Johnson plans to reward London recyclers
January 29, 2010 at 4:01 pm
London is one of the lowest-ranked major cities in the world when it comes to recycling levels, but that could all be about to change if Mayor Boris Johnson gets his way. He is backing a new scheme to improve recycling rates across the city and bin London’s poor reputation.
Named ‘Recycle Bank’, the scheme has already proved popular in the United States and Johnson is hoping the success will be mirrored here. As part of the scheme, households are given shopping vouchers based on how much they recycle at home, or they can choose to donate the money to charity instead. Johnson said that this would lead to about £14 per month extra coming into most households.
The mayor wants London to be on the same level as other major cities when it comes to recycling household waste. It currently has the lowest rates of recycling in England, and only about a quarter of the rubbish produced is currently recycled.
One of most important things for Johnson is to get more of the people living in flats and multi-occupancy buildings to recycle, especially when it comes to food waste. Currently half the homes in London fit this description, and this obviously presents its own challenges as they do not have gardens in which to compost their waste.
If the new scheme takes off and proves to be a success, it will form part of a larger plan for the Mayor who wants to save £90 million a year through greater investment in green technology and better recycling across the city.
Christmas waste could cost councils £78 million
January 22, 2010 at 4:13 pm
If you were left wondering what to do with your Christmas tree earlier this week, you could do worse than follow the example of London Mayor, Boris Johnson, who had the 65 foot tree in Trafalgar Square chipped, shredded and composted to be turned at a later stage into fertilising mulch.
In London alone, 35 tonnes of Christmas trees are thrown away, resulting in a large bill for landfill tax. The London Mayor was therefore urging all householders to take advantage of the recycling facilities for Christmas trees offered by all 33 London Boroughs. 27 of these will collect trees from homes whilst 26 also offer special collection points. Alternatively Christmas trees which have roots can be planted in the garden and dug up in time for next Christmas.
This advice follows the revelation that local councils for England and Wales could face a huge bill for disposing of Christmas waste in landfill. With householders sending almost 2 million tonnes of Christmas waste to landfill and councils being charged £40 tax per tonne, it is easy to see how a bill of around £78 million arises.
One celebrity supporting the recycling message in the run up to Christmas was Dame Judi Dench, who was encouraging people to recycle their Christmas cards through the Woodland Trust’s scheme. This enables householders to take their cards to special collection points in T K Max, Marks and Spencer and W H Smith and then go online to choose where they want trees to be planted using funding from the retail partners. For further details of the scheme see the Trust’s website.
Three ways to reuse old Christmas cards
January 13, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Each January we must tend to the undoing of a task which was full of excitement back in December. The party is over for another year and normality resumes. The tinsel and baubles are packed away (they have a duty to fulfil next year), but a pile of Christmas cards sit redundant.
Instead of reaching for the dustbin just yet, here are a few ideas to make more of old cards while also being good to the environment.
Recycle
The Woodland Trust is again running its annual scheme to recycle donated cards into paper products, the profits of which help fund tree planting throughout the UK. During January, cards can be deposited at Woodland Trust collection boxes, located at WHSmith, TK Maxx and Marks & Spencer stores.
The Trust is hoping to collect enough to facilitate the planting of fifteen thousand trees, helping towards sustaining the UK’s percentage of woodland area. Over the last twelve years, 13,080 tonnes of cards have been gratefully accepted, enabling 155,000 native trees to be planted across the country. Participants can even have a say in where the trees should be planted by voting on the Woodland Trust website.
Get Creative
Trying your hand at some home crafting can prove an enjoyable activity with family and friends. With a little glue and a pair of scissors, Christmas cards can be transformed into all kinds of new treasures, from games to decorations for next year’s festive season.
There are many websites offering tips on things to make from your old cards at home. Activity Village and Family Crafts offer step by step instructions for a raft of ideas, including gift boxes, gift tags, card ornaments, picture frames, new cards and jigsaw games.
Donate
Another rewarding way of dispensing with your old cards could be to donate them to charities and schools where they may be used for craft projects. You may, however, find some unable or unwilling to accept card donations. The best advice is to call beforehand.
A registered UK charity certainly accepting of donations is the Cobalt Appeal Fund. The charity, based in Cheltenham, aims to raise funds to facilitate the research, screening and diagnosis of cancer. A Christmas card scheme will run until January 22nd where all cards collected will be recycled into new ones ready for sale next autumn. For more information on the charity and where to send your used cards, please visit the website.
Social deprivation affects recycling rates
January 8, 2010 at 1:50 pm
It has long been recognised that social deprivation affects mortality and morbidity rates, mental health, educational success and a myriad of other outcomes but it now seems from recent research, carried out by WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), that recycling rates are also affected.
