Forum Topic

Recycling for Flats

More collaborative work has been done on this.There are plenty of problematic reasons making it more difficult for flat dwellers to recycle but all the same many choose to make the little effort needed to do something to reduce the amount of their waste so that more can be reused instead of being burned.  Some recyclates are more valuable than others.Years ago we had Blue Peter to show us the difference between the non-recyclable plasticised foil eg crisp packets and the silver foil milk bottle tops - there was the Scrunch Test.  We also used magnets if we weren't sure whether cans were made from aluminium or steel.  At that time we collected and squashed aluminium cans for charity.Aluminium is costly to mine and make but easy to recycle and reuse again and again as the Eddie Izzard adverts we used to see on TV told us.  Burn it and it is gone for ever - a lost resource - even if we'd prefer it not to make another plane...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0TE2xLqRZg

Philippa Bond ● 2375d7 Comments

WRAP has done a lot of work with companies - for instance lightweighting Heinz cans and lightweighting glass bottles and plastic milk bottles.  This should make it much easier to crush those plastic milk bottles and cans which also stops them rolling around and reduces their volume in your recycling box.  Remember that aluminium is lost forever if sent to EfW - so try and get all your all your clean aluminium into your recycling box!  You can find a lot of interesting info on WRAP's work on their website.There is also info on trials of food waste recycling.

Philippa Bond ● 2335d

"About WRAP First established in 2000, WRAP is a not for profit organisation and registered charity whose vision is a world where resources are used sustainably. WRAP works with governments, businesses and communities to deliver practical solutions to improve resource efficiency. Our mission is to accelerate the move to a sustainable resource-efficient economy through: i. re-inventing how we design, produce and sell products,ii. re-thinking how we use and consume products, andiii. re-defining what is possible through re-use and recycling"From the WRAP website

Philippa Bond ● 2372d

I totally agree about food waste but collecting food waste from flats is a bit more problematical than collecting from houses. It can be done and the WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Plan) has collected and published information from trials.  The beauty of getting a food waste collection going before any other separation is that it immediately makes the remainder of the waste less smelly, wet and difficult to deal with AND you get to see exactly what FOOD you are throwing away EACH WEEK because the collection is weekly AND can start to think about how to save MONEY by buying less or differently and finding new recipes and better ways to store particular items. With us we changed to buying smaller loaves of bread because they went mouldy.  You don't save money on a cheaper bigger loaf if you can't eat it!  And we still use the freezer for some every so often. I see that Guy Lambert has been around an Anaerobic Digestion plant and has a write-up in his blog.  Maybe they will offer trips to more Councillors, officers and residents?At the moment I'm irritated by bags of uncollected road sweepings that have been sitting on the pavement for several weeks now and as a result they are collecting litter on top of them including those valuable and easy to recycle aluminium drinks cans from lazy passers-by - too lazy to even squash the cans to stop them blowing/rolling around. (The bags are in LBE and I've reported them.)Recycling is easy and it gets even easier step by step.

Philippa Bond ● 2372d

Despite the supposedly complicated system the recycling rate for kerbside is above 50%.In fact the overwhelming majority of residents have got used to the 'new' scheme and do a good job of dealing with the various boxes correctly.Our food waste recycling rate is not bad, but food is heavy and recycling (actually anaerobic digestion) it saves us over £100 per tonne compared with incineration so we'll be encouraging more take up kerbside and piloting it in blocks of flats this year.

Guy Lambert ● 2373d

That's all very well Philippa but the public by and large is frankly idle - they just want to be rid of their rubbish!  End of story.  They want to bung it into a bin and for it to vanish.  There will have to be severe penalties forced on those "obdurates" who refuse to comply with the requirements to recycle.    Recycling needs to be as easy as falling off a log,otherwise busy people rushing home from work late just will not bother.  It's mostly the old and retired where I live that recycle properly and tidily - most of the rest make an half-hearted attempt with mixed results.  Ideally kerbside sorting produces the best, cleanest, recycling BUT mostly it ain't going to happen - we still need stuff to be sorted at the depot - with modern machines that has to be the easiest option and at the end of the day cheaper than providing multitude bins, boxes bags for every household and the complicated trucks needed to collect it.    Food waste should be the easiest thing for households to recycle so why not concentrate on that to start with and INSIST it's done properly with penalties if it is not.

Jennifer Selig ● 2373d

I agree.  Usually it is the can't-be-bothered fraternity who insist that everything is "too difficult".  I wish those that make such an effort to make it easier for them would realise that.  Here is the copy and paste link that I forgot to post last night:https://www.letsrecycle.com/news/latest-news/resource-london-details-challenge-flats-recycling/

Philippa Bond ● 2374d

Maybe more collaborative work has been done on recycling for flats, but certainly where I live, in the new development where I live, there seem to be too many flat dwellers who remain either ignorant or arrogant about recycling. Forcibly stuffing large quantities of bubblewrap into a plastics bin that clearly shows (and names) only bottles and pots as being suitable for recycling means that the bin rightly enough has not been emptied. And now our second, larger container for plastics has been contaminated with large sheets of plastic foam sheets so this too will remain unusable for those who wish to recycle. I've known for many years that any plastic you can either fold or can break easily doesn't belong in a plastic recycling bin but in normal household rubbish. And that includes the plastic bag you use to carry recyclable pots or bottles to the bin. It's not a difficult task to recycle. Sadly too many individuals seem to think it is.

Sue Rowe ● 2374d