Recyclers hit 50% target for homes
Tuesday 9th November 2010, 1:00PM GMT.
ISLANDERS have given the Public Services Department hope by hitting this year’s abandoned 50% domestic waste recycling target during the third quarter.
The department warned last month that it would not achieve its goal of seeing half of the island’s waste recycled by the end of 2010.
But in the period 1 July to 30 September household waste recycling hit 50.1%.
In December’s Billet, the department had predicted an overall 2010 figure of 44.4%, but the September quarter increase has boosted that figure now to 46.4%.
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We’re going to have to be given a wider range of things we can recycle if they want to raise the bar.
I try not to buy things in plastic containers, but they’re hard to avoid and it’s frustrating that many of those items CAN be recycled…just not here.
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Well done Public Services Department – a job well done! A recycling rate of more than 50% is a massive achievement which puts Guernsey well ahead of the curve. Keep up the good work.
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Yep quite an achievment by PSD and, of course, the Guernsey public who quietly embraced the project; now on to 60%?
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While we’re on it Guernsey Water to start its own water bottling plant and legislation to ban the import of still bottled water. I’m as guilty as the next man or woman but wouldn’t it be a great to see the end of Scottish and Fijian water?
I can see the retail draw drop already!!
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So there, Burn-It-All-Bernie, stick that in your non existent incinerator and don’t smoke it.
Now, what would give ME hope is kerbside recycling (so I don’t have to lug it all in the boot of my car half way across the island, only to find when I get there, that the bins are already filled to overflowing), and acknowledging the fact that (despite this) I am now only throwing away about a 1/4 of what I used to, and start reducing my rates accordingly?
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Neil,
Yes…. the target needs to be pushed straight up to 65% particularly as this 50% achievement quoted includes green garden waste…. a waste that if you think about it, is not waste at all and was not part of the original target.
Food waste comprises about a quarter of what we tip into Mont Cuet. If we could capture that and put it through an anaerobic digestor, we could turn it into a compost, whilst also solving the vermin, smell & methane problem of the tip. This would give our recycling figures a real boost.
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Well said on the bottled water Neil. At the same time Scott’s lot should be putting in place a pretty immediate ban on all styrofoam takeaway fast food and hot drinks containers. No excuse for not using cardboard and corn starch containers as they do in many big American cities. If San Francisco can do it so can we!
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Martino.
I agree re the styrofoam…….. hateful stuff! The corn-starch option you describe would be good but only if we got an anaerobic digestor so that it could be turned into compost after use. Corn starch in the tip rots in the same way as the food does, causing methane.
Another reason why we need anaerobic digestion as part of the suite of technologies to deal with the waste we are generating.
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“50% achievement quoted includes green garden waste” Really. I didn’t know that and paints a slightly different picture. What’s the percentage ex of the green waste? When I think domestic I think black sacks…wrong?
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Neil.
A rather less flattering 36%.
It is right to calculate the green waste figures, but questionable to include them in the target figure. If you look in the billet, their are 2 columns…. one that gives the overall figure, including the green waste (although it doesn’t say so), and the other column that says (in small writing at the top)… ‘excluding’ green waste.
The second one is the one that we should really be going by. But if we are going to go by the first, then we should really raise the target too since green waste was not part of the calculation when the target was originally set. And as you say, garden waste is not ‘black bag’ waste.
However, having said that….. If everyone is encouraged by the news that we have reached the 50% target to raise their game, and recycle more, then I am happy to go along with it for now. I am even hoping that some of those not recycling yet, might be encouraged to start if they think that the majority of people are now recycling and that they are the odd ones out. Infact, I think that the majority of people are recycling, but they are not recycling everything that they could. Maybe this news will get them doing more…… I really hope so!
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Chasing a percentage figure for recycling isn’t necessarily a good thing.
In the grand scheme of things it should be the bottom of the pile, under reduce and reuse.
If we all reduced the amount of potential ‘waste’ brought into the island, and reused some of the things we recycle, we would be in a much better situation – but the headline recycling rate would go down ……
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Toby
I agree. We should be really saying ‘diversion’. How much are we diverting away from final disposal through the various channels of re-use, repair, composting, etc.
To that end, a fabulous thing to do would be a ‘Community Re-use, Repair, Reclamation’ center….. undercover of course.
We have all seen how popular the scavenging yard at Longue Hougue is. Now imagine it if it was in a really nice undercover building, and included all the things that appear in the Press ecycle column, and the things that are advertised on the BBC Ring & Buy show. Things that come out of the constantly refurbished houses… kitchen units, light fittings, doors, door furniture, bathroom fittings, wood etc etc.
You could also have a community work-bench where you could repair things to give them a new life. I was down at the scavenging yard having a rummage a few weeks ago and there were 6 repro Edwardian chairs, one with a broken leg. It would have taken someone half an hour to fix.
It would need to be well run and organised and it would obviously need to be a large building but Longue Hougue is now a huge site and this facility would make a large contribution to reducing the amount of waste we generate so would be worth the space. And I think loads of people would use it…. I certainly would.
These facilities are popping up all over the place now. London has put aside £7m for a network of Re-use / Repair centers around the city.
I have some DVD’s of Paul Connets talk that he gave here a couple of months ago, where he describes the kind of waste strategy that Guernsey could have that could be primarily based on solutions like this. Solutions that are ‘low tech, low cost, community based and centered on our need to be ‘responsible’ about the waste that we generate. If anyone would like to borrow one…. just let me know.
