Nine-bin recycling system introduced

[Gary L]

Households have been told to separate cardboard from paper, and plastic bottles from glass, tins and aerosols.
The regulations have prompted fierce criticism, with people complaining that the scheme is too confusing and their homes do not have space for the various different bins and bags.


The new bin system by Newcastle-under-Lyme Council, north Staffordshire, includes a silver slop bucket for food waste, which is then emptied into a larger, green outdoor bin.
There is a pink bag for plastic bottles, a blue box for glass, foil, tins and aerosols, a green bag for cardboard and blue bags for paper and magazines.
Clothing and textiles go in a white bag, garden waste in a wheelie bin with a brown lid and non-recyclable waste in a separate grey wheelie bin.
If successful, the scheme – which is more rigorous than any previous recycling standards expected of households – is likely to be adopted by councils up and down the country.
Sylvia Butler, a retired teacher and former councillor, said houses on her terraced street had no gardens, but still had to find somewhere to put large wheelie bins for garden waste.
She said: “I’m all for recycling and used to help educate the kids about it during my geography classes, but expecting us to cope with nine different bins and bags is asking too much.

9 bins for every house left out on the street.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/gre...ntroduced.html

No. That sounds like a right pita.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Common sense seems to have gone out of the window with these draconian recyling requirements. I'm all for saving the planet, but equally the procedures put in place have to be reasonable and manageable for all involved in the chain.

My mother's local authority recently changed to a system that appears common with many authorities, gray wheely bin for stuff that isn't recyleable, food waste bucket, separate tin, glass plastic and paper / card. My mother is nearly 80, and remains quite active. But the stress she is now under for fear of getting it wrong, and wondering which bin should be used for every little item she has is intolerable.

[Peter_]

That is a step to far as most households would simply not have the room to comply.

We have a wheelie bin for rubbish, a wheelie bin for recyclable rubbish, a wheelie bin for grass cuttings and garden waste plus a bucket for food waste, we use all 4 of these as required.

I could well imagine on a windy day the bags blowing down the road.

[joglynne]

I don't think I could cope with any more bins but having some extra bags along with our existing bins is doable if it helps with recycling and keeps so much of our waste going into land fill sites.

We have 4 wheelie bins. 3 full size ones, black for tins,glass and some plastics, green for all garden waste and a blue bin for paper, cardboard and tetra packs. We then have a half sized grey bin for any other waste that our council doesn't yet recycle. We have to have a chart to see when each bin is emptied in the 4 weekly cycle.

I know it sounds bad but now it's all got going it seems to be working well. Some areas can't cope with the physical presents of so many bins per house but different locations for storage of the bins and/or different sizes of bins for groups of houses can be arranged.

[Gary L]

It's bad enough where there's only 2 bins to deal with. you see the bins scattered outside peoples houses and you mentally think that it's ok because it's 'green'
having to see up to 9 bins and bags outside every home in every street will just look a right mess.

I don't recycle at all. and there's no way I'd want to store 9 bins on my property either in our outside of it.

if they weren't recycling bins that were obstructing and littering the footpaths, you'd have the council telling you to move it. but as it's the council doing it then it's not an obstruction or litter.

This is how recycling works.

So how come my local council have set up a system of grey bins for everyday rubbish,green bins for everything else(unsorted)except glass.Green bags for composting stuff which is sold back to us as compost.If they can employ people to sort it through at the recycling center(mostly East Europeans) why can't the rest?In fact I'm mighty impressed by those that run the nearest recycling center as they work hard and do the job really well.

The glass is sorted by us and taken to the bottle banks that are available in the large seafront car park where it costs nothing to park and unload recycled stuff like glass and old clothing.

There is no need for 9 bins it's just that some local councils have taken the easy route and not bothered to find or sort out a local company to do the work.Ours tendered it out to a local company.

