UK government's recycling plans risks chaos

Ice Tea

Ice Tea

Ice Tea

Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2004
Posts
4,955
www.bbc.co.uk

Bin collections: Plans to change recycling risks chaos, say councils

Councils say government plans for consistent waste and recycling policies across England could be unworkable.
www.bbc.co.uk

The details of major government reforms to waste collection in England are expected to be confirmed soon. The changes could see councils ordered to arrange the separate collection of six types of recyclable waste.
Click to expand...

WTF!, that's going to be fun.
 
Last edited:
We already have 4 different bins. It's possible to have 5 different ones if you do garden waste as well. Properties are just going to have too many bins outside?
 
This is the relevant section of the legislation

England: separate collection of household waste​

(1)This section applies in relation to arrangements made under section 45(1)(a) for an English waste collection authority to collect household waste, unless they are arrangements in relation to which section 45AZA applies.

(2)The arrangements must meet the conditions in subsections (3) to (8) (subject to any provision in regulations under section 45AZC).

(3)The first condition is that recyclable household waste must be collected separately from other household waste.

(4)The second condition is that recyclable household waste must be collected for recycling or composting.

(5)The third condition is that recyclable household waste in each recyclable waste stream must be collected separately, except so far as provided by subsection (6).

(6)Recyclable household waste in two or more recyclable waste streams may be collected together where—

(a)it is not technically or economically practicable to collect recyclable household waste in those recyclable waste streams separately, or

(b)collecting recyclable household waste in those recyclable waste streams separately has no significant environmental benefit (having regard to the overall environmental impact of collecting it separately and of collecting it together).

(7)But recyclable household waste within subsection (10)(a) to (d) may not be collected together with recyclable household waste within subsection (10)(e) or (f).

(8)The fourth condition is that recyclable household waste which is food waste must be collected at least once a week.

(9)Household waste is “recyclable household waste” if—

(a)it is within any of the recyclable waste streams, and

(b)it is of a description specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State.

(10)For the purposes of this section the recyclable waste streams are—

(a)glass;

(b)metal;

(c)plastic;

(d)paper and card;

(e)food waste;

(f)garden waste.

I can imagine a lot of councils will try to enact section 6 to get away from having 6 separate bins, but yea that is whats on the cards.

(6)Recyclable household waste in two or more recyclable waste streams may be collected together where—

(a)it is not technically or economically practicable to collect recyclable household waste in those recyclable waste streams separately, or

(b)collecting recyclable household waste in those recyclable waste streams separately has no significant environmental benefit (having regard to the overall environmental impact of collecting it separately and of collecting it together).
Click to expand...
 
At work we already do hard plastic, soft plastic, cans, general metals, glass, paper, cardboard, WEEE, [other] electrical, confidential (not really a recycling category) and a process for any kind of garden waste (also sort batteries, biological and sharps). Strangely don't have a separate food bin. Getting people to do it properly is a pain and as soon as anyone starts new in the business you have to constantly get on to them to get them doing it properly. Quite disappointing really as they can see most people doing it proper but 99/100 will still just chuck food wrappers in the nearest, clearly labelled, bin, etc. until you chew them out for it.

Personally think it would be better to do single-stream and just pay someone to sort it - though even then some staff would probably spoil it mixing stuff into dry mix recyclables.

I largely suspect for all our efforts it probably gets dumped into dry mix and then resorted again at the other end though.

Doing it at home takes up quite a bit of space and not all councils make it easy though.
 
Last edited:
I saw that story yesterday and had to agree with a lot of the comments from the councillor they'd interviewed. Rural and urban have different constraints and you're asking a lot of joe public to sort 6 different types at the home.
 
Recycling works best when you make it easier for people to do it.

Some councils are great, a previous one I lived in made it very easy - they pretty much took everything in one bin that had a caddy. In the caddy you could even put dead batteries in a bag.
 
