mikee":11znwqfy said:
And the embodied energy in those 7 bins will negatively off-set any benefits gained from your recycling by at ten years or so.
Utter madness.
There's never any joined up thinking or resource sharing between authorites and it's nonsense.
If your council had done things properly they would have invested in a proper waste centre that separates at the centre rather than at source - thereby saving 5 bins, thousands of tonnes of no-doubt 'virgin' plastic, tonnes of CO2 from transport runs alone - not to mention the visual impact on the streetscape.
The fact your council won an award for their efforts just goes to show how the numpties in control rarely see the bigger issue, or look further down the line. Instead, they prefer figures that show year-on-year 'improvements' rather than accounting for their wider impacts.
Essentially the bins are for show, to help people think they are 'playing their part'
Such a missed opportunity for district heating and a combined CHP plant - the sort of things that would actually make a difference...
My time living in Finland showed how 'proper' recycling and energy production / use should work and would be an eye-opener for most council / governement leaders.
But then, they've only had 40 or so years head start on us I suppose - as I'm sure Kai and Shamus would confirm...
There is of course the bigger question of why we recycle glass / alu / plastic in the first place. The energy used in sorting / grinding / blasting / reforming glass alone is massive. Glass can be used for dozens of cycles before in needs to be broken down.
Many of the places I travelled around in Germany a decade or so ago didn't for example have coke in a can. Instead they had coke in a glass, which was then returned to vending machines which swallowed the bottle and returned a few Marks. The bottle was then simply returned to the bottling plant for sterilising and refilling. This would occur many times before the bottles were recycled.
Unfortunately, in the UK sustainabilty is considered more an item of show than one of responsibility. That is the primary reason why the UK is on a mission to cover every hill with a wind turbine rather than investing in tidal power - not because wind turbines are any better, but because they are more visible and the government / energy companies can be 'seen' to be taking action...
I should add of course that these are only my views and not the views of Retrobike®
