Zero Waste Policy Demands Multiple Rubbish Bins

The government is planning a new ‘zero waste’ policy, designed to increase the amount of recycling by requiring householders to have multiple different waste bins; for glass, plastic, cardboard, paper, tin and garden waste, as well as another bin for anything that must be burned or put in a landfill.  Naturally this will require everybody to sift through all their rubbish, divide it into various types and, as if this doesn’t sound like enough fun yet, failure to do so can result in fines of up to £500!  It’s not just householders that can be fined either; the EU can fine countries that fail to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill up to £180 million!  

The scheme is equally intimidating for councils as it is for householders; they will have to introduce a whole series of new bins and collection times, expected to have a full recycling service in place in the next decade.  So I ask you; is this too far?  Is it wrong to expect people to go to this extent to recycle as much as possible?

My opinion is that, in principle, it isn’t too far at all.  In fact, my family already divide all their rubbish into the aforementioned different waste bins and it takes virtually no time whatsoever.  Every year our little island dumps sixty-two million tonnes of rubbish into landfills every year, including valuable materials like glass and aluminium, which could easily be recycled.  In case people have forgotten; there isn’t an unlimited supply of ground to fill and there isn’t an unlimited supply of resources; we are running out of both and being expected to divide our rubbish up into different rubbish bins seems like an easy way of making a potentially massive different to the planet.

However, as is often the case, good news for the planet doesn’t necessarily mean good news for the people.  Funding this new waste management system is estimated to cost an extra £1.1 billion over the next three years; an increase of around £50 on the average council tax bill.  Where I live in London, the council tax is already sky high and Hackney council don’t even pick up our rubbish, let alone give us waste bins!  Their website tells us to put our bags of rubbish out on the street, where it will be collected twice a week.  Yet, to my knowledge, never once has it been collected twice a week.  In fact, the only time it seems to be collected is when somebody calls the council to complain about the rubbish everywhere; at which point the council blame us for putting in the street – which is what they told us to do in the first place!  If they can’t organise grabbing bins bags from the road side, I have no idea how they’ll manage emptying a whole range of different bins, cluttering up the pavement.

What’s more, for every six bins by the roadside, householders will have to start making room for half a dozen extra waste bins in their houses as well.  This may not seem like a big deal to some but, where I live, we have a small bedroom each and a kitchen with about enough room for two people to stand side by side; when I say there isn’t enough room for one bin, let alone six, I genuinely mean it!  We’re already paying huge rent for virtually no space and high council tax for no waste collection; high council tax and fines for not organising our rubbish because we’re not given any waste bins would seem a little harsh.