CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Recycling bins face axe in favour of single container"
(30 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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Yes please! The number of boxes, bins and bags we have is ridiculous. As is the complicated system for working out which box/bag/bin should go out on which day/week/fortnight/month.
Posted 12 years ago # -
About time, I never use the kerbside recycling. I can never remember what days to put it out, what goes where etc etc. I just have a big box in the kitchen where all the recyclables go and it gets sorted at the supermarket when I'm there any way.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Girl in the photo should have taken the lid off her milk jug. Tsk.
Posted 12 years ago # -
When I was off over Christmas I actually saw my recycling getting collected (I'm easily entertained). It seems that the cardboard and plastics that I seperate into a box and bag all get wanged into the same big bin lorry, but the cans and bottles which go in one box are seperated at the kerbside by the bin men. How can this possibly make sense?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Probably because just now, the plastic and cardboard go straight into landfill as the cost of recovering these is not economical.
They are training us for the future when the increasing cost of landfill and petrochemicals will mean that they go to 60% re-use of recycling materials by 2017. 60% re-use of recycled materials
A similar thing happened in 1939-45. The govt encouraged everyone to cut down their wrought iron railings for smelting, but in truth 90% of them were left to rust in railway sidings and the whole thing was an exercise if morale. Similar to recycling.Compost, cans and glass recycling is economical. The rest- the emperor has no clothes.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Well I just ordered a blue box for my glass recycling, hope they don't take it back off me!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Errm, cardboard is recycled in great volumes simply because there is nothing like enough virgin board produced in Europe to satisfy demand. Plastics have in the past been shipped back to China where they can be cracked to Diesel fuel, recycled or just burned as a fairly dirty fuel.
Posted 12 years ago # -
As a tenement-dweller, I think our recycling facilites are good. One bin for paper, another for cardboard, tins, plastics, another for glass. All within easy distance of the front door. The obvious thing missing is compostables, but I can't think of an easy way to do that in a flat.
I remember visiting friends who were living in Germany in the late 1990s and even then they had to sort all their rubbish for recycling - all the recyclables were taken away for free but they had to pay for the stuff that went to landfill, IIRC.
Posted 12 years ago # -
In Midlothian, we already have a single blue bin for recycling home rubbish. Before we used to have two compact boxes. In the garden now, we have 1 black bin (non-recyclable), 2 brown bins (garden waste) and the blue bin. These are all full size wheely bins. At some point we should get a food waste bin.
Posted 12 years ago # -
There's no requirement to bag the plastics, they are supposed to just go in the red box along with the cardboard. I tend to keep the plastic together at the top as it all compresses down more efficiently that way.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Recycling plastic is a nonsense Please click the link.
Even before the economic downturn, when the transport cost to China was essentially free.
Cracking/burning/melting is a dirty process, much worse than the landfill issue- but if we shift the pollution to China, then it is their problem, even though it makes global pollution much worse. The emperor has no clothes.
Why seperate cardboard from plastic at the kerb, then mix it all back up in the lorry, mechanical seperation isn't possible so it would have to be done manually on a conveyor belt. Insane.Posted 12 years ago # -
The obvious thing missing is compostables
I ordered a blue bin for glass - as I saw that the Gillespie's School site has been closed for building works, and it's quite a way to the next nearest glass recycling site for me. Gillspies already 1/2 mile.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I'm afraid I put as much weight to the DM as I do the EEN. Less than 55% of European cardboard demand in Europe is met by virgin board, from woodpulp, where does the rest come from?
Burning the plastic may be worse, in short term, than letting it decompose but at least getting the energy out is better than letting it degrade to various gases and dangerous acids in the long term. Once that plastic leaks in to the drinking water you're going to wish some Chinese man was burning it in his taxi!
Manual separation is seen as a "good thing" in some parts as it is easy work to hand out by the local authority and it keeps the jobs local with money they can offset to a tax they would otherwise have to pay. Why not let the household lump it all together for kerbside, my money, the council haven't thought it through. "Packaging" is the catch all elsewhere.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Single container! Great - if they'll let us have one.
We live in tenement flat but have kerbside collection, also put food waste in grey box, and have a brown bin and compost in communal yard. All works great, except that we clog up landing with our boxes. Wheelie bin that goes in garden woud be fine.
I can see why tenements w/out gardens would struggle to compost, but grey bins should solve that.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Just to balance the partiality of the DM article with some facts from a Quango, not saying they have any less bias but the truth will be somewhere in the middle. Plus this a little more upto date.
As far as I can understand from the complex recycling legislation in the UK, plastic is worth about £30 a tonne to the Council not a lot but its better than landfill tax. Paper a scant £1.25 a tonne but has been in demand for decades. The other old staple Glass; £75 a tonne.
To the re-processor the price they can sell the plastic is more of the order of £200 to £400 per tonne. So not the valueless storage hog made out by the Daily Mail... what a surprise.