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The only way to up the ante is to introduce kerbside recycling.
Yes its going to cost but adding a few bob to the rates really isn’t going to make that much difference, in cash terms, but a massive difference to the recycling figures.
Our beloved leaders should be worrying less about paid parking and trying to sort this one out.
Rosie – most of my “unesessary” journies in the brum brum are to the bring banks. So two birds with one stone eh!
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Now commercial waste needs to be brought up to the same level,and I think business users will have to forced to separate their waste.The only way to do that is to charge them high rates for mixed skips or charge them for the time taken to separate their waste.
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Hey Rosie girl
What do you reckon to Herm and its 40 year old open bonfire? Reckon we should follow their example like
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Gilthead ….
Given a recycling rate of about 50% …. my back of a fag packet calculation ( REUSE of waste you’ll note !! ) suggests that collecting it from the kerbside as well as black bag waste would DOUBLE the refuse rate – not increase it by just a few bob ….
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Gilthead.
Kerbside collections would definitly increase our recycling / diversion rates, but the best way to do kerbside is to use labour to source separate at the kerbside into the different recycling streams. This avoids contamination and ensures that the material will sell for the best price in the market place. Here is the link to a pdf that ranks the different types of ‘dry’ recycling collection in order of preference according to the re-processing industries that will be buying the materials. http://www.realrecycling.org.uk/CRR_Collection_Hierarchy.pdf
As far as the Bring Banks are concerned….. I can always rekon that over the period of a fortnight or so, I will be driving past a Bring Bank center. That’s when I sling the recycling in the back of the car. I can never see the point of making a special journey for it, but it seems that there are some that do, so your comment is probably true.
Toby.
Yes it would be a more costly method of collecting recyclates, but would save us money further down the line because there would be less contaminated material that would require disposal. Quantity and achieving targets is only half the story. It is equally important that the ‘quality ‘ of the recyclate is pure so that the material does not end up going to landfill / China / incineration because it is not acceptable to the re-processing industry.
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Toby – yes it will cost money but it is one thing I think an extra few quid is worth forking out on.
Rosie – I appreciate we have our differences on traffic strategy but this is one area we have common ground.
FYI – I have first hand experience of a well run kerbside collection system – this was South Hams council in Devon where I lived for a while. Worked an absolute treat once you’d got the hang of it!
Two differnt wheelie bins, one for compostable materials (garden waste, small amounts of cardboard, paper etc) the other for non recyclable material. There were also two differnt bags one for all metals the other for all plastics (not polystyrene sadly).
For the more bulky items there were a number of recycling centres where you could take all manner of things that would otherwise have been dumped – a good example of this was when I took a load of odds and ends of pipe lagging to the centre and asked the chap there if this would be of any use – was all gone the next day.
These centres are so much more than the scavenger yard here.
You may also be interested to know that in Sark most households have digesters that munch through bones, fish heads…all that kind of stuff…
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Gilthead.
Delighted that we are singing from the same hymn sheet on this topic….. feels much better to be on the same side! ;-)
The reason why I posted my last one to you was because I think that some people hope that kerbside collections would mean that all recyclates could be muddled up into one bag and then let some fancy machine (MRF) sort the recyclates into the different streams. However, the more I read about it, the more it becomes apparent that separating at the kerbside is definitly the better way to do it to preserve the value / purity of the material and so ensuring a good price in the markets. As you say…..spending a bit extra here would be worth it.
I presume that you saw my post to Toby above, re a Re-use & Repair Center?? It sounds like you had something like it in Devon. It seems that these centers are springing up all over the place and having one in Guernsey is well over-due. I don’t see it necessarily as an ugly warehouse type buliding but as an attractive landmark building…. somewhere that we all want to visit. Done properly, it could be something for which Guernsey could be really proud. The ‘Repair’ element to it could be used for training young people, particularly the unemployed. into useful trades.
Did you see Paul Connett when he was in Guernsey talking about this amongst other things?
I am guessing that they are using the Bokashi bin in Sark?
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Hi Rosie
I’d certainly agree that it should be the responsibility of the household to seperate “waste” for recycling. It really isn’t difficult and makes you think twice about what you consume.
Even though we recycle as much as possible here we still produce more waste for landfill than we did in Devon one small sack per week as opposed to one a fortnight! It all adds up.
If ever you are in Totnes I’d recommend a trip to the recycling center as I mentioned above – brilliant. Your ideas are also excellent…plenty of room at the land reclamation now we haven’t got a incinerator.
Not sure what the Sark devices are but they are small (about a foot cubed) and live in the garden – the result is a grey ash that is then used on your rhubarb.
No I didn’t see Paul Connett.
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Hi Gilthead
I am likely to be in Totnes in the spring (son at Exeter Uni) so will see if I can find the Re-use center you describe. I got sent this link yesterday that I thought you might be interested in…… http://www.reiy.net/ There is a lot more than just excess builders materials that could be stored though…. one just has to take a look at the ‘ecycle’ column in the Press or listen to the Ring & Buy progam on the BBC. It would be so great to have all that stuff in one place to look at….. I’d be down there in a jiffy!
I am sure the Sarkees are using the Bokashi bin….. http://www.bokashidirect.co.uk/bokashi-buckets.htm?gclid=CIfyq4uArqUCFVBO4QodhWq8Yg
If you would like to borrow a DVD on Paul Connetts talk re a zero waste plan for Guernsey… just let me know.
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