I certainly don't recognised the following

It replaced the old system of five different bins, which is commonly used across the country, with the aim of boosting the rate of recycling from 26 per cent in 2008 to 50 per cent by 2015

The only way they will get 50% is to make ALL retailers use packaging that is ALL recyclable by local authorities.at the moment not all plastics are recyclable and I have to place them in ordinary rubbish which makes me fume.Time they went after the supermarkets in my opinion rather than target householders all the time.

If they try to institute this round my way then they will have to charge me less tax as I'm not doing all their work for them.For one thing I have no room for 9 bins.and the three I already have take up too much room.
Also 9 bins will be an eyesore where people keep all their bins in their front yards/gardens.

[dilli-theclaw]

NO - I don't like the idea at all. I know it's me being selfish again but I have enough trouble negotiating things on bin day as it is. Then there is the little teeny (food here) bins, brown here - at least make them a bright colour.

[Stuart]

I can see people just looking at this, thinking "sod it" then throwing enough of the correct item into each bin/bag to make it look like they are following the rules and chucking the rest in the gray wheelie bin.

Make things too hard and, at best, people don't do them properly, and at worst, people try not to do them.


Apart from the fact that they won't usually collect garden waste (not without charging), and actively discourage wheelie bins (they will empty them, but will not supply them and do ask people not to use them), I think my council pretty much have it right.

We have one standard size bin for general waste, one green box for tins/glass/plastics (although they won't accept "soft" plastics like yoghurt pots) and one for paper/cardboard.

As for the other stuff, well, we do have quite a few bottle and clothes banks dotted around the area..

Oh, and they also ask that residents don't put rubbish out any earlier than 12 hours before it is due to be collected. I think this is partly because we have a problem with foxes, and partly for the smell. Sadly, people tend to ignore that request.

[Taf]

Our council has started food waste recycling (including bones, meat, etc UNCOOKED too!). This waste goes into a biodegradeable, flimsy bag which must then be added to the green garden waste green wheelie. Apparently it will be composted at a higher temperature than the garden waste.... but it all gets poured into the same truck and dumped together the the depot... the white bags mostly ripped open!

Considering they won't accept kitchen waste like teabags "in case they are contaminated with dairy products" how come they accept garden waste that could well with contaminated with dairy animals!!! ?

I think we should all start selling our waste to the council.....

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Thomas T

NO - I don't like the idea at all. I know it's me being selfish again but I have enough trouble negotiating things on bin day as it is. Then there is the little teeny (food here) bins, brown here - at least make them a bright colour.

I don't think you're being selfish at all. It's not too much to ask that streets are tidy enough for people with disabilities to get around them.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by danielf

I don't think you're being selfish at all. It's not too much to ask that streets are tidy enough for people with disabilities to get around them.

That's certainly not selfish. Thomas is legally blind so any obstructions like this would make things difficult for him. Also, it could make things difficult for wheelchair users as well, because the chairs are not that maneuverable, and some pavements are narrow enough that it is difficult to get a wheelchair up.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Gary L

I don't recycle at all.

Why doesn't that surprise me? Maybe we should bury you in landfill

We have fairly painless recycle, one container for paper, one for nearly everything else and a bucket for organic waste.

Not a huge hardship to progressively fill those throughout the week.

9 is ridiculous overkill and makes people indifferent. Recycling should be a fairly painless thing to be done as a matter of routine, not a Krypton Factor test.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Why doesn't that surprise me? Maybe we should bury you in landfill

We have fairly painless recycle, one container for paper, one for nearly everything else and a bucket for organic waste.

Not a huge hardship to progressively fill those throughout the week.

9 is ridiculous overkill and makes people indifferent. Recycling should be a fairly painless thing to be done as a matter of routine, not a Krypton Factor test.

Actually, the scheme outlined above does not have nine bins. It has four bins and five bags. I agree it's overkill though. It would be better imo to have the separation done by staff at the recycling center. It will mean an increase in council tax, but there you go.

Oh, and I'm not using a slop bucket. I had one a couple of years back, and they're a nightmare. The bin stinks to high heavens in summer.

[LondonRoad]

I'd be able to comply and would but I'd see it being unworkable for most people.