Recycling is only a first green step
THERE has been a furore over the Prime Minister’s remark that recycling ‘doesn’t work’ as a green solution (Mail). I am a retired chartered waste manager and have to point out the problem is that we don’t have enough reprocessing capacity. Two billion people in the world have no access to an organised system of waste collection, treatment and disposal. They dump their rubbish as far as possible from their homes and most of it, including plastic, gets washed into the oceans. Until that is addressed, the amount of plastic in the seas won’t alter much. I don’t agree that the number of plastic bags we use in Britain has reduced significantly since a charge has been levied on one-use plastic bags by shops. Before then, many bags were reused by householders for bagging their waste before it went into the bin. People now have to buy plastic rubbish bags to do this. I live in an apartment block with 31 other households and if we each use just one plastic bag a day, I estimate we buy more than 11,000 every year. Raising the levy on plastic bags will increase revenue for the Exchequer and charities, but it won’t stop people buying ‘bags for life’ every other week. The key to sorting our plastics problem is to build a network of waste reprocessing plants across the country.
JOHN F. CRAWFORD, Lytham St Annes, Lancs.
I AGREE with Boris Johnson’s comments on recycling. My household has three bins: brown for garden waste, blue for cardboard and green for general waste. When collected, it appears they are simply emptied into the back of the lorry, so what’s the point of me separating my rubbish?
GARY BELCHER, Coventry.
ESSENTIAL as it is, recycling has only a small effect on reducing carbon emissions and should not make people feel they have done their bit. The big individual actions are cutting back on travel and eating less meat.