A rubbish revolution

YORK council's decision to scrap its weekly refuse collection is bound to cause an almighty stink. And no, it won't just be from the disposable nappies and rotting chicken carcasses festering for up to two weeks in bins in back gardens.

Judging from the reaction of people the Evening Press spoke to when the council first announced its proposals last week, many residents will take a lot of persuading about the merits of the new system for collecting our rubbish.

From this autumn, 60,000 homes across the city - mainly homes with gardens - will have their rubbish collected on an alternating cycle. One week, it will be normal domestic rubbish. The following week, it will be garden waste such as grass clippings, and other recyclable material such as cans, bottles and paper.

So some domestic rubbish will stay in the bin for two weeks.

"I just think it is pathetic," said Tang Hall resident Carole Marsden when asked what she thought. "There are only two of us, but we have too much rubbish to do that. The bin is full every week. If you walk down this street normally every bin is full every week."

And therein lies the problem. We are all producing too much rubbish and we're not making enough of an effort to recycle material that could be used again.

By introducing its new system, the city council is responding to tough new Government targets designed to cut down on the amount of rubbish we bury in landfill sites.

At the moment, York recycles about 17 per cent of all its rubbish (see panel on next page). By 2010, that must rise to 30 per cent.

The target on biodegradable rubbish in particular - mainly garden waste such as grass clippings - is even tougher.

At the moment, York is burying 67,000 tons of the stuff every year. By 2009, we will be expected to reduce that to 44,000 tons. For every ton over that, the city council will be 'fined' £150.

It's not hard to do the maths. If by the year 2009 we were still burying 67,000 tons of biodegradable waste, that would be 23,000 tons over our Government-imposed target. And the council could be fined £3.45 million a year.

Hence the move to introduce garden waste collection. It is not just for economic reasons, however - it is for environmental ones, too.

Coun Andrew Waller, the council's deputy leader and executive member for the environment, says it doesn't make sense to keep burying biodegradable rubbish that could be composted. As compost it could be used to help nourish farms and gardens. Stick it in a landfill site instead and it merely produces methane - a greenhouse gas which is 25 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.

Complain how you like, but the new rubbish collection system is a done deal. It is going to happen.

What the council will be doing during the summer is working hard to persuade people of the need to recycle more and to reduce the amount of rubbish they throw out.

A waste minimisation campaign will aim to advise people on how they can reduce the amount of rubbish they produce. More recycling points will be set up around the city (six altogether, including Foss Islands) that can take bulky cardboard and plastic bottles, which are not included in the kerbside recycling scheme.

And the range of materials that can be included in kerbside recycling will be increased, to include, for example, aerosol sprays.

More effort is also to be put into encouraging people to take the trouble of sorting out their recyclable rubbish and using the kerbside recycling scheme: only about 55 per cent of households included on the scheme make use of it.

All of that should help reduce the amount of rubbish filling your wheelie bin so that, hopefully, there won't be problems of bins overflowing.

But what about the potential health hazard of having chicken carcasses or disposable nappies in a bin in your back garden for up to two weeks?

There won't be a health hazard, Coun Waller insists. Something like 80 other councils around the country already operate the same system, with no reports of trouble (see below).

And one of the council's strategies will be to work with parents to try to discourage them from using disposable nappies in favour of re-usables. That way, you won't have what amounts to raw sewage lurking in your bin.

Busy parents are going to love that one. But it is important, insists John Brown, environmental co-ordinator with Ryedale District Council, which is already introducing a weekly alternating system.

Disposable nappies may be convenient, but should we be putting raw sewage into our bins to be dumped in a landfill site, John asks? It may be out of sight, out of mind, but what about the people who live near the landfill sites where such stuff is dumped?

No one is asking modern parents to go back to the days of their parents or grandparents, says John. Modern re-usable nappies are much more convenient. "They have a liner inside. You take the liner out, throw the solids down the loo then wash the nappy. It's perfectly straightforward. And sewage should be going down the loo where it is dealt with properly."

It is the same with food waste, John says. Many families buy more food than they can possibly eat - maybe because it is on offer - and chuck it out when it gets past the use-by date.

"You should just be buying what you need," he says.

But even if you do chuck food waste or disposable nappies out there is no health hazard from having them sitting in your bin in the garden for up to two weeks, says John.

If it was in a black bag, yes, perhaps. "But in a bin there is no health issue."

The people of York may take a bit of convincing yet.

:: What other councils do...

Ryedale

Ryedale district council began to introduce a 'twin bin' system in March 2003, and is still rolling it out.

Under the system, households have two large bins: one black, for normal domestic rubbish, one green for garden waste. There is also a smaller plastic box for recyclables such as glass and cans, and a blue bag for newspapers. One week, the normal household rubbish is collected. The next, garden waste and recyclable rubbish is collected - essentially the system that will be introduced in York.

In areas where the new scheme is operating, the amount of rubbish being recycled has dramatically increased, from 11 per cent in March 2003 to 15 per cent last year and about 25 per cent this year.

"Next year we would hope it will be more than 30 per cent," says John Brown.

Initially, there was anger at the loss of the weekly rubbish collection. There were about 200 calls from the 3,000 households where it was first introduced. But most of those people were satisfied after the new system had been explained, John says.

"And now people are much more used to it and accepting of it."

Lichfield in Staffordshire

Lichfield was recently named top of the recyclers, with 46.2 per cent of household waste recycled. The district council operates:

A weekly collection of dry recyclables - one box for paper and card, the other for glass, cans and plastics

An alternating weekly collection for the remaining waste, a brown bin one week for garden waste and a black bin the next week for other waste.

When the alternating collection was first brought in there were a few complaints, a council spokesperson admitted. But the people of Lichfield were now proud of their recycling record. For any householders having trouble reducing the amount of rubbish they throw out, there are officers who make home visits to offer advice.

Representatives of City of York Council were welcome to visit to see how it was done, said Lichfield council.

:: What happens to our recycled rubbish?

Paper: Sent to the Shotton paper mill in North Wales, where it is turned back into newsprint. Within seven days of throwing away your Evening Press, you could in theory be reading another Evening Press printed on paper made from the old one says, John Miller of Yorwaste.

Cans: Aluminium and steel cans are separated magnetically. Steel cans are crushed and sent to a plant in Redcar for recycling: the steel could be used in everything from cars to more steel cans. Aluminium cans go to a plant in Warrington, where they are recycled into more aluminium cans.

Glass bottles: Go to a plant in Barnsley for recycling, and ultimately end up being used in new glass products.

Plastic bottles: Go to Manchester, where they are separated and recycled.

:: Targeting retailers

One of the reasons for the increasing amount of household rubbish is the amount of packaging on everything we buy.

Under the 2003 Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations, local authority trading standards officers have power to take action against companies that over-package.

Northamptonshire trading standards recently took Office World to court for unnecessary packaging, and the company was fined £2,000 with £550 costs.

Colin Rumsford, head of York Trading Standards, said his department would be willing to take action against companies that over-packaged, with spot checks and test purchases a possibility.

Updated: 08:52 Thursday, May 19, 2005