Wednesday 10th June
Several residents have recently contacted me asking what can and cannot be recycled. Things that cannot be recycled are juice and milk cartons, jiffy bags, foil, plastic tubs and yoghurt pots.
I contacted the Council and the main points from the response were that the yoghurt pots and other products that have been diligently 'recycled' will have been removed from the recycling stream during a sorting process at the waste plant. The good news is that they don't end up in landfill - instead they are used as a fuel at the Energy from Waste Plant at Tysley, which produces sufficient energy to power over 20,000 homes in the City. In fact Birmingham has one of the lowest landfill rates of all Local Authorities in the country, with less than 15% of all waste ending up in landfill. The Council would like to recycle more products but will only be able to do so if the recycling sector has the plant and processes in place to allow us to do so economically.
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Why don't we recycle TETRAPAKs (juice and milk cartons you refer to)? There is only one LA in UK that does (in East Anglia) Is it not cost effective to send a lorry load there as and when we have sufficient TPKs to send?
ReplyDeleteIf we reuse yoggy pots at Tyseley why are they not included in the recycling scheme?
Foil contains a source of Aluminium, surely this can be reclaimed from Foil?
I am not aware that there is only 1 LA that does recycle TEPRAPAKs, I will look into this.
ReplyDeleteThe reason why that objects that are put into Tyseley Waste Incinerator are not included in the recycling as that the Govt has decided that it doesn't classify as being recycled. If it did Birmingham’s recycling rate would be up to about 60% 1 of the best in the country.