On the 18th February the Government published a series of documents asking for the public views on key areas of waste management. Resident expert David Newman has compiled the top five things you need to know from the consultations. You can find out more and have your say by visiting the Gov.uk
*As many powers are already devolved to Scotland and Wales, these consultations mainly concern England.
1. Food Waste.
The Government will introduce separate, weekly collection of food waste. If you don’t already have a food waste collection in your Council this will mean separating your food waste from other types of waste to be collected fortnightly. Separating food waste will help increase overall recycling generally and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in landfills, as well as producing renewable energy and compost. How do you feel about the introduction of food waste recycling?
2. Recycling
How would you like your dry recycling waste collected? When recycling materials such as plastic, paper, card, cans, glass bottles do you prefer to use one bin which is then sorted once the waste is collected? Should paper and card be separated from cans and glass? Or should each type of waste have a specific bin? Do you agree that the bins used for a certain type of waste should be the same colour cross England? This is a great opportunity to have your say in the consistency for waste collection across England.
3. Free Garden waste collections.
The Government would like fortnightly garden waste collections to be free to all residents. If you have a garden would this initiative stimulate you to put out the garden waste more often and send it to industrial composting? Or do you prefer home composting as a solution?
4. Measurement
If the Government eventually legislates for these new processes, how are they going to measure the performance? For example, should Councils be held to adhere to a common set of standards and minimum performance indicators? This may not seem important to you as a householder but it does mean that central Government could intervene if Councils are not meeting specific recycling targets.
5. Deposit Return Scheme.
Lastly, but not least, is the intention to introduce a Deposit Return Scheme, a scheme that already exists in many European countries. A DPS is when you buy a drink in a container (can or bottle) you will be asked to pay a small deposit, approximately 20-50 pence on the container that will then be returned to you if you return the container. In other countries, the scheme has resulted in increased levels of recycling and reduced levels of littering. Would the introduction of the DPS scheme incentivise you to return the container to your local supermarket or equivalent or would you prefer to include them in your weekly recycling to be collected from your doorstep?
For more information or to have your say visit gov.uk