Recycling is not a strong point for all
Dear Editor, Monthly bin collections ....
I am not saying that Councillor Bryan Flanagan does not have a problem with his grey bin (Letters 23/03). That, with a young family, could well be true.
Walking along the streets, as I do every day, it is noticeable, on bin days, how many of the bins have lids that cannot be fully closed.
It does not take more than a cursory glance, as you pass these bins, to notice that recycling is not some households’ strong point.
Grey bins often have cardboard, drink cans and other things that ought to be placed in the green and blue bins in clear sight.
Take away packaging containing food can also be present in grey bins.
The food should be in the brown bin, the packaging probably should be in the grey bin.
Stirling Council‘s own research into the contents of grey bins is interesting - 27 per cent of the typical grey bins content is food waste, this should be in the brown bin; 16 per cent is plastic and 10 per cent cans, aerosols and foil which should be in the blue bin; six per cent is cardboard and paper, which should be in the green bin; two per cent is garden waste and should go in the brown bin.
Only 43 per cent of typical grey bins content is in the correct bin and being sent to landfill.
As landfill charges cost the council £2 million a year one can estimate that something over £1 million could be saved by better recycling by the council tax payers.
Perhaps this is where Councillor Flanagan ought to be concentrating his attention.
Perhaps beginning with his own bins, none of us are perfect recyclers.
Perhaps he could invite a member of the council waste management team to come and turn his bin out and check the contents thoroughly before putting out for collection.
Then publish the results in the Stirling Observer.
Two more brief points. Firstly some plastics are marked as not yet recyclable, this is not strictly true. They are not recyclable through street side collections.
These thin film plastics, which can make up a substantial part of the 43 per cent of waste going to landfill, can be recycled at many supermarkets and larger food stores.
This thin film includes frozen food bags, bread bags, food pouches, film sealing packages of fish, meat, coleslaw and the like as well as crisp bags and the magazine wrappers.
This plastic is sent to a specialist recycler and comes back as plastic bags, shop fittings, garden furniture and even children’s toys.
The last point.
Some, indeed much, of the food put out in grey and the brown bins was probably, at the point of binning, still fit for human consumption.
What a waste in these days of foodbanks!
Walter Attwood, Whins of Milton,