Local Election result

[green ranger]

Cos the LibDems had shown how bogus they were in alliance with the Tories on Southwark - 6th worst recycling in the entire country!!!!

Not holding my breath that they'll do any better in alliance with the Tories at a national level. Shown themselves up for what they are now though

[Loz]

He he. How many Lib Dem and Tory voters from the last council election do you really think marched into the voting booth thinking, "Damn these Lib Dems and Tories. 6th worst recycling rate in the country! How dare they? I'll teach 'em..."

[green ranger]

Dunno about that but the Lib Dems certainly came out with a lot of hot air about being green only to demonstrate the exact opposite when they got into power courtesy of chumming up with the Tories.

And the voters of Southwark chucked them out on their ear when they got the chance- and good riddance I say.

True to form they've now teamed up with the Tories nationally - let's hope they do a better job with the health service and the economy than they did in Southwark - or God help us all!!!

[Huguenot]

I don't see how a 'greenranger' could complain about the Lib Dems increasing recycling from 3.6% under Labour to 24% under Lib Dem?

Sure, we'd all like to see more, but that kind of delivery is nothing to be sniffed at.

Southwark's very high density housing (blocks of flats), wealth gap and cultural diversity make recycling far harder in Southwark than it is in leafy West London commuter belts.

Political posturing is all well and good, but councils have to live in the real world.

[DJKillaQueen]

It is true that Southwark is one of the largest social landlords and density is an issue in some parts but on recycling, in my area, bags are deleivered weekly for residents in blocks of flats to fill and collected weekly too (from the doorstep), so I'd say that is a pretty easy way (and effective) of collecting recycling from blocks of flats.

I did dare to ask the guys dealing out bags on one occassion for an extra bag and he reluctantly gave me one but asked that I ask the council directly for extra bags as he isn't given enough to deleiver more than one to each household (hmmm room for improvement there maybe).

The other thing of course is the number of residents that don't bother to recycle at all. I did have two Conservative candidates ask what I thought of the idea of giving people vouchers in return for recycling (effectively paying people to recycle)....They cited similar schemes in America that pay for themselves....I don't really know much about that option but I'm sure all of our local councillers would be open to ideas on that front.

For me though, the issue is the number of things we can recycle. After I've recycled what the council will take I'm still left with an awfully large amount of soft plastic. The council will take TVs, furniture and all manor of things but not soft plastics - so my request to the new council (as indeed it was 3 years ago at CC meetings) is to expand the types of items we can recycle.

[Loz]

DJKQ,

What do you mean by soft plastics?

[James Barber]

soft plastics - is that the stuff that the manufacturers wrapping says can't be recycled?

[DJKillaQueen]

I know what wrapping you mean James but not that. The 'stretchy' plastics that can be recycled such as plastic bags.

Just on the point about getting an extra bag as well. I use two bags because I put shredded paper in one (as shredded paper has to be seperate for obvious reasons). Would it not be better for those delivering to carry two bags for each household (because the implication from the guy I spoke to was that he wasn't given enough bags for his round). And also it seems that only if you leave recycling out, you get a new bag which means that any household that doesn't recycle never gets a bag (not helpful in encouraging those people to start recycling). I'm in Peckham Rye ward so it might not be policy borough wide but if it is, maybe a fresh look at engaging with the households that don't recycle as yet could be considered. That could be as simple as delivering a 'we noticed you don't use the weekly recycling service' leaflet along with a bag periodically. Certainly on estates with communal bins the more people recycle the less quickly the bins fill up so it does make a difference there.

[James Barber]

Do any councils recycle plastic bags?

Linpac 2001 calculated that one tonne of plastics is equivalent to 20,000 two litre drinks bottles or 120,000 carrier bags.

Others have calculated that every year 290 bags for every person in the UK. Roughly 300,000 residents in Southwakr so circa 87 million plastic bags. This equates to roughly 725 tonnes pa.

But should we recycle plastic bags or encourage a reduction in use.

Slogan. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

So really for plastic bags we should reduce 1st, then reuse and finally as a last resort recycle.

Hencei n East Dulwich we supported SNUB (Say No to Unwanted Bags) to the tune of ?5,000 which distributed non plastic bags. If plastic bags have to be used then reuse them later for other purposes.

Recycling plastic bags should be a last resort and in my opinion efforts to reduce and reuse should be way ahead of recycling.

[bil]

delete

[Karrie]

[Deleted] Safety reasons

[DJKillaQueen]

James, definitely a reduction in the use of plastic bags would be better and an overall reduction in wrapping too.

I take your point Kerrie...it's not a perfect solution. One suggestion has been to fine residents that don't recycle which of course in your case would be a nightmare and like you, before door to door collection came along, I too took recycling to the nearest recycling point. My suggestion was just a polite way of trying to encourage those that don't recycle at all to start to do so. Maybe even just a reminder leaflet that a door to door recycling service exists would be enough I think.

[Karrie]

[Deleted] Safety reasons