Greens want you to spend more time sorting your garbage

housebound said :

Let’s face it, it will all still go into the rubbish bin anyway.

5-10 years ago, one of the big recycling studies showed that the best way to get more people recycling was to stop making them sort it all.

Why? Everyone in my area puts out both bins in the appropriate week. There’s nothing to suggest they’re having trouble separating their waste. Sure, if you put it all in the same bin to begin with you would have to sort it out, but as long as you keep recycleables separate to begin with, where is the problem?

I’m sure a garden waste collection would be useful for a lot of people. I live only a few minutes drive from one of the green waste recycling places so it’s not a big deal for me to drive there (though fitting it all in my car when I’ve done a lot of pruning can be a hassle, and I’ve had to make up to 6 trips in a row – some stuff is too large/tough for me to compost effectively at home, for those who will tell me to compost it myself). People coming from further away would no doubt appreciate not having to make the trip themselves.

As for the resources needed to do this, good point about manufacturing plastic bins, hiring drivers etc, but remember numerous people are currently carting their garden waste to the recycling centre in their cars or utes, so that energy use would be eliminated.

Let’s face it, it will all still go into the rubbish bin anyway.

5-10 years ago, one of the big recycling studies showed that the best way to get more people recycling was to stop making them sort it all.

Davo said:

hmmmm interesting how they’re calling it “organic waste” rather than sydney’s “green waste” which doesnt allow food scraps in the bin

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On the contrary, in my olds’ council area (Penrith) they are supposed to put all food scraps in the bin. You can imagine how the plastic bin smells even after it has been emptied in summer. Of course, the cost, time and environmental impact of residents scrubbing out the bins with disinfectant or bleach and copious amounts of water doesn’t count in the ‘green’ equation.

Thanks, PB, for your pic. I had just found a couple to post, but you beat me to it.

hmmmm interesting how they’re calling it “organic waste” rather than sydney’s “green waste” which doesnt allow food scraps in the bin (we all have compost heaps right?).

What do they do with it? make it into mulches, soil conditioners and composts.

cross said :

Our family fills the recycle bin in four or five days then has to use the normal bin for what should be recyclables.

https://forms.act.gov.au/smartform/public/FormServer?formId=2033

as far as i can tell, its $17.50 for an additional recycling bin

In the UK, some councils now have half a dozen bins per household. Don’t give them an inch!

Agreed. Some of the London council areas are wall to wall bins of all variety of colours and sizes. And if you put the wrong thing in the wrong bin you get fined.

Be careful what you wish for.

Check this out!

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/04/23/article-1268377-0947C078000005DC-108_634x366.jpg

Our family fills the recycle bin in four or five days then has to use the normal bin for what should be recyclables.Perhaps having the recycle bin picked up weekly and the other one picked up fortnightly would increase the amount of material being recycled.

alaninoz said :

Lots of good words there, but lacking in detail. …. As an example of the lack of considering the whole system, incandescent bulbs have no toxic waste. Fluorescent tubes, including compact fluorescents do – mercury for a start..

Did you look at the submission? – seems to have a lot of detail. And the recycling they’re talking about is about compact fluroos, not incandescent.

Good idea!

I’m definitely all for this. I comost like it’s going out of fashion (and it’s not), however not all my green waste fits in the compost, so for me this system would be awesome.

Slightly off-topic, I contacted TAMS late last year regarding their bulky rubbish removal trial program slated for “early 2011”. The website text appears to have changed, however the ambiguity has not. Anyone got any ideas?

Lots of good words there, but lacking in detail. What is meant by “organic” waste? If it’s compostable then it should be composted domestically and so the cost of the new bins and their emptying should be avoided. If it includes non-compostable garden refuse then maybe OK, but what happens to the “tidy bag” operators? Shows that people rarely looks at the whole set of systems involved.Whatever, looks for your taxes to go up.

As an example of the lack of considering the whole system, incandescent bulbs have no toxic waste. Fluorescent tubes, including compact fluorescents do – mercury for a start. There’s a trade off. You can have the lower efficiency incandescent bulbs, or the toxic fluorescents. Or you could avoid the whole problem by using LEDs if they were affordable. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned the LEDs – the Greens will mandate their use next, bugger the cost.