East Grinstead Club welcomes a rubbish speaker!
At our June speaker meeting we were delighted to welcome Colin McFarlin, an award-winning Advanced Volunteer Waste Prevention Advisor with West Sussex County Council. Colin set the scene for the evening by saying that his talk was going to be rubbish!
Ten years ago, a scheme was developed to train volunteers to go out into the community and educate the public in the rights and wrongs of waste disposal. The volunteers’ training takes the form of a one-year online course validated by Brighton University.
It has become abundantly clear that different Councils all over the country have different rules for dealing with waste – different colours of bins, different lists of acceptable contents for general rubbish, recyclable items, food waste etc. We were pleased to learn that legislation is in the process of creating uniformity across the land.
It was interesting to learn that it is now cheaper to produce plastic containers from recycled rather than new materials since the Ukraine war has drastically increased the price of oil and energy used in plastic manufacturing. Colin explained that any plastics in the categories of bottles, tubs and trays are recyclable in home bins whereas plastic bags should be returned to collection points in supermarkets. Some items that previously could not be recycled are now acceptable as a result of pressure exerted upon the manufacturers. Toothpaste tubes which are now entirely plastic rather than metal are a case in point.
In 2000 the national recycling rate was 11% whereas the current figures for East Sussex are 41% and Surrey 54%. Colin told us that everything that is recycled is sold to be converted into something else, even general rubbish that is turned into pellets for fuel. Landfill rates are down to 4%.
This was a very interesting, informative and entertaining presentation. Colin brought a range of recyclable items to illustrate his talk from which we learned that almost anything can now be recycled, one just needs to consult Council websites and other resources on the internet.
Thanks to Rosemary for this report.