Oh NO! The binmen haven’t been! (Waste disposal)

Member Name: ihatebroccoli

Product:	Waste disposal
Date:	12/11/00 (460 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reusing products produces less waste in the first place

Disadvantages: Relying on goodwill recycling is not enough.

RECYCLING

I have visited other European countries, such as Germany and Denmark, where recycling is a much bigger feature of daily life in the home. I think a huge aspect of the lack of recycling is down to parents not encouraging their kids to recycle. If it is part of a daily routine they become used to it, and it is another activity which parents can share with their children. As a child I was, and still am, very aware of litter dropping, and it’s something which I cannot abide, and which I can see no excuse for. I think the penalties for littering should be much higher, and I think there should actually be someone there to impose them. I realise there is no longer the “Bobby on the Beat” to check up on aspects such as this, but if you are going to have a law, surely it should be adhered to, and the punishments enforced.

I think, though, people really need an incentive to recycle. The consequences of excess waste do not directly affect the majority of people, and so they don't feel the need to bother. The binmen come once a week, and that's the last people see of all their rubbish - that's *it* as far as they’re concerned. To be fair, awareness of this issue has been brought up again and again, although the recent Mark Lamarr campaign of adverts on TV seems to have done little to alleviate the problem. There needs to be some kind of albeit basic reward scheme if you will, for recycling. Like, a “recycling card” or something. Back when I was at school, the positive aspects of recycling were always instilled in us - always collecting milk bottle foils, or crushing cans etc... The old system of returning glass bottles seems to have dwindled also.

To be fair, not all areas are provided with recycling collection services and boxes – but this in itself is “recycling being handed to you on a plate”. It is the laziest thing! Where I used to live, I would always take my magazi
nes to be recycled, and not having a car, this was often difficult. The one thing I was usually reluctant to lug about was glass bottles. If you have a car on the other hand, I think you pretty much owe it to the environment to put something back – you’re churning out fumes anyway, so why not use your car to drive to the recycling bank and do something useful and worthwhile. There’s no excuse really – it’s just pure laziness. Bottle banks are *everywhere*, usually in supermarket car parks, or library car parks etc… Paper banks are equally common.

Another thing that annoys me, is when plastic bottles bought from supermarkets and made from materials such as Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP), such as shampoo bottles, say “can be recycled” on the back, yet the supermarket never seem to offer recycling facilities for this kind of plastic in amongst their recycling banks, or tell you where you can go to recycle their product packaging. It all comes down to ease of use. If it’s not easy to recycle, then people won’t bother. I’m talking about materials such as plastics etc… not cans, glass and newspapers, which can *easily* be recycled. There are even “Humana” or other boxes for clothes recycling, if you don’t want to take your clothes to a charity shop.

I think rewards for recycling is one answer – many a time I have seen people in the city centre collecting cans to take for recycling, because they know it is worth *something* (not a lot, but money is money). I recently noticed in a local newsletter, that a competition was being advertised in relation to recycling. I read further, and it said: If you place your entry form in a clear glass jar or bottle, in your recycling box, then you will automatically be entered into a competition to win a mountain bike. Now, whether this was actually the case, I know not, but *the idea* was there. The concept of a re
ward for recycling - it’s a start.

REUSING

Reusing has got to be another answer – the Milkman has been phased out in a lot of streets – so everyone now buys milk from supermarkets in 4litre plastic bottles, which then get binned in most cases – so, no reusing there anymore! It’s much better thinking prevention rather than cure in this case – there is never going to be a “cure” for the waste problem that we have. The only way that waste production will be reduced is to reduce usage, and therefore to re-use.

Disposable Nappies have got to be one of the main culprits in the lack of reusing, but it is a difficult issue to tackle. Reusable nappies have many disadvantages today, and disposable nappies are more convenient, quicker, cleaner, and apparently cause fewer “nappy rashes”. They may have been used for centuries before the disposable came along, but so were a lot of things! And we don’t get treated at the doctors with leeches anymore!

There is only one high street shop that I know of, who offer the chance to reuse their packaging, and that is The Body Shop. Supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi charge for carrier bags, and Sainsbury’s, M&S and Tescos etc. offer “A Bag for Life”, where you can reuse a strong carrier bag (bought for 15p in Sainsbury’s for example), until it wears out, and then they’ll replace it.

PACKAGING

No one can deny it. We all love packaging. That is what draws us to products, enables us to associate items and services with products, and it makes even the dullest goods look attractive. How often have you bought a product based on the way the *box* looks? Very often I should think, whether subliminally or otherwise.

The amount of excess packaging that I see on a daily basis is unbelievable! I am shocked quite frankly. Boxes inside boxes in plastic trays and bubblewrap… it’s so unnece
ssary. I realise that products have to be protected during transit, but why can they not be reused for the next journey, especially if it is for dry goods?

Brand names are one of the biggest culprits here. Coca Cola is one of the biggest brand names in the world, but also generates a huge amount of rubbish from fast food outlets etc.. and from cans and bottles which are not recycled. There is no incentive to recycle these items, so why, thinks the customers, should I do it. Perhaps if a system such as the selling of a Coke bottle for more money to the customer, and then reimbursing them the remainder of the cost, when they recycle it, could be introduced. I’m not quite sure how this would work on a large scale, but at least it’s an idea. Where are the suggestions and discussions on this subject at government level? They may not think this is the most important subject on the agenda *now*, but what about the future? If issues such as the future health and education of our children are first on the list, then why not the future environment in which they will live!?



I don’t think the buying of recycled products should be incentivised as such, but rather the recycling of the product itself. If the consumer gets money off the recycled product, they will not necessarily associate that with recycling, just with getting the product cheaper. If incentives are provided for recycling the products themselves however, there is a direct link between physically *taking* a piece of packaging to a recycling bank and financially (as well as environmentally) benefiting from it.

Another aspect to consider is the blatant wastage of paper by conscious parties. By this I mainly mean groups such as Paperboys and girls who dump the local newspapers just so that they don’t have to deliver them. There should surely be penalties for this kind of activity. Hopefully, if recycling was more of a daily activity in the home, as in othe
r European countries, there would be less of this, as children would respect the recycling process a little more, and realise that being lazy about both the way they earn money and the consequences of dumping huge reams of paper, is not a good idea.

Offices and businesses are another huge culprit section of society when it comes to recycling. Putting your waste paper through the shredder is not necessary for *every* document, so why not have a recycling bank in the car park, and paper recycling boxes in the office. Drinks machines are provided in most offices, why not have a can recycling bank, or box too.


Getting rid of the old CFC emitting burger and egg boxes and deodorant cans, and changing the ring pull system on cans seems to have been the last major changes to the packaging of everyday products in relation to the environment. I can’t think of anything really major more recently, and perhaps this is why recycling and using environmentally friendly packaging is not foremost in people’s minds. Awareness needs to be increased. Waste disposal might not be at the top of everyone’s agendas, but if the binmen don’t collect on time, there is uproar! It will go round and round with everyone blaming everybody else, unless someone takes charge, and that someone has to be the government.

Perhaps we should look to nature too, as the majority of waste there is reused, and made into something very useful such as housing, food, or ways of improving daily activities. I know that recycling alone isn’t the answer, but it’s something, and if awareness can only be raised a little by recycling incentives, or educating by teaching in schools or whatever, surely that will be an improvement. Reusing, in my opinion is a cleaner alternative, and has been somewhat phased out with the whole packaging warfare. I think it should be re-introduced, and trendified somehow, but how to go about this, only the marketing and adver
tising spinners can know.

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