Cutting down on waste disposal
Ever wonder about litter blackspots around the country, and the mentality of those who think it’s okay to dump their rubbish illegally?
And have you ever considered what might happen if an envelope with your name on it were to appear at the bottom of a pile of rubbish that has been fly tipped along a rural road?
You might consider yourself an innocent party, but if your waste gets collected by an unregistered collector, there’s every chance that your rubbish is part of the problem which is blighting our countryside.
By segregating your waste at home, you can make very significant cost savings.
In the coming weeks, this column will give you all of the tips required to reduce not only your waste but to significantly cut down on the cost of its disposal to you, the consumer.
For this week, here are some broad pointers to get started. Try them out, you should see a reduction in your waste bill straight away.
Firstly, divert as much waste as possible away from your landfill bin. This means recycling your paper, plastics and cardboard, and, if you don’t already have one, getting your supplier to provide you with a kerbside compost bin too.
Remember that the bin itself is free, you only get charged for each time it is collected. As both your recycling and compost bins are cheaper to collect than your landfill bin, there’s a cost saving straight away.
What can you put into your recycling and compost bins? An upcoming Green Aware Sligo article will deal with this in more detail, but broadly, this is what you need to remember.
Rigid plastics like milk cartons and butter tubs, tins and cans, clean paper and cardboard can generally all be recycled.
There are some exceptions to this, but a full list of all of the recyclable items is available at the web address below. Items need to be clean, dry and loose before being placed in the bin.
Into your kerbside compost bin you can put all kinds of food waste, grass cuttings, weeds and leaves – and remember to put this waste into a compostable bag to help keep the bin itself clean and fresh. A full list of everything you can compost or recycle is also available on the website.
You can also compost at home by buying a garden composter for your grass cuttings and vegetable waste.
At present, there are three options for householders in Sligo to dispose of waste.
You can have your own bin emptied by a registered waste collector; you can share a bin with your neighbour and you can also bring your waste to the local centres at Finisklin and Tubbercurry, the latter options are also cheaper. The dumping of waste illegal- ly – usually in isolated scenic spots – is by no means uniquely a Sligo problem, but it is one which needs to be highlighted both in terms of cause and effect, as well as finding long term solutions.
In terms of our own pride in and enjoyment of the county we live in, as well as how tourists perceive us, there is no doubt that illegal dumping is not only a highly visual obstacle to developing Sligo’s tourism potential, but it also has broader consequences, economic and environmental.
We should all strive to make Sligo a better place for us all to live, to enjoy the spectacular scenery that surrounds us and to provide the next generation with positive habits in relation to how they perceive waste and how they should dispose of it.
Let’s all step up to the mark – Sligo is our county and our responsibility. We can lead the way on waste, and make Sligo a better place to live in and for all of our visitors to enjoy. For more info visit www.sligococo.ie/greenaware.