Wednesday 21 April 2010

That Law Of Unintended Consequences Again…

Householders who burn their rubbish at home are now the main source of dioxin poisons in the environment, an inquiry has found.
And why would householders need to burn household rubbish in the first place?

Three guesses:
The findings follow deepening concern about the spread of rubbish-burning by householders whose waste is no longer collected by binmen.

Burning and fly-tipping have become an alternative for many families...
/facepalm
The latest inquiry was completed for DEFRA by consultants AEA last year, but its report was never published. Ministers have now put a copy in the House of Commons library.
It’s a wonder they didn’t light a fire somewhere in Whitehall and burn it, isn’t it?

Because it’s evidence of their utter failure to understand that actions have consequences…
Tory communities spokesman Caroline Spelman said: ‘Weekly rubbish collections were introduced because of the harm to the environment from fly-tipping and backyard burning. Yet the lessons of the past have been forgotten.

‘Labour’s bin bully policies have slashed back proper bin collections. Now Labour ministers have conspired to cover up the serious threat to public health their policies have caused.’
And DEFRA immediately announced plans to reverse its environmental policies and ensure sanity reigned once more in…

Oh, who am I kidding:
A spokesman for DEFRA said: ‘It is an offence for householders to dispose of their waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment and human health, such as by burning.

‘Domestic waste should be disposed of via the proper routes provided by the local authority.’
Might as well try to argue with a Dalek…

H/T: Al Jahom, who points out that the local Tory council actions don’t exactly match their spokeswoman’s rhetoric…

10 comments:

Uncle Marvo said...

Legiron will know much, much more than I, but I believe that dioxins are likely to be formed when burning stuff containing chlorine, such as some plastics.

If this is so, then burning things like garden rubbish isn't likely to produce them. [waits for Leg to put right]

Everywhere has a recycling centre, they take cans, bottles, paper etc. It's not a lot of effort. Veg peelings etc should be composted. Anything of value (metal etc) should be left outside and the Pikeys will nick it for you.

DEFRA have been a sack of shit ever since the idiot Militwonk got hold of them.

Quiet_Man said...

Yes Marvo, everywhere has a recycling centre with massive car queues to get in at weekends (burning all those fossil fuels too) there are also some people without cars still too who can't get to the centres.
All in all fortnightly collections was a bad idea and was simply a way to save more money to put into the pension funds for local councils.

Brian, follower of Deornoth said...

"Veg peelings etc should be composted"

A lot of good that will do you if you happen to live in a flat. Or a house like mine, with three square yards of concrete for a garden.

As I also don't have a car, carrying rubbish to the recycling centre is likely to prove problematic.

Uncle Marvo said...

Chuck it out the window. It'll rot eventually.

woman on a raft said...

Whilse Uncle Marvo is correct about methods of disposal, I have already paid my council to do this work and last week they decided not to take away the plastic anymore.

I now have a council rubbish coordinator who wants a wage and a pension but suggests that for merely telling me where the plastic bank is, he deserves it.

I don't agree.

Unknown said...

It’s a wonder they didn’t light a fire somewhere in Whitehall and burn it, isn’t it?

Oh you are awfull Julia...but I like you!

Antisthenes said...

I am obsessed with France today as you may notice if you have seen other comments I have made that I have so liberally sprinkled about the blogosphere.

However, a down side I noticed about living in France when I arrived here was their predilection for passing laws enforcing and enhancing previous ones. The consequences of which is a legal and Bureaucratic nightmare which causes a constant battle between those who wish to enforce the bureaucrats and those who wish to avoid the citizens.

The French see this as a fun thing because, for the Bureaucrats more and more of them have to be employed to enforce more and more laws which justifies their existence. The citizens because it gives them something to do in their spare time, which they have plenty of because working is something else the French avoid like the plague, playing what can we avoid today.

I can hear you muttering, "yes, yes what has this got to do with unintended consequences".

Well because the French seem to always pass laws that have unintended consequences and instead of repealing them or correcting them they just make up another one which has the same effect and so on on and on it goes.

The moral is this when Labour is returned to power and you make plans to emigrate think twice about France. Picturesque, mild climate, good food and wine yes. Close to police state, grossly over regulated and daft incomprehensible laws, yes.

So Britain with less rain and more sunshine but that is all and their economy is very dodge as well.

English Viking said...

It is not illegal to have a bonfire in most Boroughs, providing the fumes are not noxious, the fire is under control and not cause visibility problems on the nearby roads. I'm going to have a massive one soon, just out of spite.

Jiks said...

Yep, this is just what I said would happen and of course it is. There are umpteen reasons collections were weekly, not least fly breeding cyles.

The two weekly version wouldn't be as bad if councils provised sufficient space in their accursed bins but, no that would be far too sensible. Sigh ...

JuliaM said...

"DEFRA have been a sack of shit ever since the idiot Militwonk got hold of them."

They weren't an awful lot of use in their previous incarnation, either...

"All in all fortnightly collections was a bad idea and was simply a way to save more money to put into the pension funds for local councils."

Plus compliance with the insatiable demands of our real government across the water, of course...

"I now have a council rubbish coordinator who wants a wage and a pension but suggests that for merely telling me where the plastic bank is, he deserves it.

I don't agree."


Me neither!

That's council 'services' for you. Pay more, get less.

"The two weekly version wouldn't be as bad if councils provised sufficient space in their accursed bins but, no that would be far too sensible."

That seems to be part of a plan to get everyone to throw less rubbish away. But what are we supposed to DO with it?