Musings from the Merse
Friday, October 19, 2007
MORE RUBBISH
Over a week ago Huttonian posted about a letter in the Berwickshire wondering whether the recycling system in the Borders was actually working. Here is SBC's response
SIR,- In your letters pages last week, Tim Culham from Greenlaw speculated that separating materials for collection by the council is a waste of time.
I can assure your readers that the bag system adopted by the council works very well. The bags are designed to survive the trip in our collection vehicles and bar one or two all do. The plastic bag is stronger than most (try it!) and is itself recyclable. The material is brought to our transfer stations and sent on to a specialist processing company in north east England for recycling.
Mr Culham may have seen loose cardboard and paper in collection vehicles - this has probably come from trade waste collections on the same route not burst bags. The point of recycling is threefold: it encourages the re-use of precious resources, it prevents the environmental damage of landfill and it saves money. My staff would be pleased to meet with a reporter (and Mr Culham) to show exactly how we manage the process.
CALLUM HAY,
Director of Technical Services,
Scottish Borders Council.
We are trying to get collateral from Fishwick Special Branch about an undercover operation they launched to check on the recycling methodology following reports that TRIAD gangs and their Gangmasters were corruptly involved in the recycling trade selling Berwickshire cardboard to Chinese Land Fill sites which have a quota to be met by the opening of the Beijing Olympics . One of the operatives cunningly concealed himself disguised as waste paper (purple bag) to track one of the suspect lorries.
He has not reported back.
That was last Friday
Over a week ago Huttonian posted about a letter in the Berwickshire wondering whether the recycling system in the Borders was actually working. Here is SBC's response
SIR,- In your letters pages last week, Tim Culham from Greenlaw speculated that separating materials for collection by the council is a waste of time.
I can assure your readers that the bag system adopted by the council works very well. The bags are designed to survive the trip in our collection vehicles and bar one or two all do. The plastic bag is stronger than most (try it!) and is itself recyclable. The material is brought to our transfer stations and sent on to a specialist processing company in north east England for recycling.
Mr Culham may have seen loose cardboard and paper in collection vehicles - this has probably come from trade waste collections on the same route not burst bags. The point of recycling is threefold: it encourages the re-use of precious resources, it prevents the environmental damage of landfill and it saves money. My staff would be pleased to meet with a reporter (and Mr Culham) to show exactly how we manage the process.
CALLUM HAY,
Director of Technical Services,
Scottish Borders Council.
We are trying to get collateral from Fishwick Special Branch about an undercover operation they launched to check on the recycling methodology following reports that TRIAD gangs and their Gangmasters were corruptly involved in the recycling trade selling Berwickshire cardboard to Chinese Land Fill sites which have a quota to be met by the opening of the Beijing Olympics . One of the operatives cunningly concealed himself disguised as waste paper (purple bag) to track one of the suspect lorries.
He has not reported back.
That was last Friday
Labels: Fishwick Special Branch, Recycling
Comments:
So Mr Hay thinks his bags are stronger than most? I wonder how I manage to tear so many - especially the cardboard and paper one when filling them as full as possible...
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