Why Do People Find It So Difficult To Put Different Waste In Different Bins?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37159581
I just don't see what the problem is, it ain't rocket science is it?

[Old_Geezer]

Your individual council's policies vary.

It's rubbish, there's a limit to how much labour and memory testing one should be expected to do to keep authorities happy.

About time the tech was in to sort it out at the recycling centre anyway.

[ichkeria]

It does seem strange, although there are oddities which don't help: for example, our council don't take tetrapaks, whereas the one next door will take them. We've always erred on the cautious side and rarely have anything rejected (non recyclable waste is simply not collected by our collectors and gets left in the box)
It's also odd that the problem seems to be increasing

[ichkeria]

As Tora says though og, it isn't surely all that difficult to put recyclable waste in a recycling bin. You'd think the problem would be the reverse though: lots of things going in landfill or incinerator waste that shouldn't : that probably is an issue too though

[ToraToraTora]

it's bleedin obvious OG

[agchristie]

An interesting fact.

Some people do talk a load of rot.

[Prudie]

My OH is on the process of e-mailing the council - he sat and watched them empty everyone's food bin into their black household rubbish bin before taking that one bin to the lorry.

[ichkeria]

Our council (exceptionally perhaps) could hardly make it any easier.
Any recyclable waste goes in any green bin : food waste goes in a small dark green bin, garden waste in a brown bin and the rest in the 'normal' bin
And the wonderful collectors sift through it all at the point of collection and sort it themselves. And leave any non recyclable stuff behind

[ichkeria]

They expect the householder to put it in the correct bin. Which presumably they do, along with a mental note to aviid the same mistake in future

[ichkeria]

It would be interesting to compare the various collection methods in different areas with their respective 'failure' rates

[DTCwordfan]

where's best practice, as between towns here, one sees all sorts of different bins, colours and whatever...this doesn't help.

[mikey4444]

I can't see anything remotely difficult about sorting the trash.

In my experience its just laziness and ignorance that is to blame. By mistake last week, I left a glass bottle in the bottom of my plastics bag, and when I got home, the dustmen had taken everything else but left that particular bag.

My fault and nobodies else !

[KARL]

In our area I was told that recycling rates are impressively high and that sale of the recycled material reduces the cost of bin collection to below £1 a bin each time. We in fact live within easy walking distance from one of the local recycling points and we thus only have two bins (garden waste and landfill), the rest (paper, plastic, metal) we ourselves take to the recycling point which is fairly unobtrusively sited in the car park at a leisure centre and is well used. I share the sentiment with those on here who find sorting refuse easy and not too much to ask of everyone. Having seen recycling points in Portugal I am very impressed how neat these are and in my view this should be copied elsewhere, including in the UK. These are very nicely designed and produced small receptacle chutes (looking rather like stylish, largish domestic bins - there is one for each type of refuse and the stuff drops directly into large containers below the pavement. The containers are periodically emptied by purpose built trucks - all very attractively presented and found all around even the poshest shopping areas and residential ones too - really unobtrusive and may actually stylish. Much of the UK seems well behind in this game - although (for the UK sensitively located and penned in) the jumbo bins in our local facility are rather ugly.

[jourdain2]

I don't find it that easy. It's the plastics that are the problem.

[ichkeria]

Divebuddy: they simply leave the non recyclable stuff in the recycling bin: so you know it should not be there. Occasionally I've 'experimented' with say a piece of foil or something. If it goes then I know they take foil. It was only when they kept not taking tetrapaks that I realised they should not be there.
We'll now experiment with yoghurt pots :-)
As i say, this sort of approach makes it really easy for the householder.

[EDDIE51]

Been listening to this today. It it is not so much they do not bother recycling the main problem is 'contamination'. There was an example, someone throws out a tin of beans but there are still beans in it. One or two beans is not a problem but a 1/4 of a tin of beans is a problem. Many people just chuck tins and bottles in to the recycle skip without checking the tins and bottles are clean. They say you do not have to actually wash out the tins/jars/ bottles but at least ensure they are empty and preferably rinsed out.
The radio spokesperson said, over 80% of recycle waste is 'contaminated' in some way and that is the main problem.