green110

Green 110

Recycling 1

I was born in the 1950s: a time and culture of mend-and-make-do during the slow economic recovery after the second world war. Consequently, I find it difficult to understand these modern times of disposability. I recall an advent of disposable paper crockery and disposable plastic cutlery, and the response of shock and disapproval. There were even disposable paper knickers. My own preference, even now, is to retain disposable cutlery from plane journeys, not for sentiment, but out of a desire to make use of what comes my way, along with an abhorrence of waste. I have a drawer full of plastic cutlery.

Before this posting starts to sound too sanctimonious, it is important to me that I relate some of the events of Easter weekend 2007. First instance: I was taking the top three to five metres off the leylandia hedge at the back of the garden, producing what I guess to be about 500 kilogrammes of garden refuse. This enormous quantity of organic material should have been excellent mulch, kindling and firewood. However, the mulch was taking hours to dribble out of the shredder. I do not have a brazier, and was unable to buy one locally, so the production of wood potash for the soil was thwarted. I had every desire to avoid burning out another electric saw in the production of firewood. As a result, five van-loads of hedge went to the garden refuse recycling skip. It seemed such a waste, but I was simply not geared up to use it. Second instance: I was clearing out the greenhouse, ready for a spring clean, when what should I discover but a hen sitting on a make-do nest in an old hanging basket at the back of the greenhouse. As a vegan, I do not eat eggs, chicken's or otherwise. As a vegetarian, I do not eat chickens. Nature provided, but I refused to sit at table with knife, fork and napkin. Conclusion: my affinity towards a 'beachcomber' attitude is, at best, unimpressively urban. Much of what follows can be understood in this context, and be recognised as limited and boundaried.

I like to re-use. A daily example of this is my preference to utilise the unused potential of white paper that has been printed on only one side. Many of the herb and spice storage jars formerly contained lemon/peach/apple tea. All of the jars containing homemade jams and chutneys have enjoyed previous lives. I am one of those people who take things out of skips: for instance, I have found homes for dozens of chairs from various skips. However, my loft and garage show me up to be a hoarder.

When I can release myself a little from the grip of hoarding, I will sometimes look for new owners for things I no longer want to keep. It goes without saying that I trade in my car when I buy a replacement. I also tend to trade in my cellphone when it comes time to replace it. I have taken books, vinyl records and VHS video tapes to Barter Books in Alnwick, although they have been turning my stuff away recently. I advertise other expensive items for sale in the classifieds, but tend not to do well at this. I remain fascinated with, but wary of, e-Bay. Mostly, I simply look for a good home for the object. For example, I have given away fridges, and donated furniture to charitable schemes distributing furniture to poorer people. I have also given my worn out shoes to charity, although how much use they would be to anyone I am uncertain. I am a member of Durham Freecycle. The Freecycle movement has just experienced some publicity from the BBC.

I am an ardent recycler. Kitchen and green garden waste is converted into compost in one of half a dozen compost bins. Light woody garden waste either gets chipped for mulch or for the barbeque, or gets put in the dedicated garden waste wheely-bin for a fortnightly kerbside collection by the local authority. Heavy garden waste, including Christmas trees, goes to the recycling centre run by the local authority, I assume for industrial composting and mulching, although I ought to check this out. Whilst I have two water butts in the garden, I have yet to buy a rain water collection system - my reticence is that they are mightily expensive. I have sometimes employed used bath water for cleaning the car, or for washing the patio, although, to be honest, this is both a messy and a time-consuming activity. Durham has a fortnightly kerbside collection of newspaper and magazines, steel and aluminium cans, and bottles. Cardboard, however, has to be taken to the recycling centre run by the local authority. Tetrapaks used to require greater dedication: in the carparks of several City of Sunderland supermarkets there are Tetrapak recycling dumpsters. Similarly, in the carparks of several City of Newcastle supermarkets there are plastic bottle recycling dumpsters. By planning ahead, I could load the items for recycling into the car when I anticipated passing that way. However, Tetrapak recycling has now expanded into Durham, and the University of Sunderland, where I work, collects plastic bottles for recycling. Many charities organise recycling collections for used postage stamps and for used Chritmas cards. Even easier these days is recycling carrier bags, as the larger branches of several supermarkets, including Tesco and Sainsbury, have in-shop carrier bag recycling facilities.

The recycling of several categories of material continues to elude me. Aluminium foil, usually in the form of the tops of dairy milk bottle, used to be easy to recycle: Guide Dogs for the Blind was my preference, but Oxfam came a close second. As a vegan, I do not use dairy milk, but there remain many food-related uses of aluminium foil, and I now have several kilos of compressed foil from stock cube wrappings, Tetrapak closers, tart and pie casings, and my daughter's chocolate bar wrappers. However, I am unable to find any aluminium foil recycling facilities. Disposable plastic beakers should be recyclable, but where? Although there is industrial recycling of fluorescent tubes, not only is there no domestic collection of fluorescent tubes, despite the poisonous chemicals used in them, but there is no collection of any incandescent light bulbs.

Shifting attention, temporarily, to industry, I have no idea what proportion of waste gets re-used or recycled. What I am clear about is that re-use and recycling processes do take place. I like the fact that when roads and buildings are to be replaced, a muncher can turn them into hard core. As well as cars being broken up, boats and ships are too. I understand that there is considerable amount of waste in paper manufacture, and that paper manufacturers recycle this waste within the factory. Although the thought is far from palatable, I prefer that sewage can be sprayed onto farmland, despite much of it being pumped out to sea as pollution. I like the fact that 'grey' water can be used for industrial cooling.

Returning to the domestic dimension, I often feel impatient that local authorities are moving too slowly and cautiously in addressing issues of recyling. Britain lags behind virtually every other European country in the pathetic proportion of waste that gets recycled. I consider this to be very disappointing. As I understand it, a significant part of the problem lies with a lack of interest from the general population. Whilst I have an enthusiasm for minimising my/our impact on the environment, my perspective appears to be shared by only a small percentage of the UK population. Local authorities have increased their attention to recycling because of hefty land fill charges. Maybe the only way in which the UK population will take notice of the need to recycle is a reduction in the frequency of kerbside rubbish collections, and an increase in the frequency of kerbside recycling collections.