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Silent majority pleased with blue bin bag scheme
By Laura HerbertNovember 07, 2012
The controversial blue bin bag scheme is ‘pleasing the silent majority’ according to council environment bosses.
Only 2,000 people responded to survey about the waste and recycling scheme, despite the borough having a population of around 159,100.
Wokingham Borough Council officials revealed almost 68 per cent of those who responded put out on average one blue bag a week, compared to 57 per cent before the scheme was introduced in April.
The scheme has reduced household waste collections across the borough by 22 per cent and led to a 24 per cent increase in kerbside recycling.
Councillor Angus Ross, executive member for the environment, said: “We know the scheme had teething problems when it was first rolled out, but it is proving its environmental and financial worth for residents.
“It’s more likely people that have issues with the scheme are going to respond rather than the many I’ve spoken to who think we have done a good job.
“My judgement is the silent majority are quite happy with the scheme, but I don’t want us to become complacent.”
Results also show 47 per cent of people are happy with the transparency of the blue bins bags, despite concerns about the bags’ thickness. Half of people questioned don’t like the size of the bags.
Statistics also reveal 92 per cent of people know about the Recyclebank incentive, with 63 per cent signing up.
Around 70 per cent said they take garden waste to the dump, and of those, there is a 50/50 split between home composting and not.
More women than men took part, with 26 per cent of those representing two-person households, and 27 per cent from four-person homes.
Households were encouraged to complete a questionnaire or respond at a series of Wokingham Borough Council’s drop-ins throughout August and September.
Any changes to the scheme will be considered by the council’s executive when it meets on November 29.
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30/01/2013 at 11:41 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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30/11/2012 at 15:04 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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Things like this make me glad to live in Reading not Wokingham.
My mother in law has been abused by binmen who shouted at her after a bag split.
Are Wokingham rationing bin space based on weight or volume? It seems volume (what you can fit in the bags) but since you cannot more than 1/3 fill the bags it becomes a farce.
16/11/2012 at 13:15 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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15/11/2012 at 23:10 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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15/11/2012 at 23:06 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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There is no consideration of the waste that goes to the tip, and as WBC shares tips as Reading and Bracknell, but doesn't have one of its own, this cost is relatively hidden. Has the amount of waste sent to landfill from the tip increased by the same amount as the waste thrown out in our weekly collection has decreased? What about waste left next to public bins? I've seen a large increase in this. Or fly-tipped? Where are the stats on this?
Saving money as a by-product of reducing waste is a fine upstanding environmental aim. To tell people it is entirely their job to sort out throwing away less rubbish and not assisting in this process through increased recycling or council schemes to reduce packaging is patronising, ill-thought out nonsense, and I really do believe this scheme won't reduce waste thrown out by any significant amount at all. All we will have done is wasted money giving away a million or so blue waste bags for free.
12/11/2012 at 23:11 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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It's got to better than the 'free for all' waste disposal service we had previous. Where anyone could put out as many bags as they'd like.
I'd like to think it's a start for further development - The cynical side of me says that this is unlikely.
"The council needs to work with the residents to decrease the amount sent to landfill, not just set a limit and do absolutely nothing else to help." Totally agree. I think this should be a national issue as well as food retailers.
Phil - I think if there is not an easy £1 to make out of it we are too lazy to do anything about it. Hence why someone in China or India is taking it. It's bit like the Eastern Europeans coming over to pick fruit and vegetables. They do it to earn a reasonable wage, UK workers don't do it because they feel it doesn't pay enough.
I think if it's too much hard work we are not interested as a country - which is poor.
12/11/2012 at 09:46 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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I knew nothing of a survey, so I had no chance of contributing to it. Where was it? How was it publicised?
I'm also an older person, so one of that preceived-as-silent majority. I belong to another much ignored silent majority because I live on my own, so it could take me 3 or 4 weeks to fill one of these beloved-blue-bags. In the pre-beloved-blue-bag days I could put out a simple small bag of any colour containing my weekly rubbish (white, red, blue, orange, green and white, striped, with spots – nobody cared then). No longer possible, because Rules is Rules and if it ain't in a blue bag, then "we won't take it, we will chuck it on your property and leave it behind".
