Recycling and public incompetence

rodo_2

Talking about recycling, has anyone ever really looked at their till receipts and more importantly, their credit/debit card receipts? If you look carefully, you will see part of your card number printed on the receipt. Usually, it is the last three or four digits. This is not so important as the other numbers are just asterisks (*). BUT, sometimes, the entire number is printed on the receipt. DON'T FORGET TO SHRED THESE. They are an access to your money/credit. (This should have been posted as a new thread, but I could not find any means of submitting a new posting. Please advise if I missed it).

BG_Porgy

Ivan in response to your post Nos 20 + 21

The issue is not simply about recycling. As far as I know in the UK there are NO fines proposed at local authority level for failure to recycle Fines are for failure to divert biodegradable waste from landfil so you could recycle glass bottles and jars plus metal cans and plastic to your hearts content and it would haver absolutely no impact on the fines whch are not just proposed they are a reality fixed in legislation NOW

Yes it is a money saving site primarily and for individuals but we cannot be penny wise and pound foolish. We should not be using the world's finite resouces once and then throwing them away simply because TODAY it is cheaper to do so It is cheaper to use asbestos and DDT and a whole lot of things which do us harm and cost more in the long term...but we now know better.

sorry to go on but it is realy all about using less of everything ...that willsave you money

Paper bags vs plastic Paper bags can cost more, paper is heavier , bulkier and uses more fuel to distribute plastic bags can be made from renewable resources to be totally biodegradable ie from corn starch

There are similar arguements about your other questions

It is a very complex subject not suited to this type of forum ie there are two sides to the R of I plastic bag tax It is not as straightforward as it first seems

It used to be ..look how affluent I am , I need more than one wheelie bin
It is now ... how dare you use up so much of the worlds resources

Think about how to Reduce and Re-use , not end- of - pipe solutions where you are dependant on others to do it for you after you have created the waste
If you have a garden then you should be composting and digesting food waste thus saving over 50% of your waste from having to be dealt with by the Couuncil which you pay for through council tax and other taxes. So save tax and avoid fines ..do your bit

Hope this is of interest and help
BG Porgy

D.A.

BG_Porgy wrote:

Dear DA your remarks are offensive Yes it is very frustrating for you. You do not know of the circumstances within which the staff have to operate.

Just to clarify, I'm not having a go at the staff themselves, since they obviously have an extremely limited budget to operate on. But maybe if our local councillors would stop trying to win the "lowest rate increase" competition every year and stop spending money on junkets, they could actually provide us with a useful recycling service, instead of just paying lip service to the idea as they currently seem to be doing. And anyway, if they don't introduce decent waste management facilities, we'll end up paying for it in fines in a few years anyway. Wouldn't be like Lisburn Council to fiddle while Rome burns or anything...

IvanOpinion

Some more numbers for you - from the Radio Ulster news on the way home last night.

It is going to cost £500million to put the required infrastructure for recycling into place (If past experience is anything to go by that amounts to £250million to do the job and £250million to be frittered away on admin, setting up and running comittees who will travel the world on fact finding missions and champagne receptions for the councillors ... little old cynic that I am ).

If we do not start recycling 25% of our waste by 2010 (was meant to be 2005 but our councillors were too busy on other things ... did I mention fact finding trips and champagne receptions?) then it is going to cost us £180million in fines PLUS the £500million (which will probably be the equivalent of £1billion in 2010). Not only that it will put us behind time to meet the next target which will incur even heavier fines.

I have no idea of the number of houses in good old NI but given a population of 1.6million that means.....
- £180million = £112.50 for every man, woman and child in NI ... just for the fines
- £500million = £312.50 for every man, woman and child in NI to put the required infrastructure into place. This however is likely to be spread across 3-5 years.

It is likely that the above will be added onto the rates bill and, if it is like the crass governmental incompetence being shown over water charges, it will simply be based upon the value of the property ... with every political party clamouring to shout the loudest about the poor it is likely that the majority of this bill is likely to be picked up the middle-earners ... again.

The clock is running. EVERYBODY needs to put more thought into recycling. And remember, if your neighbours are too lazy to recycle you will probably end up paying for their laziness.

Ivan

leftieM

From reading the posts the thing that strikes me is that there is generally a lack of understanding of what waste management involves and how much personal responsibility people feel when it comes to waste generation.

To reiterate the point already made above, recycling is not a solution to our ever increasing consumption and waste generation. It is a tactic employed by a government that has no interest in tackling the long term problems caused by waste generation and pollution, and no desire to try and change the way we live because it will mean difficult anti-business decisions. So in the short term it is easier to let us consume unabated.

Unless we lower the amount of waste generated we will have to pay more to have our waste dealt with - and we should (although perhaps we'll get the councillors to pay for their own champagne!) If we're that fond of recycling then the tax payer will have to pay to set up companies that process the raw materials - private enterprise isn't always interested.

BG_Porgy

Spot on Leftie
Politicians at all levels tend to pay lip service to the environmental aspects

What we are talking about is really a resource use issue and leftie is perfectly correct the more waste the more business opportunities and taxes and the more waste ad nausiem ( is that how you spell it ? )

THE GOVT NEED TO DECOUPLE THE LINK BETWEEN WASTE GENERATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Sustainable Development - the ultimate oxymoron

This subject spans issues all the way from the future of the planet thro' international trade agreements right down to the decisions that each of us makes about what we buy on a day to day basis.

Think Global - act local Do a little change a lot
what have you done today to make you feel proud ?

BG Porgy

Simpson

BG_Porgy wrote:

Think Global - act local Do a little change a lot
what have you done today to make you feel proud ?

BG Porgy

I'M WATCHING YOU
every single day
every move you make.
every smile you fake.

Just while we're doing song lyrics.

But really if we get back to Ivans original point. We all need to wake up to our own responsibilities regarding waste management or we will pay for it.

No more ranting now, just post links for the relevant people in each of the councils whom we should lobby to provide us with the resources we need. and who should be tackling the public awareness and training issues.

Arkonite has already posted some useful links and Ivan has posted the NDBC contact.

You can all talk till you're BLUE in the face but if we don't make it happen you'll just see RED when the inflated rates bill kicks in because we aren't GREEN.

arkonite_babe

To see what the local authorities are supposed to be doing click HERE

jockettuk

i live just outside peterborough under huntingdonshire council and we have had recylcling bins for over a yr now .. not tiny ones big ones lol, we had the choice of weather we wanted them or not so no one should be sending them back or destroying them. we recycle almost everything apart from glass in our bins . even clothes and shoes etc if tied properly..but our bins are green not blue lol.. we also have a garden bin for all our garden waste that the council turns into compost that you can buy cheaply from them and our normal bin.. only grief i have is that in the winter time our bins still only get emptied once a fortnight and once a fortnight i dont put out my garden waste as i have none from november to feb.

boyfriend lives in aylesbury under buckinghamshire council and the restrictions on what they can recycle annoys me.. if the council aint going to help people recycle then people going to get fed up and give up ..

juno

sor_fes2 wrote:

Why can't envelopes be recycled? Is the sticky glue really going to mess up the pulping down of the paper and mushing it all together again, drying out and rolling into paper?

It's not the glue, it's the plastic "windows". If you pull those off and make sure no plastic remains then you can recycle them. Of course, most people won't bother so they just state no evelopes.