The more poverty stricken an area is, the lower its recycling rate is likely to be. Perhaps this should come as no surprise: after all, if a family is struggling to keep its head above water the last thing on its mind is finding time to separate its cardboard from its glass and its vegetable peelings from its plastics.
The study found that 25% of the differential in recycling rates between councils can be attributed to socio-economic and geographical factors. The more urban an area is, the poorer its recycling rate will be. Parts of Lincolnshire and the Cotswolds were amongst the best performers, whilst poor urban areas such as London’s Tower Hamlets and Newham were amongst the worst. The differentials were said to be “most pronounced at the extremes” i.e. in the most prosperous and most deprived areas.
A quick look at Tower Hamlets’ website reveals that recycling facilities appear to be good. Weekly collections are made of glass, cans, paper, card, aerosols, tetra paks and plastic bottles, none of which have to be separated, making it easy for householders. The majority of properties have recycling bins and, in the case of flats, shared bins. There are also 50 street recycling bins across the borough. Kitchen and garden waste is also collected for recycling and special provisions exist for large items such as furniture or cookers.
Cotswold residents are provided with a whole list of rules and regulations on their council website and also have to separate their recyclables into blue and black recycling sacks for different materials.
Many residents of Tower Hamlets will not have access to the internet and many will not speak or read English, even if they have the time and/or inclination to recycle. It would seem that the best way forward is through community education.
Brits failing to recycle enough at work
December 18, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Although we may well be responsible citizens when it comes to recycling at home, this good habit stops as soon as we get to work. This was the finding from a government commissioned survey carried out by Tickbox.net/Opinion Matters on behalf of the Centre for Information.
The survey found that we seem to have very different attitudes to recycling at home compared to at work, and it came up with many statistics to back this up.
Some of the most revealing findings were that:
- over 40% of us recycle plastic at home and not at work
- 33% of us don’t turn off electrical goods at the end of the day at work although we do at home
- 21% of us throw away items at work that could be recycled
- 21% of us print out emails unnecessarily
This is pretty shocking and begs the question as to why we can’t be bothered to recycle when at work. Perhaps it is the feeling that recycling is not our problem when we are in the office, or maybe we don’t have the financial incentive to be eco-minded at work because we are not saving our own money.
The results come after Defra recently launched a campaign urging small businesses to cut down on their waste and reduce their energy and water use, showing that saving energy can save money too.
Defra claims that businesses could save £6.4 billion through being more resource efficient and installing low-cost measures, and that doing so will also improve their image in the eyes of customers.
Conservatives to give vouchers to reward recycling
December 18, 2009 at 4:13 pm
The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, has said that if the Conservative Party win next year’s election they will reward households that increase the amount of rubbish they recycle. Conservative-controlled Windsor and Maidenhead Council have already piloted the plan. In order to meet EU targets the UK must reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill sites from 1995 levels by 25% in 2010 and by 65% in 2020.
The scheme mirrors the Recycle Banks that operate in over 500 cities in the United States. This has reduced the amount of landfill tax that each city pays and some of the money saved is funnelled back to individual households. It is an American company, RecycleBank, which operates the reward scheme for the council. On average households will be rewarded with £130 of shopping vouchers per year.
Residents are issued with special roadside recycling bins. Each has a unique barcode that is scanned by specialist equipment on the truck. The recycle bin is weighed and the information is linked to the household address on the RecycleBank Rewards Account website.
In his speech to the Green Alliance Mr Osborne was keen to emphasise the Conservatives’ reward initiative. ‘Carrots work better than sticks’, he said. This was to contrast their policy with the Government’s plan for a rubbish bin tax. Although the Conservatives’ proposal has been broadly welcomed by environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth, the charity Waste Watch was more cautious. It acknowledged that the scheme should spur households on to recycle but was concerned that we should all be encouraged to produce less waste in the first place.
A week of waste reduction campaigns
December 11, 2009 at 11:23 am
At the end of last month the UK joined nine other countries in the first annual European Week for Waste Reduction. This comes as the UK was criticised for failing to meet many of the European Union’s objectives for recycling and waste reduction.
2,151 national and regional campaigns took place. They promoted the various ways in which we as consumers can help to reduce the amount of rubbish that is dumped at landfill sites. The UK’s contribution was significant: 141 innovative campaigns were instigated by councils and waste management organisations.
Most of the initiatives were held in East Anglia, Wales and Scotland, and focussed on dealing with the waste produced by shoppers.
In Wales, 29 campaigns took place. These included swap events and initiatives encouraging the reduction of food waste. Reusable nappies and sustainable food purchasing were promoted, and the public were encouraged to refuse junk mail.
Owain Griffiths, head of Waste Awareness Wales, said: “The best way to ensure the least harm to our planet is to reduce the amount of rubbish we produce in the first place.” He suggested people be more selective about what they buy from the supermarket and that they choose products with no packaging.