I phoned WBC and asked whether anybody had considered the fact that older people don't always fill a beloved-blue-bag every week. The officious official told me to save up my rubbish until I could fill a beloved-blue-bag. Showing no concern for my health and safety.
I mentioned that I would still be using the small bags-of-any-colour but then placing several into one beloved-blue-bag, thereby increasing the amount of plastic that goes into landfill. She didn’t understand.
I said that several of the older people in neighbouring houses had the same experience. The officious official suggested we should all get together and 'share a beloved-blue-bag'. She had no understanding of the fact that the last thing you want to do is to 'share your rubbish' with your neighbours.
The scheme is ridiculous – what difference does colour make?
11/11/2012 at 13:40 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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I knew nothing of a survey, so I had no chance of contributing to it. Where was it? How was it publicised?
I'm also an older person, so one of that preceived-as-silent majority. I belong to another much ignored silent majority because I live on my own, so it could take me 3 or 4 weeks to fill one of these beloved-blue-bags. In the pre-beloved-blue-bag days I could put out a simple small bag of any colour containing my weekly rubbish (white, red, blue, orange, green and white, striped, with spots – nobody cared then). No longer possible, because Rules is Rules and if it ain't in a blue bag, then "we won't take it, we will chuck it on your property and leave it behind".
I phoned WBC and asked whether anybody had considered the fact that older people don't always fill a beloved-blue-bag every week. The officious official told me to save up my rubbish until I could fill a beloved-blue-bag. Showing no concern for my health and safety.
I mentioned that I would still be using the small bags-of-any-colour but then placing several into one beloved-blue-bag, thereby increasing the amount of plastic that goes into landfill. She didn’t understand.
I said that several of the older people in neighbouring houses had the same experience. The officious official suggested we should all get together and 'share a beloved-blue-bag'. She had no understanding of the fact that the last thing you want to do is to 'share your rubbish' with your neighbours.
The scheme is ridiculous – what difference does colour make?
11/11/2012 at 13:40 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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I knew nothing of a survey, so I had no chance of contributing to it. Where was it? How was it publicised?
I'm also an older person, so one of that preceived-as-silent majority. I belong to another much ignored silent majority because I live on my own, so it could take me 3 or 4 weeks to fill one of these beloved-blue-bags. In the pre-beloved-blue-bag days I could put out a simple small bag of any colour containing my weekly rubbish (white, red, blue, orange, green and white, striped, with spots – nobody cared then). No longer possible, because Rules is Rules and if it ain't in a blue bag, then "we won't take it, we will chuck it on your property and leave it behind".
I phoned WBC and asked whether anybody had considered the fact that older people don't always fill a beloved-blue-bag every week. The officious official told me to save up my rubbish until I could fill a beloved-blue-bag. Showing no concern for my health and safety.
I mentioned that I would still be using the small bags-of-any-colour but then placing several into one beloved-blue-bag, thereby increasing the amount of plastic that goes into landfill. She didn’t understand.
I said that several of the older people in neighbouring houses had the same experience. The officious official suggested we should all get together and 'share a beloved-blue-bag'. She had no understanding of the fact that the last thing you want to do is to 'share your rubbish' with your neighbours.
The scheme is ridiculous – what difference does colour make?
11/11/2012 at 13:40 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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So what do the councils that collect more items do then? So to be sure there imust be a market in the UK. I just know you are going to say that the waste is shipped to China, but that is a quite different argument from saying there isn't a market.
We need to investigate the somewhat illogical idea of sending waste to China in more detail.
It has been suggested to me that the are many containers that go back from UK to China empty. It is the quite literal demonstration of the trade gap. It may be possible that sending waste in the otherwise empty containers may not be so environmentally unfriendly as it apperas at first sight. I would like to understand this a little more before saying it is a good idea or a bad idea, but worth some research dont't you think?
Ultimately I just do not believe Waverley BC, the Royal Borough etc are any less environmentally conscious than WBC so we need to know how they justify recycling more items.
