In a pickle over waste

Great news about the government’s latest u-turn: Eric Pickles’ plans for weekly bin collections are to be dropped.

‘Forcing’ households to sort their waste has resulted in positive increases in recycling across the country. I know this not only from the news and statistics, but from personal experience, too. Members of our families have started taking a much more active role in recycling. They don’t share our idealism about saving the planet – they are simply making sure they have enough room in their dustbin for a fortnight. Different reasons, but same result: more recycling, less waste going to landfill.

Had the weekly collections been forced upon councils, too many people would have gone back to the lazy days of not having to sort their rubbish.

The ‘greenest government ever’ (not) surely couldn’t argue with these outcomes, but it appears that the climb down is financial rather than environmental. Oh well, different reason, same result: we all need to keep recycling to save room in our black bin.

The biggest issue, of course, comes with food waste. Leave that in bins or bags for a fortnight and it can – and does – lead to problems. But the solution isn’t to bring back weekly collections. We have our own compost bins, but I’m always funny about adding food waste to them – ever since I inadvertently spiked a mouse who was feasting inside a heap I was turning with a fork!! We pre-treat our food waste in a bokashi composter, but they are only small and sometimes all ours are full. We’ve got a wormery, but they are very fussy eaters – no onions or acidic fruit etc etc – I don’t have the time to sort it all sometimes.

Fortunately, in Stratford on Avon, our district council is really good about recycling and we can put food waste in our green bin or black bin. So, effectively, people do have a weekly collection of food waste. Personally, I put excess food waste in the green bin – it’s thick plastic and no rodents can get in. Mixed with the garden waste, the smell’s no worse either – never had any issues with flies.

Watching Springwatch on the rubbish dump last night, they reckon about a third of our food is wasted. OK it provides a meal for gulls and cute fox families, but if we could get more councils offering green waste collections – at no extra charge – and allowing kitchen as well as garden waste in them, it would make a massive difference – now there’s some food for thought, Mr Pickles!


Debbie Griffiths www.idealCSR.co.uk