by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The amount of refuse that local authorities have to collect and send to landfill dropped slightly during the year 2007.
The figures published by Defra recently show that municipal waste has fallen from 29.1m to 28.8m tonnes by the end of last year and the amount being landfilled had fallen from 16.9 to 15.8 tonnes.
The volume of household waste in collections also decreased from 25.8m to 25.6m tonnes, while residents boosted recycling from 30.9% to 33.9% between January and December.
The average amount of residual household waste per head in 2007 was 334kg compared to 353kg per head between April 2006 and March 2007.
Having, however, also seen the amount of household rubbish that is being fly tipped one does have to wonder how many people are really the good ones that do recycle and thereby keep stuff out of the landfills from household collections.
Has anyone, I wonder, checked on the amount of rubbish that is being landfilled that is being collected as fly tipped waste from parks and open spaces and the countryside?
According to minsters, the statistics, which still need to be finalised, are evidence that the efforts of local authorities and householders to cut waste are paying off.
Waste Minister Joan Ruddock said that her postbag is full of letters from people saying they want to recycle more.
"But”, the minister said, “unless they know their efforts are making a real difference, they won't keep trying. That's why statistics like these are so important.”
Statistics are only statistics. We need to have incentives to get people to recycle even more, and they will if they get paid in the end for their effort.
Such schemes in other countries, such as the Unites States, have shown that not only will this reduce the amount of waste that comes in from household collections, but that also there will be less litter in the municipal litter bins, as people will collect all those items that they can get money for at the reverse vending machines of the recycling centers, whether municipality run or private.
Obviously, there will always be the black sheep who will go and steal recyclables for resale but I think that such a minority should not stand in the way of having the same schemes put into operating in Britain.
Britain still is the dustbin of Europe and we put more waste into the ground than any other country in the European Union, and probably elsewhere.
And while this is costing the council taxpayer dearly in landfill taxes and councils dearly in fines it really is costing us all a lot more. Aside from the fact that we are rapidly running out of holes in the ground where to deposit all that waste.
Much of the non-recyclable and non-compostable waste that in the end has nowhere else to go could also, as it is done, per example, in Sweden, be burned in combined heat and power plants. Only problem there is that the NIMBYs arrive immediately, with the likes of the Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace in the forefront, says we must recycle, recycle, recycle.
Yes, indeed, we MUST recycle but... and the but is that not everything is recyclable. However, much of that which is not recyclable can be burned and heat and electricity be created from it. Why not?
© M Smith (Veshengro), August 2008
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Households are catching on when it comes to recycling, but only slowly
