Cambridge Friends of the
Earth
Newletter February 2000
Recycling
Slim your Bin
The cost of waste disposal in Cambridgeshire was £5.5 million
last year and this is increasing as we create more waste. Each year
the increase in cost is equivalent to the budgets of two primary
schools. As well as this it costs another £5 million for the
five district Councils to collect the rubbish from our homes. By
2007, the County Council could be spending over £16 million a
year on land-filling waste unless we reduce, recycle and compost it
more. The ‘Slim Your Bin’ campaign, launched this year,
encourages people to undertake one of the following actions, and
preferably all three:
· Recycling: as a
minimum we can separate out a bag of newspapers, magazines, glass and
cans every week. Recycling banks can be found at supermarkets and
civic amenity sites, and more and more councils organise special
recycling collections.
· Compost: people with
gardens can save buying compost by making their own from food waste
(excluding meat, as it attracts vermin) and garden waste (grass
trimmings etc.).
· Shop smart: At the
supermarket buy recycled products, such as toilet paper; products
with less packaging, such as fresh fruit and vegetables; or long-life
products such as refills for washing-up liquid.
Over one third of our domestic waste is compostible, and over half
contains valuable recyclable materials, such as paper, glass, metals,
textiles and plastics.
As well as the above-mentioned recycling banks, there are the
County Council’s Household Waste Recycling Centres. There are
ten, including the ones at Milton, Bluntisham and St. Neots. People
can use them free of charge to dispose of waste such as glass, cans,
scrap metal, textiles, paper, garden waste, fridges, freezers and
other household goods.
A recent survey of the County Council’s Citizen’s Panel,
which is made up of 2,100 people from across the county, revealed
that 90% of people rated their convenience from very good to
adequate, 92% rated their presentation from very good to adequate,
and 84% rated staff helpfulness from very good to adequate.
The County Council’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Officer,
Mark Shelton, said, "The number of people getting into the habit of
recycling household waste is growing all the time but we must all do
more. The ‘Slim Your Bin’ campaign gives people the
information on how to do it. Cambridge City residents can get more
information on the ‘Slim Your Bin Campaign from Matthew Jones,
Recycling Officer, on 01223 457896.
James Murray
This article is based on articles published in the
Cambridgeshire
County Council Annual Review 1999
______________________________________________________________________________
Can't be bothered? Try incineration!
The only alternatives to recycling are landfill and incineration.
We have been told that incineration does not suppress recycling
levels. However, incinerators require constant and large supplies of
waste, which leads to increases in lorry traffic. Financial penalties
can occur if too little waste is produced, such as has happened in
Cleveland. Lewisham and Nottingham have incinerators and only recycle
5% and 2% respectively. Incineration is the most expensive form of
waste management. A report from the USA last autumn showed that
incineration was a potent greenhouse gas contributor.
Lewisham’s ‘flagship’ incinerator,
‘SELCHP’, is supposed to be ‘safe and reliable’,
but the Public Register shows that between January and September
1997, there were 66 unlawful emissions. These included mercury,
quicklime, flue-gases, particulates, carbon particles, fire-box
fumes, and hydrochloric acid from burning PVC, one over 2000 mg/cu m
for approximately 110 minutes (the limit is30 mg/ cu m)
Contaminated residue remains after incineration - half by volume
or one third by tonnage. 10% of this is dioxin-contaminated flue ash.
The EU will soon designate bottom ash as hazardous waste. Domestic
waste incineration has been the major source of locally- and
globally-occurring dioxins. Dioxins are one of the most toxic
man-made chemicals, causing cancer and disrupting hormone function.
They persist in the environment and bio-accumulate.
Government research in 1997 found British breast-fed two month-old
babies received 170 picograms (pg - one millionth of one millionth of
a gram) of dioxin daily per kilogram body weight. The UK TDI
(tolerable daily intake) is 10 pg. The WHO limit is now 1-4 pg.
Adults in the UK are now well above this limit.
In 1998 dairy produce and meat from 16 farms in northern France
was banned after being found to be contaminated by traces of dioxins.
Five incinerators were closed immediately and fifteen more have been
closed since. Japan has a serious dioxin pollution problem resulting
from waste incineration. Both countries have urgent recycling
programmes.
James Murray
______________________________________________________________________________
As part of Cambridge
Friends of the Earth’s relaunch of our recycling campaign
we’re kicking off by asking for any old empty printer
cartridges.
Laser, ink jet, ribbon - we don’t care what sort: home,
office, we don’t care where they’re from, just drop them
off at our office (leave them by the door in a plastic bag if
there’s no one in) or phone if you have a large quantity to
collect.
There must be thousands of these. examples of non-biodegradable,
landfill - clogging, throwaway items floating around Cambridge, so
don’t throw them at the bin man, throw them at us!!
Ian Ralls
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