Recycling / bin collection in Lambeth

[nick]

So what is the correct thing to do?
Today I watched the bin men doing their thing.
One of the operatives picked up both the brown compost bin and the green (garden waste) bag and dumps contents into the green (dry) recycling bin - ready to be loaded into the following lorry.

So what is the point in us carefully storing it all in separate containers? (Or was he short cutting to save time and meet timetables)

 

[Rushy]

Aren't they just two separate schemes? One is included in council tax the other is an extra for gardeners. They say that they use an industrial enclosed process to break it down and I get the impression that the mix is not so important. Heat is maintained long enough to make sure it is sanitary.

 

[nick]

Aren't they just two separate schemes? One is included in council tax the other is an extra for gardeners. They say that they use an industrial enclosed process to break it down and I get the impression that the mix is not so important. Heat is maintained long enough to make sure it is sanitary.

Yep you have to pay £60 a year for them to give you green nylon bags for garden rubbish, which they empty on bin day.
But if it is all going into the same green bin / lorry, I am not feeling confident that the industrial enclosed process will deal with old teabags + cardboard and plastic milk containers + lawn clippings

 

[Rushy]

Oh sorry - I thought you meant that they were mixing wet and dry types of organic matter.

They recently introduced electronics recycling and you chuck that in with all the cardboard and plastic (on top in a separate bag) so they must surely have some sorting of some sort going on that is not immediately obvious. You'd hope!

 

[platinumsage]

It will be sorted both by machine and by hand:

 

[nick]

Oh sorry - I thought you meant that they were mixing wet and dry types of organic matter.

They recently introduced electronics recycling and you chuck that in with all the cardboard and plastic (on top in a separate bag) so they must surely have some sorting of some sort going on that is not immediately obvious. You'd hope!

Regrettably I fear the word "hope" is doing a lot of heavy lifting

 

[nick]

It will be sorted both by machine and by hand:

with compost/food waste in the mix? yuck

 

[Crispy]

Food and garden waste all goes to industrial composters, which work at higher temperatures than your garden compost pile and can basically devour any organic material. On my road it gets collected separately to the green bins. Different lorry, later in the morning. All of it in one lorry doesn't sound right to me.

 

[CH1]

Last time I had blood taken at Kings (July) they might have well employed the Serco bin men.
I think all the Lithuanians have gone back to the EU and I got a modesty veiled Somali woman of tender years who couldn't find a vein in either arm. Her supervisor made a right hash of the back of my hand.

Just co-incidentally Kings Phlebotomy is done by Serco Viapath. Gone are the days when you went to James at the Maudsley who could take blood with his eyes closed. It's all down to "intelligent finger tips"!

 

[Ryan2468]

Are you sure they're not just using an empty green recycling bin for the food/garden waste? They do similar where I live in Lewisham. Just have an empty wheelie bin they empty all the little food waste cans into, tip it into the lorry once full.

 

[nick]

Are you sure they're not just using an empty green recycling bin for the food/garden waste? They do similar where I live in Lewisham. Just have an empty wheelie bin they empty all the little food waste cans into, tip it into the lorry once full.

aah. Not sure, but could be - that would be an explanation that makes me feel better about things. I hope you're correct
I will try to remember to peek out the window next Tuesday morning at the right time

 

[urbanspaceman]

Is it possible to know with confidence what Lambeth actually does with domestic rubbish ? Are the recyclables really recycled ? And the food waste really composted ? It seems to me that to consistently follow the process, week after week, year after year, would require more institutional stamina, commitment and consistency than I ever witnessed Lambeth apply to any other task. Is there any way of finding out ?

 

[Crispy]

The compost almost certainly gets done. The process is industrialised and farms will buy it.
Metal and glass are easy to separate and recycle so they almost certainly are too.
Plastic recycling basically doesn't exist, and I doubt most paper/cardboard in mixed recycling bins is clean and dry enough. My suspicion is that if it's not metal, glas or food, it gets burned. Happy to be proved wrong...

 

[sparkybird]

Is it possible to know with confidence what Lambeth actually does with domestic rubbish ? Are the recyclables really recycled ? And the food waste really composted ? It seems to me that to consistently follow the process, week after week, year after year, would require more institutions; stamina, commitment and consistency than I ever witnessed Lambeth apply to any other task. Is there any way of finding out ?

Yes you can go and visit the waste processing centre in Wandsworth. It's really interesting. Honestly! But, when I asked if they followed upon what happens to the waste they sell eg paper, they were a bit vague.....
You can see how the recycling is separated. General waste is sent down the Thames on barges to be incinerated to produce electricity.