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Recycling
21 September 2009
Author:Bex Bailey
Recycling
Rushcliffe is great at recycling: the best in Nottinghamshire, in fact, with a recycling rate of 52.38% in 2008. Rushcliffe Borough Council has been in the top ten of councils in the country for recycling for the past 5 years - the only council in the country to have achieved this. So our recycling record is pretty good, but there's always room for improvement.
This week Bristol City Council introduced a scheme whereby they're giving households smaller rubbish bins in the hope that this will encourage people to throw less away and recycle more. The new grey bins are two-thirds the size of the ones we're used to and are designed to make residents think more carefully to avoid filling their bin with waste that can be recycled.
Smaller bins could be impractical, especially for larger families, but would this be a worthwhile sacrifice in the name of recycling? Should we have bins to suit the needs of different households?
However, if people don't have a clear idea of what is recyclable (and which bin items should go in) then even the best efforts to increase recycling won't produce desirable results.
In some cases, when the wrong item is placed in a recycling bin, the rest of that bin then becomes "contaminated" and the whole contents of it are sent to landfill rather than being recycled, meaning our good intentions go to waste. Do you think we need clearer guidelines on what to recycle?
Recycling benefits the environment as it results in less rubbish being sent to landfill sites and polluting our earth. It also benefits councils which have to pay large taxes for every tonne of waste which goes to landfill.
Maybe the key lies in informing people about the benefits of reducing the amount we throw away, reusing materials and recycling. To get that recycling rate up to 100% we might have to go further than reducing the size of bins and making it clear what we can and cannot recycle, and also make sure that people see the need for recycling and are enthusiastic about it.
Responses to this Blog post
J. Quinn says:
16.02.2010
Perhaps we should also get better at collecting recycling. GLASS. Yes I know you decided it was too expensive and too dangerous. Other councils consider it safe and collect easily. There is no way you can consider making bins smaller when you dont collect the basic recyalble materials, In cropwell bishop we have to drive to the glass recycling centre, fine if you have a car. Also dont forget if you nake the bins smaller and fail to increase what you collect then there will be an increase in fly tipping and stuff being taken to the local dump.....I wonder if your targets take into account rubbish disposed of this way?