Kerbside recycling is good, but bigger bills are unpopular
Saturday 14th January 2012, 2:29PM GMT.
Douglas Le Fevre doing his bit for the recycling effort at Mont Cuet yesterday. He admits that there are few options other than paying more to deal with the island’s refuse. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 1215510)
ISLANDERS will begrudge having to pay more to get rid of their waste, Mont Cuet recyclers have said.
Their comments followed Public Services’ proposals for a new waste strategy that could cost households an extra £80 a year.
The recommendations include sending rubbish for heat treatment in Jersey, kerbside recycling and setting a new recycling target of 70%.
Community nursing auxiliary Debbie Young, 54, said, while emptying her car at the bring bank, that she had a mixed reaction to the proposals.
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Lets get the Publick services to provide different colour rubish bags at a specific cost, i.e. for garden wast a decomposing green bag and for general rubish a gray/blue bag. The colour indicating the containts, cost and collection day.
This way every one pays in advance for what they want to dispose of.
Much more fairer on those who only put out 1 bag every 2 weeks compared to large households who might have 3 or 4 bags to dispose off.
Seen as the cost is included in the purchase of the bags, no extra large bills!!
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Pay-as-you-throw is apparently going to be part of this strategy. I don’t believe it will work without that element as people will consider it unfair and fail to engage in the level of waste prevention and recycling that is needed.
Although this was reported in the ‘Waste Matters’ pull-out, it has unfortunately been glossed over in subsequent reports.
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I agree, “pay as you throw” must be implemented otherwise there is absolutely no incentive to cut down on the amount of waste produced.
As it is I’m supplementing other people as I only put out one black sack a week, and that isn’t even completely full most weeks.
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rocquaine & John
YES YES YES,a thousand times YES
Pay as you throw with the States providing the bags via local shops and garages at whatever price is required is the ONLY fair way to deal with the sometimes enormous difference in what neighbours in the same street put out for collection
A good example of how easy it would be to collect the required revenue is the 2p worth of cardboard we use as a parking clock and which MUST be purchased from the States at what is it now – £2.50?
A bit of advertising by the Co-Op / Waitrose / M & S (other good stores are equally welcome) would help cut the costs incurred in bulk buying the bags
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I’d actually like to see the technology for weighing and charging – with barcoding and computers it is not difficult.
Otherwise, I will just have to hold onto my bag for a month until it is full, but I suppose as no food goes in the bin, that is not a problem.
I am looking forward to this, I reckon I can pay less than I do now.
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rocquaine
There would be a problem with weighing and charging at Estates / Clos for example where for ease of collection everybody on the Estate piles their blacks sacks at one collection point
I have no problem with the thought of having to buy special bags (or tags) at whatever price is required to fund the system.I reckon my milkman would even add them to the long list of what he now sells
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YES! I agree with this – but only if we are charged per person, not per household. Otherwise persons living together to save money and families are penalised.
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Well, I guess with prepaid bags, you can buy and fill your own bag …
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haha – no, what i mean is if we have bags then a number of bags should be allocated for each household based on the number of occupants. I hope that clarifies.
In fact, due to their impact on the environment, I despise using plastic bags to dispose of my rubbish. Plastic bags add to landfill significantly and should be replaced with bins where possible (obviously won’t be possible in some apartments and some lanes in town). I know that some people don’t like the “look” of wheelie bins but bags look horrible too. The overwhelming majority of people will do the right thing and wheel their bins back in after rubbish collection night.
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Rachel:
We use a small 2ft high metal dustbin which we put out approx once a month so don’t need to use any plastic bags and I only put it out if it is not going to be windy because I don’t want it to blow over. It puzzles me how anyone can find enough waste to fill one of those big wheelie bins weekly although I think you might be able to get small ones. I think that I am right in saying that as the law stands at the moment, no-one is meant to use a black plastic bag!
