Composting For All
Well, not quite all. The London Borough of Bromley’s (LBB) trial of weekly kitchen waste collections continues its lumbering progress. The Composting For All trial has been running since September 2007, with 4,500 participating households (or 5,000 depending on which piece of LBB propaganda you happen to read). Its original remit was to evaluate the practicalities of a weekly kitchen waste collection for “smelly and potentially contentious” non-compostible food scraps.
In September 2008, the scope of the trial was extended. The existing ‘plastic bottles only’ rule was suspended and LBB began to collect all plastic containers from households in the trial as part of the ‘green box’ recycling scheme. Eligible items include all types of washed plastic containers such as food trays, yoghurt pots, margarine and ice-cream containers, though not plastic film or bags, toys, polystyrene or electrical items. This is a welcome move, as it addresses the nonsensical situation where bottles made of all kinds of plastics were accepted for recycling, while other types of packaging like pots or tubs made from identical plastics were not.
LBB claims that , with more items than ever before being recycled, the contents of the typical household bin have been drastically reduced, to the extent that a fortnightly refuse collection is now being trialled. Kitchen waste collections have increased to 3 tonnes per day, ‘green box’ recycling (glass, plastic and cans) has doubled, while the amount of household refuse has halved.
It’s ironic that, as recycling is really starting to take off, global prices for waste materials have been badly hit by a recession-led slump in demand.
Pete Smith @ November 21, 2008