David De Lisle. (0575510)
NEW recycling initiatives should be brought in without delay, according to Deputy David De Lisle.
The former Environment minister, who in January 2007 successfully placed an amendment for the States to adopt a target of 50% recycling by 2010, said he was disappointed by the lack of steps taken by Public Services to achieve that figure.
He feels the department is underestimating the drive islanders have for recycling after Public Services minister Bernard Flouquet said he did not believe recyclable figures would increase until the majority of islanders changed their ways.
‘This is a very negative posture to take,’ said Deputy De Lisle.
‘We are all depending on the co-operation and dynamism of Public Services and its minister to move recycling forward.
‘It’s not the people but the department that needs to mend its ways and seize opportunities to recycle more. People are not holding back – they want to move forward.’
Figures released on Wednesday showed recycling had stabilised at just below 31%.
Deputy De Lisle said this was not good enough.
‘It has delayed bringing in new recycling initiatives and that’s with the number showing that some would yield substantial profitability for government. Public Services has delayed introducing in-vessel composting until a preferred end-disposal facility is considered and it has delayed bringing in kerbside recycling island-wide.’
He also questioned what had happened to the introduction of Tetra Pak recycling.
‘We were told that from spring it would be possible for islanders to recycle juice and milk cartons. We’re still waiting.
‘We were promised that expanded polystyrene EPS used as packaging material, which when discarded takes up considerable space in landfill, with a value of £175-a-tonne, was to be recycled by a UK firm with an earning potential from recycling of £5,000 a year. What has been done along these lines?’
But Deputy Flouquet said Public Services, contrary to what Deputy De Lisle was suggesting, was well aware that the public had embraced recycling.
‘We are hoping that Tetra Pak recycling will commence before the end of the year and we are also investigating the possibility of island-wide kerbside collections.
However, he warned that reaching 50% could prove difficult in the event that food waste had to be excluded from any kerbside collection system that was introduced.
With weekly collections of dry recyclables, projections have shown that household recycling figures would reach 46%.
If food waste is added that would go up to 61%, but it would need to be composted and it has yet to be established if such compost could be spread in Guernsey’s agricultural land, or whether there would be the demand, he said.
Article posted on 26th August, 2008 - 2.29pm
Loading ...
5 Article Comments
This is madness!
I cannot see how the public are supposed to improve on a 30% recycling rate when there is no recycling for general plastic, milk cartons, tetra paks or food waste.
Whilst living in London I had all this as a kerbside service and my non recyclable rubbish was less than 25% of normal.
Personally I think a 30% rate is amazing given that the public have to take everything by car to a recycling station and what we can leave there is very limited. That in itself should be indication of what the public is capable of.
At last, someone kicking up about the delay!
I can’t understand why it has taken so long for tetra packs to be included in the scheme.
It is a pretty sorry mess to produce island milk in containers, that surely nearly every home uses daily, that have to go into land fill!
This issue should not be seen as a ‘green initiative’ but rather as an absolute necessity. If we don’t reach high percentage levels of reusing and recycling then the potential for even higher capital expenditure in the near future.
Why can’t the States introduce laws to prohibit the import of non recyclable packaging? We can only recycle two types of plastic and yet the supermarkets etc ship in allsorts that has to be landfilled.
The States are quite happy to rush through laws benefiting big business at the taxpayers expense, but as soon as there are potential long term problems it would seem that ‘the next House’ will have to overcome them. Shortsighted thinking leads to major financial costs in the future.
This is hardly rocket science.
Not enough people speaking out about the waste situation and consequently we are in danger of being sucked into a solution that will be too big for our needs. The waste arising figures that PSD have now been given the go ahead to work with, mean that we have to increase our waste creation while the rest of the world works to reduce waste arisings. Its hard to see PSD being enthusiastic about increasing recycling initiatives as long as this is the situation. As a wealthy community, we ought to be doing more than others, not less.
My family have recycled for a long time now and I live in a house with 6. It is amazing how much can be recycled, but think if we could do more, milk and juice cartons and other plastic. Why cant we move on to do these. I recall an article in the Guernsey Press late last year which said that we would be able to recycle milk cartons, I think the timescale for this was early 2008, but alas, still not able to do it. Perhaps some kind Deputy will ask a question of the Dairy and see how many tonnes of cartons they get through in a day/week/month/year and then we may be able to shame the States to move this part forward. I wonder how many tonnes of milk cartons lay in the tip?