Zero waste. Overcoming Apathy of councils?

Question

My local council are eejits. They send out tons of junkmail regularly informing us that we must recycle, but then make totally negative statements EG:

"We do not provide recycling for plastic milk bottles because the bottles are not worth the cost of collection."

They have turned down the idea to create a shop selling salvage saying the site, which burnt down recently, is not suitable... they are selling off other sites the council owns which would be suitable!

The community isn't being taken seriously.

The way we can achieve zero-waste is documented here

for FREE:

http://www.the-alternative.org.uk

See: Chapter 9: Waste

(Reasons why plastics should be recycled also listed).

Any ideas how we can overcome the communication gap and make councils take the necessary action?

Answer 1

Hello

I think here your council needs to word their mail better. The fact is that sending lorry loads of plastic around is not worth it environmentally. It would create more carbon than reducing it. That said if it is collected in a collection at the same time but not together (source separated) it would be more efficient. The final issue here is that there is not enough facilities across the U.K. that actually accept plastic for recycling and it may just be that your area has limited facilities.

Worry not too much and do your part as you can. You go to supermarkets right? take plastic to their banks  (closed loop, no car journey needed sepcially and the supermarket instead of tax payers pays for it to be recycled)

Can I get a Heck Yeah!?!

Answer 2

i don't see why councils shouldn't recycle. or companys that use pacaging. it is not you or i that manufactur or steal these materials from the earth. super markets are the worst. everything is packaged. i realy don't think any packaging is nessisary for the majority of items and everything is biodegadable, there is no exseption! if left to the elements whatever it is will erode, corrode, etc... i dont have a problem with the use of neucliar power, i do have a problem with how it is used, firstly radio active isotopes are used in munitions, secondly large companys use far greater amonts of electrisity than is used in a domestic setting. for instance the council has street lights on all night long who at 2am is out? talk about waste! and these conglomerats recive discounts for using such large amounts of electrisity. as a kid 20+ years ago i would return home with pockets filed with other peoples litter only to find out it would have been better left to nature. the worst thing i think with our "modern" (thats a bad joke) attatude is we seem to think we know better than nature. WE DON'T! we have littered our environment with citys, houses roads, and cut grass because we think it looks better(HA!) there is a greater problem. no insects, no pollination, no pollination, no food! we cease to exsit. 15000 thousand years ago the native american peoples alterd there whole attatued towards the earth. mammoth, rino, cammel and horse all extinct due to ignorance and a lack of respect. i think, the wage they had to pay was 95% of the people of the land in a verry small number of years where extingwished. the only thing that saved them was the fact they learnd from there mistake. and befor europeans went not a single spices became extinct.

Answer 3

Hi, contact Bath and Northeast Somerset council!!!!! They have a very good recycling scheme, milk bottles, glass, tins, paper, cardboard,garden cuttings and even car batteries and cooking oil.

I think  people power makes it work.

Mind you, in other areas they are absolute rubbish at their jobs!!!!!

MooMoo

Answer 4

Well my council is even better (sorry crapper)

They do not collect PLASTIC or CARDBOARD if you want to recycle these you jump into your car drive to a privately run re-cycling depot and drop it off - so they get the money from it !!!!

IT IS ALL ABOUT MONEY - IF IT WAS ABOUT CARING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT MEASURES WOULD BE PUT IN PLACE AGES AGO.

Answer 5

I dunno,some ppl belive everything they are told!!!!

the world is warming up and has been long before mankind,Yes and even before ppl were driving those nasty 4x4`s

Glad to say i`m on of the 4x4 drivers and frankly i`m sick to death of the green party and alike costing me £££££ because they are on an ego trip.Throwing money at this wasteless cause wont change nothing,its a natural process.

I wish the green party and all its hangers on would find and island and move to it thus making my and many other peoples lives alot less stressful.If you want to recycle do it,but dont expect the majority of ppl that dont,to follow suit

Answer 6

Dear,

You guys are luckier than us here. In this place, Council officials have not even begun to appreciate these environmental issues talkless of how to communicate same. Our problem here is therefore not of communication but getting them to understand the basic issues of environmental protection and simple conservation.

However, I believe that this can better be done by getting the council to create a desk where an environmental activist will come twice in a week to look at what they are doing and help them fashion out the best way of reaching out to the people.

It should be properly be hammered into them the fact that they are not doing the community any charity work by taking the necessary step at saving the environment but that they are also saving themselves.

It is their lives, their future and ours too. They must wake up from slumber and do something.

Answer 7

why is it a function of the council, why isnt it a function of people who want to recycle. DC's comment about recycling milk bottles just about sums up the daft notions that some people have over recycling. MILK BOTTLES ffs, milk bottles are glass, recycle them them by returning them where you go them form to be washed & refilled, dont pretend you are recycling by chucking 'em in a skip.

recycling costs the councils

their budgets are being squeezed by the government.

if you really really want to recycle then start using recyclable packaging.. thing like glass containers that go back to the supplier to be refilled. or if you must use palstic bottles clean them out and refill 'em.

recycling glass by smashing it is a joke... its pretend

its easy to blame others for not doing this or not doing that, but the reality s is that it is us as consumers who need to do the recycling.

if we as consumers sorted plastics for disposal into all the various types then it may make sense for councils to recylce them..but we dont', we cant be bothered.

the real reason, I suspect, is probably more to do with the governments extortion of land fill tax, based on weight. that's why councils want to recycle glass & metals.. they are relatively heavy so they get to pay less tax to the government. plastics are light and expensive to sort or ship to a recycling plant.

if you really care about the recycling issue then in reality you should be reusing not recycling