11/11/2012 at 11:14 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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I like the principle of sending less to landfill/incineration. Increasing recycling rates is a really good thing, as is decreasing unecessary packaging whether recyclable or not. But just telling residents that they can only throw away so much and that the rest is up to them is unimaginative, lazy and dictatorial. Plus, it comes with the patronisation of being told to recycle more whilst not providing the means to do so if you already recycle the max. Just charging us more unless we change, but not really helping us make that change at all, doesn't help and doesn't work.
If this scheme was brought in with a plan to help the residents decrease the waste, and a real team spirit across the borough to do the right thing, I'd probably applaud it. But as it has nothing to do with the environment, and everything to do with the council reducing a service that costs them money, I don't. Nowhere is it considered the increase in rubbish taken to the tip and fly-tipped as a result, which will still cost money, but doesn't come out of the same pot (the former is shared with Reading and Bracknell).
The council needs to work with the residents to decrease the amount sent to landfill, not just set a limit and do absolutely nothing else to help.
09/11/2012 at 16:23 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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Mavdo - It's not that the council won't let you recycle more, it's down to there not being a market in the UK for these items. This is what needs to change on a national scale not a local one. Any kerbside glass and food waste collection will cost more when they need to find savings....
09/11/2012 at 15:45 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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But it absolutely is the same as me subsidising your lifestyle choices. You made choices that are more expensive than mine in some areas, and some of these are subsidised. I may never need to use the schools in Berkshire, but I still pay for them. I don't begrudge it though, it's what we need. None of us are environmentally perfect. We all lie on a scale of being as green as possible to not caring a jot. eg driving vs taking three times as long on a bus, or having gas fired heating instead of water heating solar panels (which DO work as my parents have them). I actively choose an environmentally favourable option where it is feasible to do so, even if it is a bit more expensive, but I’m not perfect.
The reason I don't like the scheme is because (a) it is arbitrary, and (b) it is to "encourage" me to recycle more when I cannot do so because the council won't let me, and I already go out of my way to recycle more than the council let me, and (c) it mandates a limit without providing alternatives - eg some people in the borough physically can't recycle glass, or get to the tip, so the only option is landfill. There is nothing to help them reduce their waste other than the council saying they have to, somehow.
There are better schemes to reduce landfill but all MUST be run alongside improved collection and recycling of more items. Pay per throw is one way of doing it that I would be in favour of. In Ireland, for example, you have to buy a sticker or tag that you put on each bag. The more bags you throw out, the more you pay, but there is no limit. If charging per sack (or by weight) was brought in, we'd probably reduce the amount of landfill still further, and I'd get it cheaper because I won't get anywhere near the 80 bag limit.
09/11/2012 at 14:00 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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However, I'm gathering from your comments that you are a childless couple who puts out one full bag of rubbish per week. We're a family of four, including a toddler in nappies, who produces one full bag of rubbish per week. I have to draw comparisons here because you have made assumptions that a family of four will struggle with the current allocation of bags, yet with our lifestyle we produce the same amount of rubbish as your two-person family. To me - and this is totally relative - that's environmentally unfriendly. I'm sure that to someone living in Africa, I'm very environmentally unfriendly!
As for subsidising my lifestyle choice to have children, sorry but it's not the same argument. We're talking about amount of rubbish generated here. Besides the point that we're actually producing less rubbish per head than you, if I was producing more rubbish then I'd expect to pay for it. I'm in favour of pay per throw and I wouldn't expect other people to subsidise my lifestyle at all.
At the end of the day, the whole point of the scheme is to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill by encouraging people to recycle more and think about the rubbish they're generating. I buy meat in plastic trays, same as you (and most other people. If everyone was using local butchers then the poor fellows wouldn't be going out of business like they are!) But for some reason it seems that you're producing more rubbish than you need to.
Rather than criticising the scheme, perhaps we should use it as a benchmark to recognise that many people are generating more than their fair share of rubbish - and the rest of us should not be forced to support them any longer.
09/11/2012 at 13:15 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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