as the UK is extremely likely to miss not only the recycling targets set by the EU but also the reduction of solid waste to landfill, this means large fines which will eventually be passed onto US the people who do (or don't) recycle.

If we were expected to pay for our waste to be removed l'm sure everyone who doesn't recycle would as they would be charged less for the non-recyclables to be taken away.

You may think that if you throw recyclable materials away it won't make much of a difference but it does. I've visited two landfill sites in the past year, one of them taking 35 000 tons of waste per week and it really brings home just how much rubbish is thrown away.

Where I live in Newcastle, they only pick up the recycling every two weeks and I've experienced many of the problems written about here in terms of bags of jars, metal, paper etc etc but I would never dream of stopping recycling. If only it was compulsory!:D

Some background info.

Landfill of Waste (see Council Driective1999/31/EC)

arkonite_babe

Well said Fran!! :T

Cardew

Originally Posted by Cardew
Back to the point - there is absolutely no way I will wash bottles, jars & plastic containers etc before dumping them as rubbish - and thats what they are - garbage!!

fran_from_willesden wrote:

Eventually you'll have to recycle as the amount of waste that goes to landfill has to be reduced by LAW. Also, as the UK is extremely likely to miss not only the recycling targets set by the EU but also the reduction of solid waste to landfill, this means large fines which will eventually be passed onto US the people who do (or don't) recycle.

If we were expected to pay for our waste to be removed l'm sure everyone who doesn't recycle would as they would be charged less for the non-recyclables to be taken away.

You may think that if you throw recyclable materials away it won't make much of a difference but it does. I've visited two landfill sites in the past year, one of them taking 35 000 tons of waste per week and it really brings home just how much rubbish is thrown away.

My first quote has been taken out of context in your post; albeit I could have phrased it better. I do recycle - see my post #2 from earlier in this thread.

My garden is turned into a temporary rubbish tip and I still use a lot of petrol and waste a lot of time in trips to the distant tip(sorry recycling facility) - a 20 minute drive.

The thread had moved on and I was referring to the washing of bottles, jars etc before dumping them in recyclable containers. I used the term rubbish & garbage as, recyclable or not, that is exactly what it is; although as said earlier I accept that terminology could be confusing if taken out of context.

kittiwoz

I wash cans, jars and plastic bottles for recycling. I stick them in the manky water after I've done a load of washing up since they don't have to be clean enough to eat from, it's just so they don't fester and attract insects. That way it doesn't use extra water or energy in heating the water. It also doesn't take much time since I'm not overly thorough with them.

freeloader

skintchick wrote:

You did. :rolleyes:

I don't think I did, but it's quite common for remarks to be misinterpreted on these boards.

freeloader

back to thread.... :rolleyes:

re. washing stuff, yes, I give all glass & metal items a quick rinse, whether they've contained slugs or not (doesn't use v. much water, and better than attracting flies & rats)

re. hoarding/clutter, people just need to be a bit more organised & try not to buy over-packaged products in the first place

I'm lucky enough to have a garden, so I compost everything I can (including cardboard), and use the resulting brown gold as mulch, potting & seed compost.

Just call me Felicity Kendall