Brighton and Hove's recycling rate falls (From The Argus)
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Brighton and Hove's recycling rate falls
2:40pm Wednesday 26th January 2011 in News By Tim Ridgway
Recycling rates are falling in the city with the country's first Green MP.
Despite an improving national trend for reusing household waste, Government figures show just 27.45% was recycled in Brighton and Hove in 2009/10.
This is down from 29.5% for 2008/9 and below the regional average of 35%.
The fall came despite residents electing Green Party leader Caroline Lucas as the MP for Brighton Pavilion.
Brighton and Hove City Council blamed the dip on the recession, saying recycling was easier in rural areas.
But with other authorities in Sussex increasing their rates, opposition councillors suggested the authority was “running scared” to introduce new measures to save money and protect the landscape.
Green councillor Jason Kitcat said: “Recycling more household waste saves money and helps the environment.
“Excuses regarding the recession and our city geography don't bear up to scrutiny when all of England has seen improvements and when we're well behind the regional average.”
He added the Conservative administration could improve rates using a cost-neutral garden waste collection service and by piloting food waste collections.
Geoffrey Theobald, the city council's environment cabinet member, said: “Many councils have seen recycling rates drop in recent years.
“Experts in the field believe this is due to the recession and also because measures to reduce packaging are starting to have an effect.”
He added the authority's recycling rates are already better than those of many other cities such as Portsmouth, Southampton and Westminster.
The figures were revealed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Elsewhere in Sussex, borough and district councils are responsible for collecting waste but county authorities dispose of it.
Both East Sussex - from 35.4% in 2008/9 to 36.8% in 2009/10 - and West Sussex County Council - 39.9% to 42.9% - saw increases in the last year.
Coun Theobald said recycling rates in cities were generally lower than they were in rural areas as many impose fortnightly refuse collections.
Don't miss The Argus tomorrow for your guide to what you can recycle and where.
Comments(32)
Christophe Hawtree
says...
3:03pm Wed 26 Jan 11
TheInsider
says...
3:16pm Wed 26 Jan 11
It is in fact carbon footprint heavy to transport grass cuttings and garden waste across the UK, when these homes have large enough gardens to compost on site, which is far 'greener'.
It's no good collecting grass cuttings to reach the tonnage target if the councils are then refusing to collect cardboard and plastic as many of them do.
It's an utter nonsense.
Hove Actually
says...
3:24pm Wed 26 Jan 11
rostron71
says...
3:25pm Wed 26 Jan 11
fab5482
says...
3:46pm Wed 26 Jan 11
Abrightonian
says...
3:50pm Wed 26 Jan 11
These shameful numbers should serve as a warning and a wake up call. Voting Green is one thing. Living green is another.
tke
says...
3:55pm Wed 26 Jan 11
You can put anything in them and people do. Also there would still seem to be no effective re-cycling in many blocks of flats.
Morpheus
says...
4:15pm Wed 26 Jan 11
Nick Brighton
says...
4:26pm Wed 26 Jan 11
rostron71 wrote:Tera-paks can be recycled at larger Sainsburys, or in Magpie green box. Most supermarkets accept clean polythene. The Council's recycling does take more plastics than it did, but could take more, if it worked harder at finding contractors willing to recycle them.
My household creates almost zero food waste. Most of what we have to dispose of is packaging which the recyclers won't handle – tetra-pack cartons, certain plastics, etc. It would be nice if we could put more of this into the recycle box.
RJJM
says...
4:26pm Wed 26 Jan 11
see w w w i-worm.co.uk
rosiedoes
says...
4:39pm Wed 26 Jan 11
RJJM
says...
4:44pm Wed 26 Jan 11
Waste collection still charged the same in tax though.
Waste is the only utility service that the City will not alllow to be pay as you use.
Christophe Hawtree
says...
5:06pm Wed 26 Jan 11
oldmarket
says...
