Following an introduction by Nottinghamshire Environmental Association Chairman, Paul Willcock, who said: “This talk will be a load of Rubbish!”, the group had a highly informative and well-presented talk by Lesley Taylor concerning ‘Recycling in Bassetlaw’. Lesley, who works for Veolia which deals with waste in Nottinghamshire, started by saying that in Nottinghamshire about 45% of household waste is recycled and all of the remaining 55% goes to one of several Energy Recovery Facilities where it is burned to produce electricity. None of the 85,000 tonnes of annual Nottinghamshire waste now goes to landfill.
Lesley said between 10% and 20% of waste is contaminated, which means it cannot be recycled. This is often due to food remains. Items like carpets, soiled nappies and even a car engine have been found in these bins! Recycling helps to reduce the need for new material to be mined or grown and helps to reduce the use of energy and water in manufacturing.
Paper and card makes up about half of all recycling. Paper has a limited recycling life, being suitable for reuse as paper about three times. After that the fibres of the paper become too short to hold together as a sheet of paper, but it can then be used in cardboard many more times! The biggest problem for recycling paper is when oils and foodstuffs (eg baked beans, pizza oil) are left in containers. This contamination can ruin a whole lorry load of material as the paper mills cannot deal with the stains caused.
She also said that some 85% of sewer blockages were caused by ‘wet wipes’ which will not degrade – or rot – as they have a large plastic content. Wet wipes should only ever be placed in the general waste bin for incineration.
Plastic causes most problems with the ‘recycle or can’t recycle’ problem. Lesley said all plastic containers for liquids can now be recycled with the lid in place, no matter what the colour, but a plea from Lesley was to remove all ‘trigger’ operated tops. Margarine / butter tubs can also be fully recycled, including their lids, and yogurt containers. The biggest current problem from a recycling viewpoint are the low grade hard plastics which are used to pack foods such as tomatoes, strawberries, mushrooms. These cannot be recycled but there is likely to be legislation in the next few months to ensure only recyclable plastic can be used for this.
Metals such as cans of all sorts, aluminium or steel, are ideal as they can be constantly recycled – but not kitchen foil. Pressurised spray containers (deodorant, polish, kitchen cleaners, hair sprays) can all be recycled with the top (but not the lid) in place.
The talk was enjoyed by all the 31 members present.
(Addition by the Chairman of NEA – in 2019-2020 Nottinghamshire was 175 of 341 local authorities in the recycling league table, with 43% recycling rate; Bassetlaw 331 of 341 with 25%. Figures from DEFRA.)
May sees the first of the group’s summer outdoor visits – to Lincolnshire Life Museum. In June a coach trip to Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire takes place. Non-members are welcome.
For further information please contact Adrian Blackburn – adrian.blackburn@sky.com or Paul Willcock – paul@paulwillcock.com or call / text on 07581 531595.