Posted 12 years ago # -
How much is a tonne of Daily Mails worth? If it's anything like £1.25, I'm happy to chip in a tenner a week to take 8 tonnes of printed hatred and misinformation off the shelves.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@fimm, do you have food waste bins yet? They've introduced them where I live. You get a small food waste caddy and (biodegradable) liner bags. Once full/smelly these get emptied into the on-street food waste bins. Apparently the waste is taken to a new anaerobic digester plant where it's turned into biogas for electricity generation, and sterile fertliser.
We compost our own veg/fruit peelings, teabags/coffee grounds etc. at the community allotment site,. So it's just (stale) cooked leftovers, meat/bones, baked goods, dairy, etc. that ends up in the food waste.
For glass our nearest points are outside the primary school and the local supermarket. Batteries can be recycled at Scotmid, plastic bags outside the supermarket.
Posted 12 years ago # -
You could try emailing waste@edinburgh.gov.uk to ask where your food caddy is.
Our street seemed to get missed out from the initial drop off, but we go some within a few days of me sending an email.
Posted 12 years ago # -
little known fact: even though the original bumpf said you had to use biodegradable bags or newspaper to wrap food waste, they now say it is okay to just use any plastic bag.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@SRD, we were given a supply of caddy liners by the council. We also use the biodegradable bags that some supermarkets (eg. Scotmid) provide if you haven't brought your own bag for the shopping.
I think they have a process which separates the packaging, bags, etc. from the food waste at the digester plant.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@Crowriver yes, everyone got those. and we pinched the spares from our neighbours who didn't ever use their boxes :)
Posted 12 years ago # -
No, we don't have that food waste recycling facility, which sounds excellent. However we do have a glass recycling facility as well as paper and packaging in our street, and there are a number of places I can take batteries and old clothes to.
(Is there some kind of stereotype going on with the Gorgie resident having easy access to the bottle bank, while those in the "nicer" parts of town are thought to be more interested in making compost?) ;-)
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
(Is there some kind of stereotype going on with the Gorgie resident having easy access to the bottle bank, while those in the "nicer" parts of town are thought to be more interested in making compost?) ;-)"
Almost certainly...
Gorgie residents can't afford to throw out so much food??
I'm surprised that it's 'economic' to do it. The on-street bins are relative small, though I suspect the contents will be denser/heavier than the packaging bins.
They have an annoying flap system (bit like the sanitary towel bins) - presumably to keep flies/rats out - too small though.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I can imagine that the council monitor the usage of recycling facilities by area. Perhaps they have introduced food waste bins in areas which already have reasonably high recycling rates? I haven't spotted the food waste bins further north in Leith proper, for instance.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I'm surprised that not everywhere has the food recycling bins. We've had them in my bit of EH9 for ages (a year or two?). The normal bin bags now weigh almost nothing as they get filled up mostly with plastic wrappers.
Judging by the EEN article though, the recycling collection is going to get more complex, not more simple. Instead of putting out a box and the food bin every week, you'll have to put out the recycling bin, a glass box and the food bin. A step backwards.
Also from the EEN article it sounds as if the council is thinking about removing the recycling collection from tenements and making us go back to using the on-street recycling collection bins. Another step backwards.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@cc, we only got ours last year, whilst just the other side of London Road they've been in evidence since 2011. Seems I was wrong about Leith too:
"Over 280 food waste recycling points have been rolled out to streets and developments in Leith, Craigentinny/Duddingston , Portobello/Craigmillar Forth, Inverleith and Leith Walk wards. The service will expand city wide to ensure that all residents have access in 2013. "
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/1055/recycling/435/recycling_points/3
Posted 12 years ago # -
Also: "To line your kitchen caddy you can now use old plastic bags such as old sandwich bags, freezer bags or carrier bags. You can still also use compostable liners or wrap the food in newspaper."
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/1055/recycling/429/kerbside_recycling_service/3
Posted 12 years ago # -
I (EH9) have the food waste bins, they're really good. Food waste goes in the bag in the small caddy, which has a locking lid to keep smell in, flies out. When bag is full, it goes in a slightly larger bin with a locking lid that goes out on the street once a week. We don't have the on-street food waste bins, even though it's a tenement. I generally put mine out once a fortnight. Because the bin for the street is small and is closed 99.9% of the time, I've never had a problem with smell, even though it's kept in my house and it can get quite full.
Marchmont Hardware sells the compostible bags. Note that the "biodegradable" bags given out by shops are not necessarily compostable - they have some starch chains in the plastic mix which break down over time, resulting in the powder of plasticy snow, but that is still hydrocarbon-based plastic residue. This design of bag is designed to stop "witches knickers" bag waste and large segments of bags which can get wrapped around animals or ingested.
However the council's website now says "the compostable liner, plastic bag or newspaper". I wouldn't use the latter as the waste can release a lot of water as it begins to break down - particularly vegetable matter, and I dread picking a lump of newspaper out the caddy to find the bottom fall out and rotten vegetables all over the floor.
Posted 12 years ago #
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