Recycling: Bits & Pieces

In this post I'll be writing about why recycling isn't all good news, and the battle between supermarkets and councils.

Recycling - The Downside

My family, like many others, tries to recycle everything possible: glass; cans; foil; paper; card; plastics; batteries; and vegetable waste.

We're all encouraged to do this by government and environmentalists alike. The reason being that it stops the stuff going to landfill, plus it costs less, and uses less energy to reprocess the material back to a useable form.

This is all really good, except that the reprocessing still uses energy anyway, most of which is currently from fossil fuels, and so adding to global carbon emissions. So, whilst it may feel good to be taking all those things down to the recycling centre, it's not as if we've reduced it's carbon footprint down to zero. That's why it's so important for us to remember to 'reduce', and 'reuse' as a priority before we recycle. The less we consume in the first place, the better. More Reduce-Reuse-Recycle here.

Supermarkets vs. Local Authorities

In the UK, like other countries, a common place to find recycling bins, is the local supermarket. This is a clever strategy because most people regularly go to a supermarket, so they can drop off their recycling without having to make a special journey to local dump (The other place you find recycling facilities in Britain).

Until recently, all these recycling areas were run by the local authorities (a.k.a. councils in Britain). This maintains a common, high standard of collection and processing, and provides the councils with a much needed income, as these bins can be run at a profit.

However, the supermarkets are getting wise to this. A few months ago, Tesco started asking councils to remove their recycling bins so that they could install their own and get the cash for themselves. Many councils are furious at this because, in these cash-strapped times, the income from recycling can mean the difference between running a vital service or not. The supermarkets, on the other hand, are highly profitable businesses, it's not as if they need the money: Individual councils get around £50,000 a year from these facilities. That's chicken-feed to Tesco. This could yet blow up in their face if the public decide to shop elsewhere, or the local councils start turning down planning applications for new branches of Tesco. More here.