I recently looked after a holidaying friend’s cats for the week, going into his home to feed them. As he’s in the same borough and just a few roads from me, I was intrigued that he didn’t bin his used cat food packets, which despite having a shiny, foil-like appearance, are probably made from plastics, but instead put them into a box. What did he do with them come refuse collection day? We had lots more to talk about than cats when he returned! He puts the packs, along with aluminium foil containers - into his recycling bin which should take just cardboard, paper and cans. My packs (since I have cats too) get rinsed and thrown in the non-recyclables bin. I take my washed aluminium foil to the local civic amenity tip, since – as far as I’d been aware, they’re not picked up in kerbside collections. I was unsure about the cat food packs but knew I was right about the foil. “Well, no-one’s ever told me I shouldn’t be putting them in recycling,” said my friend. “I’ve been doing it for years.”   

  

That says it all, doesn’t it? Why on earth, bearing in mind that contaminated loads are often rejected, (which means that accompanying recyclable items go to landfill - not only creating environmental issues but also incurring extra costs for local councils which are passed on to taxpayers) isn’t more done to ensure that everyone knows what goes where? If a round regularly picks up contaminated loads, a short email to householders or a sticker placed on all bins on that round would surely lead to improvements? Or is that too simple? 

    

This is one of the reasons I was so excited to learn about and share with you last week, news of the new tool that will help refuse collectors detect content bin content. I do hope that those who avail themselves of it, use it to educate householders rather than as a means to raise income by fining the currently uninformed! If you missed the piece, it’s over in the side column.

    

I made a trip to my local civic amenity tip last week, taking a neighbour’s double mattress along with my own stuff. Could I take old gloss paint? I had to search my local council and Surrey’s sites, but as gloss paint wasn’t listed, had to call Surrey who gave me another number to ring. Eventually I was told I’d need to contact a hazardous waste removal company. I asked two tip workers to help extract the mattress from my car and lift it into the container but only one came to help. Householders were putting items into the wrong bins in full view of the pair – for example wood and recyclable plastics into the non-recyclables. No wonder we have such a problem!

I despair…