Forum Topic

Windsor's Recycling

The government want us all to adopt Windsor's recycling scheme. Just one big bin that takes all your recycling (not several silly little ones). Its weighed and scanned and the more you recycle you get discounts at local shops. Sounds good to me. Ealing council please take note.

David Archer ● 5947d17 Comments

A friend who works for Windsor and Maidenhead is at the heart of this and has been promoting the reward concept, which has been very successful in the pilot. Now borough wide. It is optional in that you need to sign up for the scheme. You get rewarded for the volume of your recycling with points you can use in a wide range of local retailers/suppliers.The one bin approach is more expensive for the borough as the stuff has to be sorted but it is a lot simpler for the customer and the more volume, the lower the cost (LBHF also have a single bin approach but introduced charges for garden waste)So it seems a good idea and Eric Pickles was on TV today praising it as a carrot rather than the stick of charging for household waste. However it has been panned by those who point out that if by lifestyle and choice you manage to produce  less waste, you are penalised, by less points!I think the simpler you make it, the more will recycle, so I am in favour

Iain Muir ● 5947d

"Just one big bin that takes all your recycling"So garden waste, food waste and newspapers all get dumped in the same bin?  How do they manage to recycle the paper from that soggy decaying mess?Also, for those of us in small terrace houses, it would mean a large bin cluttering up the front path, as it would be too big to drag through the house from the back.  No thank you.I thought this government were supposed to be in favour of more local decision-making.  So are they really trying to dictate that sort of thing from the centre?  Where did you learn about this, David?

Richard Jennings ● 5947d

Hammersmith have orange bin bags that take all recycling together - tins, bottles, plastic, newspapers - and they don't take up space until you fill them. No food collection though. I can't understand why people waste food; there's none in my bin.

Becky Bell ● 5947d

The story has been running all day on BBCNews (I think garden refuse is kept seperate but everything else goes in the one bin)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10257598.stm

David Archer ● 5947d

Richard, fairly sure 'one bin' does not include garden or food waste, so 'one bin' a misnomer. Cannot critisise central Govt for encouraging what they see as good practice tho today was more about dumping on Labour for the Daily Express/Mail obsession with waste tax. Becky, you are fairly unusual in not having food waste! Where is Philipa, our resident expert?

Iain Muir ● 5947d

Im sure when we all had metal dustbins we didnt have the problems we have now with foxes. Now its so easy for them to get waste from black bags.

David Archer ● 5947d

Once our recycling scheme was in place, plastic, paper and glass, it began taking me two or three weeks fill the kitchen bin up.  Not a problem here because I have so little waste food to throw out.The council issued everyone a green, fox-proof container specifically for food waste a few years ago.

Fred Bray ● 5947d

Windsor is not Acton in its urban makeup. We have had this debate before.  Wheelie bins ... ugh!!!

Dee Cook ● 5946d

I keep hearing 'no need to sort' but how do the only four things (plastic bottles-lids off, paper, cans, glass bottles/jars)that Windsor & Maidenhead can put in their new (BIG) recycling wheelie bins get separated from the rest of their waste then??? Every new initiative that brings more information door to door especially with visiting recycling officers increases the recycling rate. Councils rely on government grants for most of this.Reducing our waste and persuading manufacturers and retailers that packaging's primary function should be just for necessary protection of the product and not advertising and stacking etc gives us less to recycle or throw away is I think of greater benefit to us than a bigger bin to put it in.

Philippa Bond ● 5944d

Getting residents to physically sort their own rubbish draws their attention to just how much waste they produce.Keep sorting - which will in time - reduce the amount of waste.Leave as much behind at the supermarket as possible - this will then put pressure on the supermarkets (because they have to pay to have their waste collected) to reduce their own waste.

Dee Cook ● 5944d

Exactly, having to wash and sort the recycling quickly becomes the norm and it certainly helps you notice how much over packaging there is. And also how many sneaky items you can't recycle, I have half a mind to try and choke a morrisons exec with some of their plastic that carries the note, 'sorry, this packaging can't be recycled but we're working on it'. Working on indeed, for several years now, and the same item by a different brand has managed it!! grrr.Weighing and rewarding is not the way forward, we should have less packaging to recycle full stop.  We also produce about a quarter of a bag of rubbish every week or two, and thats between a household of four twenty somethings. An obligation to recycle should be the law. End of.

Guy Campbell ● 5944d

so becky you eat lemon skins, tea leaves, potato peel and egg shells, meat bones, etc do you !! ha ha

Jane Willingale ● 5944d

Well I eat lemon skins and potato peel!All those things can go in a wormery or compost bin, green johanna etcThere are loads of ideas on this website:www.zerowaste.com  Beware some of them might make the consumerists among us go apoplectic!

Philippa Bond ● 5944d

I note Windsor were replacing TWO plastic boxes - they had to collect their glass and tins etc separately from their paper in these.  Just like LBE they have or had reduced price composters.  They don't have a food waste collection - food has to go in their other wheelie bin.

Philippa Bond ● 5943d

http://www.letsrecycle.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=37&listcatid=217&listitemid=56713§ion=local_authority...and join the other London boroughs with compulsory recycling

Philippa Bond ● 5784d

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Fred Bray ● 5783d

Reduce Reuse Recycle.

Philippa Bond ● 5782d