An advertising campaign was also launched. It suggested that our unwillingness to recycle will negatively affect our children’s future. The advert depicts children struggling to recycle without their parents’ help.
In schools across Swansea swapping events were held. Pupils took in CDs, DVDs, games, books and toys to be recycled.
Scotland saw the initiation of 32 campaigns, and Belfast city council has planned a number of television and radio adverts.
In Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Peterborough buses promoting recycling travelled the streets.
In view of all these innovative schemes, it would appear that recycling is just one of many simple steps we can take to reduce the amount of waste that we generate.
Recycling label scheme nears target
December 4, 2009 at 4:23 pm
The festive season is approaching, a time when cash registers ring the sound of purchased gifts and food to fill the cupboards. But does your overflowing yuletide rubbish bin make you wonder if you could recycle more? The answer could be on your leftover packaging.
A new on-pack recycling label scheme launched earlier this year by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), has received its fiftieth signatory, ensuring the labels will be displayed on at least 50,000 products.
The scheme, operated by a not-for-profit company called On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) Limited, has been embraced by many of the country’s major brand names and retailers.
After only seven months, BRC looks on course to achieve its first-year target of sixty signatories.
BRC hope the standardized labels will succeed where it’s thought previous designs could fall short, by providing clear information to the consumer about how widely recycled certain materials are in local areas. The Waste and Resources Action Program (WRAP) will monitor local recycling facilities to ensure products are labelled accurately.
The labels indicate three categories:
- Widely recycled (65% or more of local authorities collect that packaging type in your area)
- Check local recycling (15-65%)
- Not currently recycled (less than 15%)
Concerns that previous labels had become potentially confusing for consumers has prompted worry that too much recyclable material is passing straight to landfill.
Chief Executive of WRAP, Liz Goodwin said, “Consumer confusion is a major barrier to the UK increasing its recycling rates,” adding that “the retail sector needs to collectively adopt this voluntary scheme to enable all of us to recycle more often."
Following a recent report from Friends of the Earth, featured on this website last month, revealing the staggering cost of Britain’s failure to recycle, this is a well-timed and encouraging step towards a greener approach.
Visit OPRL to sign up to the scheme or to see a list of existing members.
Tesco and ASDA sign up to BatteryBack
November 26, 2009 at 10:21 am
In May this year legislation was passed to bring into effect, in the UK, a three year old EU directive, obliging all large retailers and manufacturers of batteries to offer recycling facilities in-store by 1 Feb 2010.
The eventual aim is for 25% of all household batteries to be recycled by 2012, with the figure rising to 45% by 2016. Currently the huge majority of these are sent to landfill. Less than 3% of portable batteries are recycled, amounting to a staggering 30,000 tons each year.
Last month, just two days before the deadline for major retailers to say which scheme they would be joining, two of the UK’s largest supermarket names, ASDA and Tesco, allied themselves with BatteryBack, a compliance scheme run jointly by Leeds-based WasteCare and Veolia ES, a giant in the waste management industry.
ASDA, which manufactures and sells fifteen different makes of battery, has said that it will be aiming to have a recycling scheme up and running in its stores ahead of the 1 Feb 2010 deadline.
Tesco meanwhile plans to have its in-store takeback scheme operating in the New Year.
Morrisons was ahead of the game in that it was the first supermarket giant to have a collection scheme in many of its stores several months ago. It too has joined BatteryBack.
BatteryBack currently has over 2,000 collection points in the UK and they aim to increase this figure fifteen-fold to 30,000 by the end of 2010 and to double that figure to 60,000 by the end of 2012.
In order to find out where your nearest collection point is, just type your post code into the relevant box on the website.
Tesco tries to cut waste with BOGOF Later scheme
November 20, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Buy One Get One Free offers are an extremely effective marketing tool for supermarkets. After all, there’s nothing guaranteed to bring a smile to a shopper’s face like getting something for nothing. However, how often have you ended up throwing away the free item because you have not been able to use it in time?
There has been much publicity recently about the fact that in the UK a staggering one third of all the food that we buy ends up in the dustbin. Not only does this cost our pockets dearly, to the tune of around £420 a year for the average household, but there is also a huge environmental cost. 6.7 million tonnes of food go to waste each year and if this was stopped it would be equivalent, in terms of carbon emissions, to taking 20% of all cars off the road.
Now it looks as though Tesco are trying to do something about the problem, with an announcement a few days ago of a BOGOF Later scheme. This will mean that shoppers are given a voucher entitling them to their free item at a later date. It is hoped that the new initiative will start in stores before Christmas.
Tesco are proud of their “green consumer revolution” citing their competitive prices on items such as low energy light bulbs and low impact washing powder as evidence that they mean business.
Friends of the Earth on the other hand are sceptical, with a spokesperson saying that if Tesco want to help the planet it will take more than replacing BOGOFS with BOGOFLS.
