How do Waste Companies Know who is putting wrong Stuff In bins?

johnwest288

Just wondering Was walking by a Panda truck the other day while they were collecting Green bins. There was a huge sound of glass on one of the bin lifts. Sounded like a mountain of bottles after a party. Panda specifically say you should not put glass in the recycling bins. ( i assume to stop sorters getting their hands torn open) The bin men didnt seem to care either. So people who dump food stuffs and glass etc in the green or brown bins. How can the waste company know who the culprits are?

Judgement Day

Do they even care? They are getting well paid to collect the recycling and I often wonder how much of it actually gets recycled and how much ends up in a hole in the ground. Anybody have thoughts/links on this?

freddyuk

In the UK the recycling is "stored" on rented land because the value of recycling is so low it is not economic to actually accept the recyclers prices. So various landowners are raking in large rents to store "rubbish" until the value of that "rubbish" is high enough to sell on to the recycling companies.
Check it out.
Of course once the available storage is filled up; which does not take long; then everything goes into the same landfill hole - but via different trucks.
Much of our rubbish is exported to other countries but if the cost of shipping goes up we store it until it is viable to send it off to China or India. (thus increasing our green credibility).
As the cost of shipping is about to rocket expect to see more land rented to store rubbish - sorry - recycling, so we meet our green targets but spend a fortune of tax payers money in the process.
Love to be proved wrong.:mad:

dyer

i was under the impression most of it gets shipped off abroad as well

djpbarry

Does anyone actually have any stats to back up their claims, or is this just more baseless "most of our recyclables are not actually being recycled" nonsense?

Waste management in Ireland is monitored by the EPA, who produce annual Waste Management Reports. The latest (2010) shows that Ireland is currently recycling 38% of municipal waste (just below the European average).

elmex

dyer wrote: »

i was under the impression most of it gets shipped off abroad as well

My understanding is that the only household product which is an any way economically valuable to recycle are aluminium cans.

It is claimed that it takes more energy to recycle plastic drinks bottles than it does to make new one, ditto paper where it takes less energy and chemicals to grow trees and turn them into paper than it does to recycle old paper.

There is a belief that recycling must be good, and to not recycle must he harmful, right?

djpbarry

elmex wrote: »

My understanding is that the only household product which is an any way economically valuable to recycle are aluminium cans.

It is claimed that it takes more energy to recycle plastic drinks bottles than it does to make new one, ditto paper where it takes less energy and chemicals to grow trees and turn them into paper than it does to recycle old paper.

Could we some sources for those claims please?

elmex wrote: »

There is a belief that recycling must be good, and to not recycle must he harmful, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZTrJi9l3CM

Can you provide a synopsis of the video please.

Judgement Day

djpbarry wrote: »

Does anyone actually have any stats to back up their claims, or is this just more baseless "most of our recyclables are not actually being recycled" nonsense?

Waste management in Ireland is monitored by the EPA, who produce annual Waste Management Reports. The latest (2010) shows that Ireland is currently recycling 38% of municipal waste (just below the European average).

Everybody slapped back into place as usual! I for one didn't make any 'claims', I posed the question as to whether or not recycling was ending up in holes in the ground. Throwing up an almost unintelligible EPA report, full of graphs, charts and jargon doesn't impress me one iota. Remember the Prime Time (?) programme a year or so ago about tyres - any follow up on that? Are there still tyre dumps all over the country?

djpbarry

Judgement Day wrote: »

I for one didn't make any 'claims'...

I never said that you did - the post was not addressed specifically to you.

Judgement Day wrote: »

I posed the question as to whether or not recycling was ending up in holes in the ground. Throwing up an almost unintelligible EPA report, full of graphs, charts and jargon doesn't impress me one iota.

Page vi, under the heading of 'Municipal waste':

"Ireland’s municipal waste recycling rate (excluding energy recovery) is 38%, close to the EU27 norm of 40%."

Judgement Day wrote: »

Remember the Prime Time (?) programme a year or so ago about tyres...

Nope.

Judgement Day

You can watch Prime Time Investigates 'A Dirty Business' here: http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2010/0517/primetimeinvestigates.html#

As usual it's soon forgotten as we lurch on to the next crisis. RTE and others have a responsibility to pursue this sort of thing to the bitter end.

More here: http://www.galwaynews.ie/12955-council-refutes-prime-time%E2%80%99s-claims-tyres

freddyuk

Well you can't be referring to me because I clearly state I am talking about the UK system but taking the trouble to look at the EPA report I was quite amused to see this revelation:
"The UK remains the principal initial destination for Irish municipal waste recyclables."
So based on the fact I had not seen this report it would not surprise me to find out that we are storing up Ireland's recyclable waste on the rented land as I highlighted and when the price is right shift it on to someone else.The report cannot tell us what happens after it is "exported".
The term recycling in statistics means it has been "moved on" apparently.

If that is legitimate then I rest my case.

djpbarry

freddyuk wrote: »

So based on the fact I had not seen this report it would not surprise me to find out that we are storing up Ireland's recyclable waste on the rented land as I highlighted and when the price is right shift it on to someone else.

I don't doubt that some materials reside in the UK for a time before being shipped somewhere else - I don't really see a problem with that?

Kam2011

Getting back to the main question... It depends on the area, Panda do recycle glass in the green bin the Dunlaoghaire Rathdown Area..!