5:30pm Wed 26 Jan 11
• Flats with little or no area to store recycling in between fortnightly collections
• Too few smaller recycling points in residential areas
• Confusion over what can or cannot be recycled
• Confusion over recycling days
• Communal bins making it easy for lazy people to throw stuff away
• Lack of communications campaign to show people why recycling is important
• A belief among some that recycling is actually more expensive than creating new stuff (which might be true if the market distortion of landfill tax is taken into account)
• A belief that recycling actually adds to pollution because of all the vehicles involved
Not sure that all of these are solvable in an economic way but they could start with better communications and more communal recycling bins. The ones I've used always seem to be nearly full - so somebody's filling them.
Lady Smith
says...
5:50pm Wed 26 Jan 11
chipmunk77
says...
6:58pm Wed 26 Jan 11
Christophe Hawtree wrote:Really?
The Council does now recycle tetrapacks.... However there is no communal composting at flat blocks, but people at Furzecroft have organised it.
Shame it isn't mentioned on the recycling leaflet they posted at Xmas.
They only recycle plastic types 1 & 2, which is a disgrace given there are 7 types of plastic commonly used in packaging!
I recycle EVERY bit of card/paper, tin, glass, and type 1/2 plastic EVERY wk, but throw away a huge amount of other types of plastic packaging.
Recycling rates are POOR because the council doesn't accept the waste! Simple!
bug eye
says...
8:16pm Wed 26 Jan 11
HJarrs
says...
9:49pm Wed 26 Jan 11
Stu
says...
11:05pm Wed 26 Jan 11
ers etc. It all goes straight in the big black bins outside. I'm sure there are many people in flats in Brighton who feel the same.
chipmunk77
says...
11:07pm Wed 26 Jan 11
HJarrs wrote:Hmmm...Really?
Perhaps if they actually collected the stuff it would help the recycling rate. My full recyling bins have now not been picked up for the last 2 weeks despite being out on the right day with the right stuff. Very poor, but then thats a tory council for you and that is before they again privatise the service.
I presume you put it out on the CORRECT COLLECTION DAYS for the Christmas / New Yr period, which ONLY got back to NORMAL collection days this week after 3 or 4 wks of different days!!!!
It was advertised, leaflets went thru everybodys doors, I got one, so did all my friends!
Care to respond, as in my area, we hardly ever have any problems, but the number of people, even on my road, that consistently put them out on the wrong days during bank holidays is laughable!
fab5482
says...
12:09am Thu 27 Jan 11
Stu wrote:Yes, it is difficult when space is limited. Our flat's tiny, but because we have recycling bins outside the flats, we can do it daily. So we're lucky.
I don't recycle anything. I live in a typical small Brighton flat, and I don't have any space to store dirty bottles/tins/newspap ers etc. It all goes straight in the big black bins outside. I'm sure there are many people in flats in Brighton who feel the same.
talkinghead
says...
4:00am Thu 27 Jan 11
fab5482 wrote:Maybe the council should start this process by doing there own recycling @at Kings House & there numerous venues around town more correctly which might set a prescient for others tro follow as Ive observed very poor recycling amounts from these places.
Stu wrote: I don't recycle anything. I live in a typical small Brighton flat, and I don't have any space to store dirty bottles/tins/newspap ers etc. It all goes straight in the big black bins outside. I'm sure there are many people in flats in Brighton who feel the same.Yes, it is difficult when space is limited. Our flat's tiny, but because we have recycling bins outside the flats, we can do it daily. So we're lucky.
fatso
says...
7:25am Thu 27 Jan 11
Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit
says...
7:54am Thu 27 Jan 11
.
What IS the situation with tetrapacks? Can we put them out with the recycling? Currently we throw ours away (along with yogurt pots) but I think we pretty much recycle everything else plastic. Well, we put it in the box and they take it.
.
On the subject of boxes we're lucky that we have communal recycling bins out side the Fiveways Co-op. We couldn't store all the stuff if we only had the fortnightly collection and those bins are useful for the overspill.
.
Good point made about questioning the amount of energy used in recycling (collection, sorting, distribution, etc). Maybe recycling into energy (via incineration) isn't such a bad idea after all? Also I still see people driving to recycling points! Hopefully they've just stopped off on their way to somewhere else.
Tony Davenport
says...