Last edited:
We just have:
Food (don't use as we got a waste disposal installed in the sink instead)
Cardboard/Paper
Tin/Glass/Plastic
Everything else

That is already 3 separate bins inside and 3 out on the driveway, already taking up a lot of space in a detached property, people in flats or smaller houses going to have a hard time.
 
We have never used anything other than a grey bin. The council dropped a purple bin off a few months ago, God knows what that's supposed to be for.

I suppose we're lucky and can burn a lot of stuff, a friend on one of the Channel Islands (Jersey I think), tells me any visible smoke from a property there results in a huge fine, we don't have that sort of nonsense here, yet.
 
Last edited:
Our council just takes bagged up recycling from the kerb (all mixed), no bins for it so good in some respect but also bad as houses look untidy with bagged recycling outside all the time rather than in a bin.
 
Chris Wilson said:
We have never used anything other than a grey bin. The council dropped a purple bin off a few months ago, God knows what that's supposed to be for.

I suppose we're lucky and can burn a lot of stuff, a friend on one of the Channel Islands (Jersey I think), tells me any visible smoke from a property there results in a huge fine, we don't have that sort of nonsense here, yet.
Click to expand...

Honestly the more you post the more you convince me that you're Fred Flintstone :D
 
adidan said:
Recycling works best when you make it easier for people to do it.

Some councils are great, a previous one I lived in made it very easy - they pretty much took everything in one bin that had a caddy. In the caddy you could even put dead batteries in a bag.
Click to expand...

Yup. One thing i'm grateful to the council for is that ours is very simple compared with a lot of areas:
- green box for glass
- green bin for all recycling
- black bin for everything else

& the black bin goes to the local waste to energy incinerator rather than landfill, so you can put card/metal etc in it guilt free.
 
Last edited:
I find it shocking that a city like Southampton doesn't want aluminium put in recycling bin. :mad:

What can I recycle?

Use this interactive table to see what goes in each of your bins, or use the search box to find how to dispose of a particular item.
www.southampton.gov.uk www.southampton.gov.uk
 
Last edited:
This is great! Our local council only recycles the bare minimum (paper + limited plastics). Will be nice to have more options available by default - saves a trip to the supermarket with a tub of glass.
 
I know it's just for England but up here we already have four wheelie bins (paper/cardboard, tins/plastic, landfill, garden/food waste) plus a crate for glass bottles. This all takes a lot of space for storing these bins and now they want to bring in this ridiculous bottle return scheme. Hopefully it will get kicked into the distance never to be seen again.
 
our council won't take clean cardboard unless it's inside the bin with the lid fully shut lol

anyway, at least the planet is well on the mend now and climate change is heading in the right direction. I'd hate to think all those cornflakes boxes I've put in the right coloured bin was for nothing.

I'm ashamed to admit 10 years ago I thought the bigger countries opening coal mines, cutting down rainforests, drilling for oil was more important than us with our wheelie bins but I hold my hand up.
 
Last edited:
Each council has different recycling policies and containers- bags, boxes or bins. Not just the colour of these.

My council you put all recycling into one bin.

Another council I lived in you put cardboard with gardening waste. Everyone who lives/lived outside the council area found this bizarre.
 
Birmingham do it sensibly (IMO).

Black bin for non-recyclables.
Blue bin for recyclable - plastic/glass/metal goes in the main bin, and there's an insert for cardboard.
Green bin for garden waste.

Nice and easy for households, no need to have 10 different bins cluttering up your drive & making the place untidy - I'd be open to a separate smaller bin for food waste (although we compost our fruit & veg waste anyway), but otherwise it's fine as far as I'm concerned.

The only problem we have is that normal waste is weekly whereas recycling is every 2 weeks - most weeks we only have a single bag in the normal bin, whereas the recycling is almost full after a week. If they started any of the shenanigans about the lids needing to be fully closed then unfortunately 3-4 days worth of recycling would be going in the black bin...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom