Forum Topic

Young people are bad (rubbish) at recycling.  Is this true?

Several people have told me this recently. Why would this be?

Philippa Bond ● 5789d22 Comments

My excuse is when I moved here it was my first time not living with my parents, there are so many blooming boxes and different places to put different things, it gets very very confusing!Also, when I moved here we weren't given any clues as to what days the rubbish is collected and how to go about doing it since we are in flats. There should be some sort of leaflet that gets given to people when they move in so everybody knows what to do and there is no confusion.

Beth Hippisley ● 5789d

There are often more people living in the house too - the only communal space we have in our house (group of 6 sharers aged 22-25) is the kitchen, which is pretty tiny. There's no space for 187 different boxes, bags and colour coded skips that Acton seems to need for recycling, so unfortunately it falls by the wayside.

Emily West ● 5789d

Emily, it is easy.  Do you have outside space? Basically:1 green box with lid for food waste1 green open box for paper/cardboard/cans/glass1 white bag for plastics1 orange bag for garden waste1 dustbin containing black (or other colour reusable) sack  for the rest or stuff you are not sure aboutIts like cleaning your teeth - get into the routine and its easy

Dee Cook ● 5789d

orange?  my garden waste goes in a pink bag.

Jen Morty ● 5789d

We can't generalise.I only know that when I told a woman at work(not young 29yrs old) that I was going to get my boots re-soled she looked at me like I was from Mars and called me old fashioned.

Keith Iddon ● 5789d

It should be made easier, just one box/bag for everything bar true domestic rubbish that can't be recycled.  I'm sure more people would then do it. I should add that I do recycle as much as I can despite the bureaucracy!

Chris Hurley ● 5788d

No outside space, and the one pedal bin that we do have is blocking a cupboard already. Recycling is something I happily do back in my parents house, and will happily do when I have the luxury of more space but at the moment it's just not an option. Sometimes there is a good reason...

Emily West ● 5788d

(oh dear I must be getting old - under 30 sounds young to me)Here just over the border in W12 we just have one orange bag for all recycling -paper/card,plastics,glass,cans-makes it much easier and takes up much less space. I'd struggle to find space for all those boxes even though I consider myself an enthusiastic recycler.

David Turner ● 5788d

Space for waste needs to be designed into a house or flat when it is built/converted AND maintained.There are different arrangements for flats recycling as the space is expected to be less - sometimes it is the mixed special bags for recycling and sometimes it is a bank of communal wheelie bins for specific recyclables.Beth, do you have either of these?  Have you now discovered the Council website with its information?Emily, I am a bit worried about the number of bags and boxes you are seeing!  I think you need to count again :)Are you managing to reduce the volume of your waste at all?  Unsquashed plastic bottles and cans take up a lot of space. Both are valuable recyclates.Reducing the amount of junkmail you get is a good start:"To register, visit www.mpsonline.org.uk or call 0845 703 4599. To get a free 'no junkmail' sticker, email: recyclingteam@ealing.gov.uk "(from http://www.ealing.gov.uk/services/environment/recycling/tips_to_manage_household_waste/      where there is masses of helpful information.)  This forum can also be very useful for finding out things.Rubbish in = Rubbish outGood Luck!

Philippa Bond ● 5788d

We have a few green bins in our front garden and a couple of large bins for general rubbish. This means we can't take them into our flat because they are for everyone and also there aren't seperate things for different types of rubbish which leaves us with our rubbish not always being collected because it's not in the correct bin!Can't really win at all, it's stupid, everything should just get put in recycling and non recycling bins and be done with it!

Beth Hippisley ● 5788d

Beth, the problem it would seem is that no-one is taking ownership.  It is easy to recycle when you have the info.I suggest you email the Council's Recycling Team and ask them to send you the information and since you are sharing bins/boxes with others and the wrong stuff is being put in to get them to also send info to the other flats. They need to know that you need help in order to give it to you. The recycling all has to be separated somewhere.In Ealing the collection crew separate the recycling from the green boxes into different compartments in a lorry as they go along. The plastics and garden waste go into different sides of a another lorry and the plastics are later further sorted (presumably to take out the most valuable/recyclable plastics ie plastic bottles). If these green bins you are referring to are the green 'boxes' then you can put mixed recycling in these - all you need to know is what. (It depends on each Council's contracts.  Just as you don't buy everything from the same shop the Council doesn't buy everything from the same company.)With a list on a noticeboard/fridge etc it is easy. You can recycle many more things in LBE in these boxes than you can in LBH&F in their orange bags.The info is here on the LBE website (I presume you are in the LB Ealing!)for you to read and/or print off: http://www.ealing.gov.uk/services/environment/recycling/green_box_collection/If someone is putting plastic in the green box and so stopping the mixed recycling being collected then you will need to tell them not to and may need to order a reusable plastics bag from the Council by phone/email or online.  (BTW I keep mine rolled up inside a green box when not in use - other people will have found other ways to deal with these.) You can say you have asked the Council for up-to-date info so that you can all get it right. To find out what what research is going on to create packaging that is more easily recycled/lighter/less problematic visit www.wrap.org.uk

Philippa Bond ● 5788d

My kids just don't seem very interested - i am constantly fishing the recyclables out of the rubbish when they are home

Sara Nathan ● 5788d

Recycling - I recycle  about 90% of the waste I generate. at work, day after day I see people throw items like cans into the rubbish bin which is NEXT to the recycling bin and I just don't get it. I live on a street of houses all with a front garden but on collection day, there are hardly any recycling boxes put out and most people on this street are long termers. Before the collection service I used to take my recycling to the supermarket bins when I went to do my shopping. There is always a way to recycle.

Miriam Kerketta ● 5788d

http://blogs.reuters.com/adam-pasick/2009/10/23/victims-of-the-pacific-trash-gyre/We have always recycled and composted in our family but it was pictures like the ones above which convinced me that we should make more of an effort.  Do you have to be a parent to feel so horrified at what the parent albatrosses are innocently feeding their chicks?

Philippa Bond ● 5788d

Interesting viewpoint and observations given that I am endlessly told Generation Y are more interested in environment, carbon footprints etc than older generations, which this chain of comments would not seem to easily support?

Joe Conneely ● 5787d

I think it is just a matter of application.  I could be a lot better at texting/using/keeping my mobile phone fed if I tried harder...all I can say is that I make some sort of an attempt which takes so much longer and more effort than it would take a youngster...but I expect I will get better at it with more practice.What we do need is landlords making sure that their tenants start off with the right information, the right bins and allocated bin space (often stipulated in a planning permission) and know where to get more information/bins from. I thought the Council was now doing something proactive about this.  Aren't they?  It is the start of a new academic year so there will be a lot of new students moving in.  I also understand LGA best practice guidelines has something on this.Ignoring the problem doesn't help any of us.

Philippa Bond ● 5787d

Where in Acton is this sort of information available?  I would expect to find it in the libraries.  Where else can useful info be found?

Philippa Bond ● 5786d

My daughters are both around 30 and are much keener on recycling than me, although I do my bit.  However, my youngest daugher lives in Ashford, Middlesex and has only one large wheelie bin for rubbish and one for recycling and a big enough garden to house them, so for her it is much less of a problem.  I guess some poor soul separates all her different recycling at a base somewhere.

Maggie Dodge ● 5785d

Yes, either somebody sorts it at the kerbside as in Ealing or it goes off to be sorted by somebody elsewhere.  We dream of it all being magically done by technology but in fact only a little of it is.  There is always some sort of problem like not being able to sort black plastic bottles/trays because of not being able to 'read' them which needs to be overcome.The trouble with those wheelie bins is that they are enormous and do nothing to encourage you to reduce your waste or the supermarkets to reduce their packaging.  They take up a whole small garden and are often mostly empty. I'd rather some greenery.We are paying our Councils to take away and dispose of a lot of packaging we have bought without thinking or asking.Only by saying 'no' to an excessive amount of it will it decrease.

Philippa Bond ● 5784d

I am borderline at 32 and all 3 of my kids are trained that plastics go in white and paper in green. I sort out the rest as they are too young to understand it all.

Veki Pavlova ● 5782d

Wheelie bins have been proven to INCREASE the amount of rubbish people throw away.TV's, odd bits of furniture, builders rubble and other such rubbish all fit into them very nicely. (and... of course other people can put their rubbish into your wheelie bin very easily - and they are known to do that)No, we do not want wheelie bins cluttering up our Victorian frontages and streets and increasing the amount of rubbish we throw away.

Dee Cook ● 5782d

There was a consultation and we voted against wheelie bins for those very reasons.I hope we will be getting some electrical recycling in the next contract if not before.  LB Hounslow added small electrical items in a carrier bag to their kerbside collection this summer. It is time that more was done about electrical recycling in LB Ealing.  LB Brent has had info on which shops have take-back schemes on their website for years.

Philippa Bond ● 5781d