At the annual Sheffield University Recycling Forum organised by People and Planet, David Bird, Head of Waste at Sheffield City Council, told an audience of students that 'Sheffield City Council does not believe that recycling is the answer'.
At the annual Sheffield University Recycling Forum organised by People and Planet, David Bird, Head of Waste at Sheffield City Council, told an audience of students that 'Sheffield City Council does not believe that recycling is the answer'.
Sheffield City Council has no plans to expand the successful blue bin scheme and collect other recyclable materials at kerbside, it was revealed last night. David Bird, Head of Waste at Sheffield City Council, told students that, unlike a lot of the areas they had come from, Sheffield did not believe that recycling was the answer and was instead pursuing a ‘mixed economy for waste for the city’…
This policy is driven by the cost implications of a more comprehensive kerbside recycling service and the fact that Sheffield has a 30 year contract with private waste contractor Onyx centred on incineration and the building of a 225,000 tonne capacity ‘Energy from Waste’ plant in the city centre.
With a 30% recycling target to meet, the council is focussing its energies on the ‘green’ [ garden] waste’ stream, in order to reduce the amount of organic waste in landfill. It does not, however, see any problems with landfilling other ‘dry’ recyclable materials, as there is no statutory incentive not to.
Indeed, when asked about aluminium can recycling, Mr Bird replied ‘Why would we bother?’, leaving his interlocuter at a loss for words.
In response to a question about improving kerbside facilities to make recycling easier for Sheffielders, Mr Bird replied that he thought that kerbside collections of glass, plastic and cans would ‘encourage people to buy more packaging’. This contradicts logic and research which suggests that the action of sorting packaging materials for collection at kerbside encourages people to think more about what they buy, and to reduce as well as recycle their waste.
‘A Cleaner Greener Sheffield’ may be the council’s slogan, but as this meeting clearly showed, they have no intention whatsoever of putting it into practice.
On June 20th I’ll be voting for the only party with a sustainable waste strategy for Sheffield, but until we have a Green majority on the council, I think the only way to move recycling up the political agenda is Direct Action. Anyone fancy another Toxic Crime chimney climb?
Sheffield City Council has no plans to expand the successful blue bin scheme and collect other recyclable materials at kerbside, it was revealed last night. David Bird, Head of Waste at Sheffield City Council, told students that, unlike a lot of the areas they had come from, Sheffield did not believe that recycling was the answer and was instead pursuing a ‘mixed economy for waste for the city’…
This policy is driven by the cost implications of a more comprehensive kerbside recycling service and the fact that Sheffield has a 30 year contract with private waste contractor Onyx centred on incineration and the building of a 225,000 tonne capacity ‘Energy from Waste’ plant in the city centre.
With a 30% recycling target to meet, the council is focussing its energies on the ‘green’ [ garden] waste’ stream, in order to reduce the amount of organic waste in landfill. It does not, however, see any problems with landfilling other ‘dry’ recyclable materials, as there is no statutory incentive not to.
Indeed, when asked about aluminium can recycling, Mr Bird replied ‘Why would we bother?’, leaving his interlocuter at a loss for words.
In response to a question about improving kerbside facilities to make recycling easier for Sheffielders, Mr Bird replied that he thought that kerbside collections of glass, plastic and cans would ‘encourage people to buy more packaging’. This contradicts logic and research which suggests that the action of sorting packaging materials for collection at kerbside encourages people to think more about what they buy, and to reduce as well as recycle their waste.
‘A Cleaner Greener Sheffield’ may be the council’s slogan, but as this meeting clearly showed, they have no intention whatsoever of putting it into practice.
On June 20th I’ll be voting for the only party with a sustainable waste strategy for Sheffield, but until we have a Green majority on the council, I think the only way to move recycling up the political agenda is Direct Action. Anyone fancy another Toxic Crime chimney climb?
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
recycling
21.05.2004 08:50
recycler
nor do i
21.05.2004 08:55
reduce
re-use
recyle
disposal with energy recovery
disposal
the higher you go up the hierarcy the better, recycling is not as good as reduction or re-use.
There is a interesting idea emerging of zero waste and a whole new way of looking at development. www.zeri.org
mayler
Aluminium ???
21.05.2004 18:35
but recycler says:
"The difference between the energy that it takes to recycle, say an aluminum can, and the energy to produce another one is hardly worth mentioning."
I find that hard to believe especially if the aluminium comes from far away. But even if this is so surely this ignores the fact that using raw aluminium rather than recycled means digging up landscapes that could otherwise be left alone?
steve
In defence of recycling
26.05.2004 16:38
Whilst recycling is below reducing waste in the waste hierarchy, it is a good way of encouraging people who might otherwise have black binned recyclable packaging without a second thought, to think about what they use, which is the first step to using less of it.
Recycling Matters!