Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture and faith from the Antipodes.

Environment, General

Food recycling trial to be considered for Waitakere

Looks like the local council, which already has a “zero waste” policy, is investigating the possibility of food recycling. Sounds like a good idea, though the implementation might be an issue. See: STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS : ENVIRONMENT – STORY : Food recycling trial to be considered for Waitakere.

Recently we switched from weekly plastics/cans recycling in small green bins to fortnightly in a large blue “wheelie” bin. In principle, I think its a good thing for the wider community but in practice it doesn’t work out as well for us. We used to put out two (mostly) full green bins a week and the new blue one only holds the equivalent of three green bins. So while it might encourage non or minimal recyclers to give it a go, it works against those who already were trying to do lots of recycling. And you can’t get a second bin – you have to store the excess for a later week (See here). So far jumping on the contents and more thorough flatting of material have made it (just) fit – but you’d think in “Eco-City Waitakere” (our city’s slogan) they’d be wanting to encourage more recycling and would make the option of getting extra recycling capacity an option.

Recycling Bins

I guess the next step for us is to look at ways of reducing acquiring the packaging & plastics etc. that we’re putting in the blue bin, on top of the normal reuse of plastic bags and bottles that we already do.

See also: WCC – Your Guide to Rubbish and Recycling at Home (PDF)