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Thats really interesting Rosie. Parden me for not knowing but I didn’t even realise that you could use bins- someone once told me that the garbage collectors can’t pick them up because they may be too heavy.
I’ve lived in Sydney and they have one huge wheelie bin for recycing and one smaller wheelie bin for rubbish and are picked alternately each week. The system seemed to work really well.
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Rachel:
Our bin is tiny as I said…. only 2ft high so weighs nothing. . I do think it is only fair to consider the bin-men when we put stuff in our bins…. I certainly wouldn’t want to deal with bins too heavy or full of smelly rotting whatever, or black sacks with sharp objects in them. ( I remember when working in the restaurant trade a bin-man getting a horrid cut to his leg when he picked up a black sack.) I rekon that lifting up our bin and tipping it into the back of the truck is no more difficult than slinging in a black bag and there is less chance of coming into contact with the contents as there won’t be any tears in it like the black sacks of the house opposite which regularly deposit their contents all over the road.
When I first started doing this I did phone up the company that collects our waste to check with them that they were happy. I think that it’s important to keep the bin small, clean, and not over-filled. I don’t want them to change their mind so I need to keep them sweet and I think I do since my bin only goes out about once a month so we are approx an eighth of the work of our next door neighbours!
However, about a year ago, the St Martins douzaine looked into introducing a Bag & Tag system, only to discover they couldn’t because as the law stands at the moment, no-one is meant to be putting their waste into black sacks! Turns out I’ve been one of the only people strictly following the law which was a suprise to me!
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Daft headline. Of course ‘bigger bills are unpopular’!! Can you imagine a scenario where everyone rubs their hands in glee that costs are going up. The unpalatable truth tho’ is that the days of slinging anything we no longer wanted into a hole in the ground without giving it a moments thought are over. The time has come for everyone to be more responsible for the way resources and materials are used, and that will bring benefits but also costs, whatever way we do it. And PSD’s favoured Option B (in theFeb Billet) is the cheapest of the 3 options. It also happens to be the most environmental too.
Provided PAYT is part of the eventual strategy, we will all have the incentive to reduce the amount of residual waste we create, and so can be in control of how big our bills are.
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Whether we have to use different coloured bags or special identity tags, I agree that Pay-as-you-throw is an absolute must. I produce very little waste and recycle a large percentage of it. I resent having to pay the same amount as my neighbours who produce many bags of ‘waste’ every week and do not bother to recycle a single thing. These people should be made to pay through the nose in future. The present system is like averaging out the cost of the whole of the parish’s petrol consumption and making everyone pay the same – whether they drive a Rolls Royce or use a bicycle all the time. It’s high time people are made to pay the true cost of the waste they individually produce in the same way that they pay the cost of the motor fuel they individually consume.
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I have lived in many countries around the world, and have just recently returned to the island. Never, in all the places I’ve lived, have I seen the overflowing, dirty, revolting chaos that was Mont Cuet recycling bins this afternoon. I turned the car around and brought most of mine home again. No wonder there’s a struggle to get people interested in recycling – its a muddy, blustery battle and nobody seems to maintain the area (or empty the containers; it’s not the first time I’ve seen such a mess.
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We have wecycle collect our recycling and pay £144.00 per year so it would seem that we would make a saving.
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I hope that the Guernsey Press will send all these comments to Deputy Scott Ogier at Public Services.
They make a lot of sense.
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I hope so too, Gary. I can’t remember another thread where everyone has been in general agreement! I’ve been a harsh critic of PSD in the past but I really think they’re on the right track with this strategy… Let’s hope the States give it their backing in February.
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There’s a company in Guernsey that does weekly kerbside recycling collections for £12 a month. Wecycle I think they’re called.
I’m not affiliated with them in any way or trying to advertise, but I thought people reading this might be interested to know they can get kerbside recycling on the island.
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Don’t forget….WASTE STRATEGY PROPOSAL now on at Beau Sejour this weekend- opposite the booking desk. Try to get along there if you can. Only take you 20 mins to go through it all.
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