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Mal's Blog: 9 bins or 1 bin - it's the method that matters!
I was asked to be part of the Good Morning Wales on BBC Radio Wales breakfast debate on the recent Tax Payers Relliance report that is critical of some local authorities who ask their householders to seperate their recycling in up to nine bins.
So at the crack of a dawn on a beautiful Cardiff spring morning I went to the BBC studios in Llandaff to air my views against Alex Singleton a journalist from The Daily Telegraph, who may or may not be from the Planet Zog.
What is clear is that these reports only fuel a debate that puts recycling in a negative light, what really matters is the method of recycling chosen by Local Authorities. Recycling targets are there for a reason and people are willing to participate if given a methodology that works. There is need for reform in the way that recycling is targeted across Wales and beyond but that is a matter for local authorities to take advice of numerous reports and evidence that backs kerbside sort.
For your listening pleasure here is the link to the interview (listen from 1.15 - 1.22) and the transcript below:
Please leave comments or tweet me @Malcylch1
Mal.
Good Morning Wales - Thursday, 17th February 2011 with Mal Willams and Alex Singleton
I: Is 7 bins too many?
*MW: It’s not good to get bogged down in details, the most important thing is to think about what works and what actually achieves the recycling rate we want and what changes us from a wasting society to a recycling society.
I: So, the more bins the merrier?
MW: No, I wouldn’t say so. There are an optimal number of bins and 4 or 5 is enough. The main thing is that food waste needs to be kept away from everything else and then you can treat as the resource that it is. So we can convert those materials into reusable products that the reprocessors in this country can use to make and keep the products alive and make sure we’ve got value in them”.
*AS: I think it’s ridiculous and a complete waste of time having seven bins, and people should put their food waste in an ordinary household bin going to landfill and put all their recycling in one bin.
I: So someone else has to sort the recycling?
AS: If you build a modern recycling plant the machinery sorts it for you. In Ireland companies have been investing and putting 30,000 euros into building top of the range recycling plants and the technology does it for you. You don’t need to waste peoples time and getting people to sort and then you don’t get people saying “I won’t bother” and not getting the recycling rates you want”.
I: But where is that money coming from? You know how tight money is with Local Authorities at the moment, they can’t afford to invest in high tech sorting recycling machines can they?
AS: In Ireland people actually make money from recycling and are extremely efficient in making profits out of recycling and unfortunately in this country councils have remained in charge of recycling and they’re just not very efficient in doing it.
I: Mal Williams, you’re shaking your head
MW: I don’t where you’ve found this guy from, obviously the Planet Zog, because in this day and age you couldn’t get away with the public health issues this guy has raised – putting food waste into one bin and hoping it will stay clean and not get smell and attract rats, the next thing he’ll be doing is writing in The Telegraph that we can’t do that because it will attract vermin. Ask recyclers how to do things and find out the best system that works and achieves the maximum of value and I really think Tax Payers Alliance should be looking after the money we pay on taxes, instead of these reports and millions of pounds can be saved if we use the recycling system I just referred to.
I: I’ll Alex to come back on that, are you really from the Planet Zog?
AS: This is silly, the fact is in my local council area, food waste goes in landfill and that’s how it happens and you put it in a wheelie bin and there’s no problem with rats because the bin stops rats getting to the food.
MW: I can’t believe Alex has never read about the fact that putting food waste in landfill produces methane that adds to climate change
I: But what about Alex’s point that it is getting so complicated now and all this timetabling and different bags, now up to seven, that people just think ‘Forget it’ and put it in the black bag and not bother recycling?
MW: That’s mythology and just not true, what we do find is that people across the county when they are given a recycling system, whether that be seven bins or one bin they don’t want to change the system they use and we have many reports to prove this
I: What about uniformity across the local authorities?
MW: The Welsh Assembly Government have been trying to develop an evidence based strategy that tries to recommend to councils to use a system that actually works and doesn’t create waste in the first place. The machines that Alex has referred to, I have seen those machines all over the world and haven’t seen one that actually works yet and doesn’t produce anything from 15 – 25% waste it’s spending money on creating waste which is crazy
I: To come back to you Alex
AS: The fact that Ireland has some of the highest recycling waste in the world and it’s worked extremely well for them.
MW: All I would say is watch this space and I’m sure Wales will overtake them any minute.
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