Household > Opinion

Zoe - Wasteconnect Administrator

Since I started working at E4 and working on WasteConnect I have become more aware of waste and the affects it is having on our world.

Most 20 year olds do not think about recycling as much as I do, being influenced by working on a website devoted to waste and recycling.

At home we do our best to recycle as much as we can, this sometimes annoys my mum as we have a pile of items to be recycled which builds throughout the week in our kitchen and the sink is often full with cans and tins to be washed and put for recycling!! We recycle all our cans/tins, cardboard and plastic.

The same is done here at the E4 office. We recycle everything possible. We have a collection every Tuesday evening of our shredded paper, and a collection every Friday morning of our cardboard. We have a recycling box for our ink cartridges and bins for recycling plastics, cans, plastic bags and paper/magazines.

There is a lot more that can be done and isn’t. A lot of people chuck their rubbish in the bin, which then goes to landfill. A large amount of this waste could be recycled but is not. I sometimes wonder why people do this, most councils provide recycling boxes to households these days and it doesn’t cost anything to recycle your waste yet people still don’t! I think one of the main issues is people don’t have the time of day to wash out things like plastics and tins.

Litter is a big problem we face, particularly outside shops, pubs/clubs and takeaways. There is no need for this litter, obviously you can’t really recycle things on a night out in town (unless you take your rubbish back into the takeaway and ask if they can recycle – I have seen this happen at a pizza place in town on a Friday night!) but there are bins, the amount of rubbish outside takeaways in town at the weekend is ridiculous, especially when you see a half empty bin right outside the takeaway!

Companies who produce the waste could do a lot more to reduce waste and promote recycling. Simple changes, such as the type of plastic they use. Most plastics have the recycling symbols and numbers on but most are high numbers, which are very difficult to recycle, therefore most places will not accept them. Plastics numbered 1 and 2 are generally accepted most places.

Do your bit, recycle.



- Zoe

 

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Here is someone that evaluates packaging from typical supermarkets and shops products to assess it's recyclability.
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