What a Load of Rubbish

This week, my local council managed to pick up our household waste on the agreed collection day for the first time since October. This hasn't been all their fault but it has really been a bone of contention with me as they don't seem to have any problems in collecting my Council Tax. Nevertheless, they do appear to have caught up and have even collected the recycling which I was having to take to a recycling depot.

In fact, it's surprising just how much household waste can be recycled. Theoretically, everything could be recycled - after all, it is all composed of the same 92 elements - but it is always going to be a law of decreasing returns as more and more effort is spent on treating smaller amounts of waste. Despite this, I don't think that anything like enough effort is made to recycle in the UK and I think a good deal of the blame for this lies with local authorities. Ultimately, waste can either be recycled or not but, despite this, there is huge variation amongst councils as to what they will and won't recycle. Some councils seem to offer a worse recycling service than if they just left it to the local Scout troop, rag and bone man or Blue Peter appeal to sort out. Others are better.

Our local council do make a reasonable stab at things: Glass, metal cans, type 1 and 2 plastics, paper and old clothes are all (usually) collected from the roadside on a weekly basis and, usefully, cardboard can be put in the organic garden waste bin - apparently this mix produces first class compost. Additionally, they do recycle larger items including electricals, white goods, bicycles and so on if they are taken to the recycling centre. However, there are still other items that are just expected to be sent to land fill, such as other types of plastics and Tetrapak which other councils will take. In turn, other councils will take similar items but in a different manner. All this means that the householder will often put items in landfill rather than risk having some snotty council employee refuse to take them or even refuse to take anything.

It always strikes me that those in charge of waste disposal are more than happy to blame the general public for producing waste and there are even examples of councils using fines for really petty reasons (such as an overfilled wheelie bin or putting it out on the wrong day) whilst refusing to accept that Britain, in general, is a disgraceful tip. Just look at your nearest roadside or hedgerow and it is filled with litter. Travel to neighbouring countries such as France or Germany and you will not see this. I don't think this is necessarily a lack of civic pride in this country because most people I know want to dispose off waste responsibly and in the most environmentally safe way possible - it's just that those we pay to deal with this don't want to.

I think it's about time that waste disposal was given some sort of priority. Couldn't we have a single recycling policy for the whole country - or at least for Scotland? It would allow us to recycle more and it should work out cheaper as the costs of running the schemes would be shared. Then, maybe, we could spend the savings on employing more people to deal with the waste rather than bitching about it. I can't see it happening any time soon - not when our elected officials want to cut public services and spend money on starting wars and bailing out crooks.