Are you a binfluencer, or a rubbish recycler?
You might think you know a bit about recycling, what goes in which bin, and how much of what we throw away actually ends up recycled (and not in the sea or rotting in a developing country). Royston Environmental Group recently welcomed East and North Herts Council’s Waste Communications Officer Kate to our monthly Royston Environmental Drinks informal meet up, and we learned a lot! Here we share a few of the facts about waste and recycling locally that surprised us.
• The recycling label on packaging is determined by what the majority of councils do with that material; for example, labels on plastic bags might say that they can’t be recycled but in North Herts we can recycle them (in our grey mixed recycling bins).
• A lot of what goes into North Herts’ residual waste (purple bins) is food (about 29%) or recyclable paper and cardboard (around 13%); so we could do better (though the North Herts recycling rate is already higher than average for England).
• The move to 3 weekly collections has reduced the residual waste (purple) bin content by 36% (year on year comparison), and bigger cardboard/paper bins have helped drive a 19% increase in recycling of cardboard and paper. So as a district we are definitely recycling even more than before!
Bottom line is always check the local council website for wherever you are. In North Herts you can also use the NHC waste app www.north-herts.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling-collections-app and the North Herts A-Z of recycling www.north-herts.gov.uk/what-goes-each-bin to help you decide. You can also set up alerts on the app to make you the street binfluencer (person who sets the trend of which bin goes out every week). If you are in South Cambs, check the local council website.
We meet for drinks at 7.30pm on the fourth Wednesday monthly at The Old Bull Inn, with speakers on different themes from across the environmental spectrum.