10:39am Thu 27 Jan 11
Some months later CityClean proposed putting wheelie-bins in the Preston Park area which caused much opposition from the residents. A packed meeting was called in the local church, and there at the front sat Jenny Rowlands (then director of Environment), Gillian Marston (deputy director of CityClean), and Gill Mitchell (then Chair of the Environment Committee, now Labour group leader). Gill discussed refuse solutions in the city and mentioned the black communal bins in the centre of town. She said - quote - "We know they don't encourage recycling".
Tony Davenport
She-Ra, Princess Of Power
says...
12:39pm Thu 27 Jan 11
Rural areas get better rates because of the sheer volume of green they collect. If you were to take that stuff out of the figures and do it on the main materials only then their rates would plummet :)
The demographics are so different I personally don't think they're comparable.
B&H is very densely populated in some areas and some people have small homes, which puts them off recycling. For the life of me I don't understand why and I personally think it's lazy, but that's because I care about not chucking my waste into landfill and adding to the problem, whilst some people don't. If they really wanted to do it, they would. And why do people always say recycling smells? It only would if you don't clean it. Wash it out after you've done the washing up!
The recycling collections aren't always brilliant and the service doesn't always live up to the communication. So people get fed up and chuck it in the bin. That IS a problem.
As for the materials being recycled... tetra packs are bulky and there's not a lot of weight in a massive load, so it's not economical to transport. Given that they have to be broken into their component parts to be recycled I wonder if it's actually economically sound. Some of the other plastics that can't be recycled easily are a pain, but that's because there either isn't a market or that type can't be recycled or recycled easily. This is where manufacturers need to step up and make products in packaging that CAN be easily and widely recycled.
If people buy sensibly and recycle then it'll get better, but it needs the people to care in the first place!
RottingdeanRant
says...
5:29pm Thu 27 Jan 11
Plantpot
says...
8:26am Fri 28 Jan 11
RJJM
says...
2:57pm Fri 28 Jan 11
Put out no waste in a year and you pay the same in tax as if you threw out a tonne.
Makes no sense.
As far as materials collected with the incinerator to be lit soon we will see what is not recycled burnt. This produces some energy but physics dictates that we will also get a lot of gas , vapour and ash . Where is that going? To land in rainfall or burial.
As inceration or recycling is determined by the contract (with some ruling by UK law) it is safe to assume that if we want the Council to decide what is and is not recycled then the first step step is to renegotiate the waste contract.
CLM
says...
5:14pm Mon 31 Jan 11
3:55pm Wed 26 Jan 11
You can put anything in them and people do. Also there would still seem to be no effective re-cycling in many blocks of flats.''
Further to this point, I am a resident of a mostly council owned block in the heart of Brighton although I privately rent. I was told on moving in 7 months ago that recycling bins were being provided by the end of August - Still no sign of them and there is in excess of 150 people living in this block. That's an awful lot of wasted materials over a 7 month period. The council need to pull their finger out! My family live near Worthing and are provided with a personal recycling bin each - and pay less council tax!!
She-Ra, Princess Of Power
says...
11:57am Tue 1 Feb 11
RottingdeanRant wrote:it's not because they don't want to take it. THere isn't a market for every single material, whether it's marked recycleable or not, if there's no market for it then it can't be sold! Simple.
I recycle everything I can but it is very frustration how much the council will not take. When I lived in Belgium a few years ago they took all types of plastic and all types of tetra packs. I think we will not increase our recycling levels unless we remove these restrictions.
What would be better is for manufacturers to package goods in materials that CAN be easily and widely recycled!
The rest of Europe is much better at recycling than the UK, this we know. If there aren't facilities in the UK to recycle it then the only option is to export, which doesn't come cheap. Once you take into account the costs and environmental impact of getting the stuff there it's probably not worth it.
Recycling is dominated by market forces, by the materials that manufacturers need. If there isn't a demand then the material just wouldn't sell.
It doesn't work in the council's interests to not encourage people to recycle or to not provide facilities. It costs to dispose of waste, and recycling provides an income.
It's unfortunately not as simple as most of you would believe! Don't believe everything you read ;)
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Christophe Hawtree says...
3:00pm Wed 26 Jan 11
The Independent reported Cllr Theobald's non reply but the Argus did not.