recycling

South Bucks DC have chosen not to introduce such a scheme, perhaps they are waiting to see if the Chiltern DC thing is a success! After 10 months of living in GX, I still don't know if we even have paper and glass collections. We take our plastics, cans and bottles to the recycling centre every week.

In Germany they have a sophisticated recycling scheme with plastics, glass, packaging, paper, metals and biodegradable waste being collected. They introduced the recycling scheme as part of their rigorous Environmental Policy and in 1990 they passed new, strict recycling laws which fixed a target of 80-90% of all waste being recycled by 1995, in order to reduce waste being deposited in land fill sites. The intention was that in the long term the consumption and production cycle was supposed to develop into a closed-circuit that produces no waste.

In order to achieve this they made businesses accountable, to encourage businesses to develop low waste or recyclable products. Under the German packaging regulations suppliers are under an obligation to take back and recycle up to 70% of their packaging and submit audited documents to prove it, and organisations which don't comply can be fined. In conjunction with collecting recyclable packaging material from households via a "Green Dot" logo which tells the consumer that the packaging should be recycled, they incentivise it for consumers by a deposit scheme on plastics and glass bottles, i.e. when you buy a plastic or glass bottle you get a small amount refunded (around 0.25 Euros when I left) when you take it back. They have machines in supermarkets which do this automatically (though admittedly their supermarkets are generally a smaller scale, Budgens size rather Tesco, in city centres anyway!).

This involves commitment by businesses and the public, but it works. If we are going to make a go of recycling here I think we need some stricter regulations and a change of attitude.

Chiltern's kitchen and garden waste collection trial is
taking place in Chalfont St Giles, Seer Green and
Jordans only.
I'm still trying to get my paper recycling picked up
from last Thursday! They don't like taking it for some
reason. I might write about it soon!

Sarah Booker wrote: Chiltern's kitchen and garden waste collection trial is taking place in Chalfont St Giles, Seer Green and Jordans only. I'm still trying to get my paper recycling picked up from last Thursday! They don't like taking it for some reason. I might write about it soon!

 

 i would sarah, i am all in favour of recycling but i also think one grey refuse sack of non compostable waste every fortnight is reduiculous, this will lead to flytipping.... also you can buy more of the grey bags if you wish at £5 for 20- these are the most expensive refuse sacks ever !!!!

on the leaflet it says about what can go where and what to compost and what not to..... and ring this number if you are a large family, and put disposable nappies in the grey refuse sack for collection once a fortnight.... - or try using real nappies .... for crying out loud, been there done that real nappies are better in the sense that they  do notgo to land fill, but you need to soak them first in a chemical sanitiser ( which you ultimately pour down the drains) then you increase the number of times you fire up the washing machine, ( and its on a hotter wash than norm using more energy) you add the washing powder and fabric softener all releasing chemical and bleaching agents into the drain system and using more of this leads to increased plastic bottles ( say lenor) and carboard washing powder boxes in the recycling.....IS IT REALLY GREENER TO USE REAL NAPPIES ?????

 

lets be real, collecting glass once a month and paper every fortnight is just not enough, the boxes are overflowing as it is !- the single grey bag collected once a fortnight is unrealistic for me with a toddler,  take this for eaxample -disposable nappies for a toddler, you are looking at 4 or 5 a day, then there is the pagaging we get on every day items such as the plastic bag we get our celery in, and the polystyrene packing on our pizza bases, the plastic wrapper on most food items,  we are a household of 3 ( soon to be 4 )and we recycle as much as we can  currently, we compost uncooked waste in the garden composter, we recycle, paper, card, plastic bottles, and tins and glass....but we produce one and a half black bags each week.....the half basically being nappies, wet wipes and other baby related rubbish.....

one grey bag is not realistic for us, and i bet anyone out there with say a family of 4 and a pet, dog or whatever will struggle with one bag too......

 

 

 lets just see shall we !-

Edited by big baggles

Household re-cycling is one big Green con - don't believe in it. Manufacturers should be taxed on over-packaging, now that is an issue.

Rich Kid wrote: Household re-cycling is one big Green con - don't believe in it. Manufacturers should be taxed on over-packaging, now that is an issue.

I agree.... It's almost a joke when I opened a softwear box. One disc floating around an oak tree....

Had to buy an over the counter tablet last week. Massive box with all the packaging for one tablet. Well they've got to make room for all the advertising.