New recycling system in Bournemouth
Our new recycling system is apparently now up and running - the main problem for me at the moment is I keep forgetting to put the bins out and that the ‘big’ bin that is used for the recycled stuff is almost full already and we haven’t even put it out yet.
Once we get sorted it out will make our lives a lot easier as will not having overflowing recycling bins and the silly blue plastic bag lying around anymore. It will save us money on petrol too as we won’t need to go up to the dump quite so often.
I found an article about recycling the other day. It refers to a TV programme in which they say recycling doesn’t work. Here’s a link to a clip of the programme - it’s not particularly family friendly! This maybe true in terms of efficiency etc but I think that it’s the principle that is important. We can’t go on using stuff then putting it in holes in the ground (unless it’s been composted already!) - this might not seem so bad in the US but here in the UK land is not quite as available for landfill and nobody wants a landfill in their backyard.
You have to think about countries like China and India where they have huge populations. At some point they people are going to want all the stuff we have. If we don’t set the example of being serious about recycling and I guess in some ways reducing our consumption the waste produced by these countries will have a massive impact on the rest of the world.
The whole recycling system might not be efficient but really it is still in it’s infancy and hopefully retailers will get on the bandwagon and make their packaging more recycle friendly and people will demand more environmentally friendly packaging.
I think people sometimes miss the point with recycling it’s not just about separating the out the glass and paper etc. It’s about reducing your waste buying a particular product or shopping in particular shop.
It’s about reusing things, fixing things, taking them down to charity shop or freecycling them rather than dumping them in the bin.
It’s about setting up a compost heap in your garden and putting suitable waste on that so you can fertilize your garden easily and cheaply. Apparently 38% of all UK waste is organic waste that could be composted and contributes to creating greenhouses gases when put in landfill.
Once you have done those things then you can get down to sorting out the glass and paper!
The thing about all this stuff is it’s not rocket science, everyone can do and really there’s no excuse not to now - at least not Bournemouth anyway!
As well as this we have Freecycle & Bournemouth Recycle is for those that want to ‘recycle’ something rather than throw it away.
The aim is to stop perfectly good items being dumped and to be environmentally friendly.
This saves around 20% of items listed find a new home. Because of space needed people can’t hang on to big items and we are looking at a storage facility. A shop where better items can be taken is also planned.
Bill - I am actually a member of this group!