Welby endures trashing from family over muddling his waste bins

GIVEN the bewildering array of different-coloured bins for our rubbish, it’s not surprising that even the most environmentally conscious households sometimes get it wrong.

And it seems that even divine guidance is not enough to prevent the Archbishop of Canterbury from making the occasional faux pas.

So much so that he has admitted his family have taken to “ticking him off ” for getting his waste food mixed up with his general waste, rather than putting it in the compost bin when throwing out the rubbish. The Most Revd Justin Welby revealed yesterday: “I do get ticked off by my family for automatically putting food in the bin, rather than recycling it. It’s just a small thing, but every day gets better.”

The archbishop ought to thank his wife Caroline and their two children

Ellie, 24, and Katharine, 32 for the occasional reminder.

Local authorities have the power to levy fines on households who fail to sort out their recycling properly – though his own, Lambeth council, limits itself to writing to residents with advice.

It is unlikely this was a problem faced by many of his 104 predecessors, but Archbishop Welby doesn’t begrudge the interventions by his family or the council. He says he is committed to reducing his own environmental footprint as part of the Church of England’s wider commitment to saving the planet.

Already he has ditched his diesel car and he and his family are trying to eat less meat.

But the archbishop emphasised that individual action on its own would not be enough to tackle climate change and environmental degradation, saying companies and governments together had to lead by example.