Recycling sites across Bexley have been "forced" to close after they were exposed to severe contamination. Bexley Council has said non-recyclable waste has been dumped in recycling bins, which are emptied by hand, costing an extra £10,000 a year to regularly empty.
A spokeswoman for the council said: "The borough’s waste and recycling team were finding large amounts of fly-tipping thoughtlessly dumped at these sites, as well as consistently finding the banks full of non-recyclable waste such as raw meat and household waste, rather than plastics and cartons."Why wouldn't they? There are no consequences to doing so, after all.
Just as there are no consequences whatsoever for the people who dump carrier bags full of household waste outside the street bin next to my local paper shop. The street sweeper often bags up sackfuls of the stuff, which then have to be collected by lorry.
This was something totally unheard of about 15 years ago. So what changed in my area over this period of time?
Can anyone guess?
Cabinet member for community safety, environment and leisure, Councillor Peter Craske said: “We pride ourselves on being the top London borough for recycling waste and we urge all our residents to recycle their waste responsibly.
"Unfortunately, because of the minority spoiling these sites, it is no longer cost-effective to keep them running for the little recyclable plastics and cartons they produce.
We hope that residents will continue to recycle as much as they can through their normal weekly collections.”Hmmm....
Household plastic packaging and beverage cartons can continue to be recycled through the kerbside recycling collection in the maroon box for houses, or silver bins for flats.So what's to stop these getting similarly treated?
I don't know what it is with the UK and garbage. Here in my little village we had a meeting a few years ago and voted to reduce the garbage collections from three a week (mon, wed and fri) to two a week (mon and wed)because we weren't generating enough to be collected when we considered that we only had to talk to the mayor if we had any large or bulk items needing removal and the village truck would appear and the rubbish disappear. Yes, we pay for it, about 30 euro a year.
ReplyDeleteThe refuse system is beset here with ideology over convenience. The prevailing attitude is 'You WILL comply' not 'What can we do to make it easy for you to comply?'.
ReplyDelete