| Re: Recycling rubbish - something of a minefield? Posted by ChrisB at 19:44, 9th November 2025 |     |
Cherwell is my local council - they have always claimed H&S difficulties for their crews around broken glass, forcing us to bottle banks.
Strange how a change in councillors plus costs associated with cleaning up rubbish dumped around these banks changes opinions....now they've got to persuade their taxpayers to rinse out jars etc before dumping them in their recycling
| Re: Recycling rubbish - something of a minefield? Posted by johnneyw at 19:04, 9th November 2025 | |
I didn't realise that there were still areas in the country that don't collect glass from recycling bins. Can't remember how long it's been since I've had to take bottles to a bottle bank in Bristol alough I think it took a few years longer in the South Hams.
| Re: Recycling rubbish - something of a minefield? Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 18:19, 9th November 2025 | |
From the BBC:
Cherwell council to introduce kerbside collections for glass recycling
The change will end more than 30 years of residents having to make trips to the bottle bank
Residents in north Oxfordshire will be able to recycle their glass bottles with other waste from next year, after a new kerbside collection was approved.
Cherwell District Council said the change would end more than 30 years of residents taking their glass to bottle banks.
From 1 January next year, householders will instead be able to put it in their blue recycling bin.
The authority said the change would cost between £300,000 and £400,000 due to lost income from bottle banks and higher "gate fees" at waste management facilities.
The change will help the authority comply with the new "Simpler Recycling" law that comes into force in April 2026. It is anticipated the change will improve the district's overall recycling rate by up to 1.5%.
More than 100 bottle banks around the district will be removed, which the council said would help prevent fly-tipping.
Councillor Ian Middleton, portfolio holder for neighbourhood services, said: "The collection of glass from the kerbside is one of the most requested changes to our recycling service, and we have been listening. This change will make it faster and more convenient for residents to recycle whilst reducing the problems associated with bottle banks. The reality is that these have attracted litter and fly-tipping, with the taxpayer having to pick up the costs of the clear-up."
Glass collected in blue bins in Cherwell will be separated from other dry recycling by machines at a sorting centre. Large pieces will be sorted for further processing, while smaller pieces will be used for road aggregate or shot blasting material, which is used to strengthen surfaces.
The change will end more than 30 years of residents having to make trips to the bottle bank
Residents in north Oxfordshire will be able to recycle their glass bottles with other waste from next year, after a new kerbside collection was approved.
Cherwell District Council said the change would end more than 30 years of residents taking their glass to bottle banks.
From 1 January next year, householders will instead be able to put it in their blue recycling bin.
The authority said the change would cost between £300,000 and £400,000 due to lost income from bottle banks and higher "gate fees" at waste management facilities.
The change will help the authority comply with the new "Simpler Recycling" law that comes into force in April 2026. It is anticipated the change will improve the district's overall recycling rate by up to 1.5%.
More than 100 bottle banks around the district will be removed, which the council said would help prevent fly-tipping.
Councillor Ian Middleton, portfolio holder for neighbourhood services, said: "The collection of glass from the kerbside is one of the most requested changes to our recycling service, and we have been listening. This change will make it faster and more convenient for residents to recycle whilst reducing the problems associated with bottle banks. The reality is that these have attracted litter and fly-tipping, with the taxpayer having to pick up the costs of the clear-up."
Glass collected in blue bins in Cherwell will be separated from other dry recycling by machines at a sorting centre. Large pieces will be sorted for further processing, while smaller pieces will be used for road aggregate or shot blasting material, which is used to strengthen surfaces.
| Recycling rubbish - something of a minefield? Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 15:25, 3rd October 2025 | |
Firstly, may I state that I fully support recycling whatever we can recycle: we owe it to our planet, and future generations thereon.
However, I have accumulated some experience of the widely different recycling rules imposed by local authorities in North Somerset (where we live), compared with, just for example, the City of Bristol, the South Hams in Devon and Melksham in Wiltshire.
Examples:
1. In the South Hams, they require that used paper envelopes have any plastic windows removed before the remaining paper is put into a specific paper recycling receptacle. In North Somerset, we are told to just chuck all paper and cardboard in together.
2. In Bristol, they require that no food be put in the black wheelie bins - they have even been issued with quirky mock tape measure stickers saying 'no food waist' - and offering fines for any detected breach. In Melksham, I was therefore rather startled to be told to just put any food waste in the black wheelie bin together with 'general waste'.
3. In North Somerset, we were previously required to keep quite separate receptacles for 'plastics' and 'cans'. Now, we have been provided with big red bags, into which all plastic and metal cans should be chucked together.
4. Again, in North Somerset, we were all instructed recently to separate 'soft' plastics (food wrappers, crisp packets, for example) into a separate bag. However, I observed out of my window, when the recycling lorry arrived, that the operative merely tossed that bag of separated plastic into the 'food waste' compartment on their lorry.
This topic was provoked by an article on the BBC:
Recycling sacks to replace bins for thousands
Thousands of residents living in Bristol will receive recycling sacks to put their rubbish in instead of separate boxes.
About 8,000 homes in the city centre and along main roads will be given an orange sack, which all dry material should be thrown into.
The planned change is expected to be rolled out between April and June of next year and will affect properties such as flats above shops, where there is little space on busy pavements to store recycling bins.
Ken Lawson, the city council's head of waste and recycling, said: "It's a positive step to address properties across the city that have maybe been under-serviced and also caused disproportionate issues."
Affected roads would include East Street, North Street and Stapleton Road. Properties there would also get a weekly black bin collection, in black sacks instead of bins, and weekly food waste collections in small brown caddies.
An update on the changes was given to councillors on 23 September and it was confirmed the new sacks would happen independently of the proposed switch to a three-weekly collection for black bins - with a decision on that change due to be made this December.
The changes are expected to cost just under £440,00, which was paid for by a grant from the government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
A list of all the properties has already been prepared but not yet published.
Mixing all recycling together, known as "co-mingling", used to happen in many parts of the country before residents were asked to separate their materials into different boxes.
The drawback of co-mingling is recycling must be separated by the centres, before the different materials can be sold on to packaging producers, which is a more expensive and inefficient process than getting residents to do it, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Thousands of residents living in Bristol will receive recycling sacks to put their rubbish in instead of separate boxes.
About 8,000 homes in the city centre and along main roads will be given an orange sack, which all dry material should be thrown into.
The planned change is expected to be rolled out between April and June of next year and will affect properties such as flats above shops, where there is little space on busy pavements to store recycling bins.
Ken Lawson, the city council's head of waste and recycling, said: "It's a positive step to address properties across the city that have maybe been under-serviced and also caused disproportionate issues."
Affected roads would include East Street, North Street and Stapleton Road. Properties there would also get a weekly black bin collection, in black sacks instead of bins, and weekly food waste collections in small brown caddies.
An update on the changes was given to councillors on 23 September and it was confirmed the new sacks would happen independently of the proposed switch to a three-weekly collection for black bins - with a decision on that change due to be made this December.
The changes are expected to cost just under £440,00, which was paid for by a grant from the government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
A list of all the properties has already been prepared but not yet published.
Mixing all recycling together, known as "co-mingling", used to happen in many parts of the country before residents were asked to separate their materials into different boxes.
The drawback of co-mingling is recycling must be separated by the centres, before the different materials can be sold on to packaging producers, which is a more expensive and inefficient process than getting residents to do it, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
