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Baroness Gardner of Parkes urges the government to establish recommended standards for dealing with litter and waste.
Re-cycling policy varies widely throughout the country. It would be much easier for people to know that all local authorities accept the same products for re-cycling. I am proposing that the government produces a recommended list. I appreciate that in many cases, until the local contract for waste collection is due for renewal, it may not be possible to adapt to a single list.
It is important that waste collection suits each area. Needs differ; in a rural area where space is not restricted, waste collection from a large bin, at longer intervals may not be a problem. Quite the reverse in a closely built environment, particularly in blocks of flats which have no suitable storage areas available, more frequent collection is desirable and perhaps even essential in public health terms.
The issue of so called "single use" plastic carrier bags has been widely discussed. There is a current suggestion that the government may ban these and this raises a wider issue.
Many people, particularly the elderly and those in small households living in an urban environment, have only small quantities of waste and they regularly re-use for their waste, the shopping bag they got from their food supplier, be it a supermarket or small trader.
With the addition of a new chemical, d2w, to plastic during the manufacture of bags, it is possible to set the exact length of time before such bio-degradable bags self-destruct.
Some supermarket bags now destruct at a surprisingly rapid rate and people find what looks like confetti over their kitchen floor. This is unfortunate if the bag had been used to protect a woolly from moth damage.
Quantities of plastic bags of the non-degradable variety are a danger to marine life and clog up waterways.
Would it not be a good idea for people to know the life of a plastic bag and would it not encourage fast food outlets, among the worst offenders, to use the very rapidly degrading bags for their products. Would the minute extra cost of showing the "death date" not be worth it?
*Baroness Gardner of Parkes to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will establish recommended standards for dealing with litter and waste, adapted for different areas and needs and including labelling plastic carrier bags with the length of time they take to biodegrade.
A qualified dentist, Baroness Gardner takes her title from Parkes in her native New South Wales, Australia.
Article Comments
One size simply doesn't fit all - the main problem with recycling in the UK is there is simply no infrastructure to support it properly - the whole system has been cobbled together over the years by a dedicated band of weary recycling officers/waste managers in local government or in the waste regulation authorities.
Strategies have been developed, plans drawn up and approved and then the market dictates the value of recyclables and decides how much the local authority has to pay to get the stuff removed. So, the private sector produces the waste, people generate waste, the local authority or 'commissioned other' collects it, sorts it as required by the market, this then becomes a raw material which the market gets paid to take away - which the market uses and sells back to us as recycled goods - something not quite right here?
Seems the public sector are paying all the costs and the private reap the rewards.
Time for a rethink is long overdue - it's been over 10 years since I worked in waste and not much has changed.
Linda
9th Sep 2011 at 4:06 pm
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