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colchesterfoeCBC survey on wheelie bins a year ago actually showed only 29 people preferred them
Dear Editor,
Earlier in the month there was a big Gazette article and a backlash against recycling after officers started clamping down on how people put their recyclables out for collection. If householders kindly separate cans from bottles in old carrier bags, why can't the binmen split the bags or tip the cans out and leave the plastic bags in the green boxes?
But an earlier article tells us that the council 'carried out a survey a year ago and only 29 residents out of 344 were not in favour of wheelie bins'. Actually the report showed the opposite - that only 29 residents were in favour of wheelie bins. I hope Colchester officers are not in favour of wheelie bins that the county council wants for an areawide collection contract for four or five councils?
Is this why we are not getting more recycling reusable boxes and bags instead of the costly one-use plastic sacks? We need suitable vehicles for separated kerbside collections for paper separately from card and the 'Fame' flatback vehicles for separating glass colours as we used to have, instead of the disastrous 'split' vehicles which have now come to the end of their lease.
Two independent consultants advised this after the notorious costly 'split' vehicles debacle. WRAP, the Government-funded advisory body says that proper separated kerbside collections of recyclables, sorted at the kerb and baled locally, provide quality recyclates to our UK reprocessors, bring in top prices and are cheaper to run than wheelie bin mixed recycling collections.
Wheelie bin recycling collections are tipped into a crusher and become contaminated, particularly paper. They then have to be transported in fuel-hungry HGVs to a costly central 'MRF' to be mechanically sorted. The recyclates become degraded, around 15% is dumped and it is usually exported.
They are costly and slow to empty, unsuitable for 40% of homes, particularly Tudor or terraced Victorian homes close to the pavement with no storage space and where they are an eyesore.
Some councils, such as Rochford and Braintree, put food waste into the garden waste wheelie bins which heat up in the summer and cause smells, flies and maggots. All of it then has to go to large enclosed composting warehouses which is much more costly than local simple outdoor composting of garden waste alone.
Chelmsford council has separated kerbside recycling collections and a local baling centre, receiving top prices for recyclates. They have trialled a kerbside food waste collection using a lidded bucket, which they are going to roll out across the district. Food waste will go to Anaerobic Digestion plants such as has been agreed at Halstead, to provide gas or electricity, and clean compost.
Let's hope Colchester will follow their example. All political parties have pledged to have no wheelie bins and Colchester's coalition was the only Essex council which opposed the county council's massive MBT waste-crushing plants making fuel to burn in a polluting incinerator for 28.5 year contracts.
Yours sincerely,
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator,
Colchester & North East Essex Friends of the Earth,
4 Shears Crescent, West Mersea, Essex.
Dear Editor,
Earlier in the month there was a big Gazette article and a backlash against recycling after officers started clamping down on how people put their recyclables out for collection. If householders kindly separate cans from bottles in old carrier bags, why can't the binmen split the bags or tip the cans out and leave the plastic bags in the green boxes?
But an earlier article tells us that the council 'carried out a survey a year ago and only 29 residents out of 344 were not in favour of wheelie bins'. Actually the report showed the opposite - that only 29 residents were in favour of wheelie bins. I hope Colchester officers are not in favour of wheelie bins that the county council wants for an areawide collection contract for four or five councils?
Is this why we are not getting more recycling reusable boxes and bags instead of the costly one-use plastic sacks? We need suitable vehicles for separated kerbside collections for paper separately from card and the 'Fame' flatback vehicles for separating glass colours as we used to have, instead of the disastrous 'split' vehicles which have now come to the end of their lease.
Two independent consultants advised this after the notorious costly 'split' vehicles debacle. WRAP, the Government-funded advisory body says that proper separated kerbside collections of recyclables, sorted at the kerb and baled locally, provide quality recyclates to our UK reprocessors, bring in top prices and are cheaper to run than wheelie bin mixed recycling collections.
Wheelie bin recycling collections are tipped into a crusher and become contaminated, particularly paper. They then have to be transported in fuel-hungry HGVs to a costly central 'MRF' to be mechanically sorted. The recyclates become degraded, around 15% is dumped and it is usually exported.
They are costly and slow to empty, unsuitable for 40% of homes, particularly Tudor or terraced Victorian homes close to the pavement with no storage space and where they are an eyesore.
Some councils, such as Rochford and Braintree, put food waste into the garden waste wheelie bins which heat up in the summer and cause smells, flies and maggots. All of it then has to go to large enclosed composting warehouses which is much more costly than local simple outdoor composting of garden waste alone.
Chelmsford council has separated kerbside recycling collections and a local baling centre, receiving top prices for recyclates. They have trialled a kerbside food waste collection using a lidded bucket, which they are going to roll out across the district. Food waste will go to Anaerobic Digestion plants such as has been agreed at Halstead, to provide gas or electricity, and clean compost.
Let's hope Colchester will follow their example. All political parties have pledged to have no wheelie bins and Colchester's coalition was the only Essex council which opposed the county council's massive MBT waste-crushing plants making fuel to burn in a polluting incinerator for 28.5 year contracts.
Yours sincerely,
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator,
Colchester & North East Essex Friends of the Earth,
4 Shears Crescent, West Mersea, Essex.
