Universal phone charger

I welcome the news that mobile phone companies are coming together to create a universal phone charger.
I think it is long overdue. I probably have about two old phone chargers lying about in my house doing nothing.
I want to get rid of them but I can't throw them away and I do not think mobile phone companies take them back.
There are so many things lying around creating waste around the house that I can't get rid of. For instance, I blogged about not knowing what to do with my old Sky remote control. Everything is working on it apart from the zero.
This makes me think that many households in the UK are hoarding stuff because they do not know what to do with them. We have become more environmentally aware so we hoard things because we can't throw them out.
Instead of sending waste to landfill our houses are becoming landfills themselves!!!Ahh!!
Think about it! How many batteries do you still have in your drawers? Or old video/DVD players?
Even if you wanted to use your old videos you couldn't because all the stores switched to DVD format.

Liz Gyekye, MRW, Senior Reporter

The plastic bag debate goes on

The plastic bag debate will just keep battling on with a decided split between those for and against them. But I must admit that I feel truly stuck in the middle.
I realise how awful it is when the bags pollute the sea and wreak havoc with wildlife. It also takes forever for them to degrade.
But they are very very useful too.
My family and I have always had a plastic bag pouch hung up in our kitchen where we stuff all the plastic bags we have collected from our shopping ready to be used in the house bins. I know I'm not alone in recycling these bags, therefore, it seems inaccurate when people call them single-use bags.
Then there is the issue of degradable plastic bags, which sound hugely appealing but there are difficulties if this plastic were ever to get in the recyclable plastic waste stream.
People forget that the bags can actually be recycled, and you only have to go down to your local supermarket to find a bank.
I don't think the answer is banning the bags, it's just time for less plastic bag production and, as always, more recycling.

Tiffany Holland, MRW, Reporter

When it all seems like a lot of effort

It's almost two years since the implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive in the UK.

I often think if I wasn't in a job related to the waste and recycling sector I would have no idea that there is EU legislation requiring us to recycle our electrical waste. Of course, because I do know about it, I feel obligated to recycle my toaster that blew up the other week.

I live in a flat in central London, don't have a car and have been given a replacement toaster by my mum who had a spare one. I want to recycle my toaster but the nearest CA site is on the other side of the river and requires some effort to get there.

Of course, I'm willing to put in the effort to take my old toaster to the CA site by public transport but there will be many more people who simply won't go to the trouble. We have to be aware that if we don't make it easier for people to recycle such items they simply won't bother.

Andrea Height, MRW, deputy editor

Embracing new media to push the recycling message

It's interesting to see recycling campaigners embrace the new forms of technology and communication that are now available to get their messages out. This week Friends of Glass, set up by the Federation of European manufacturers of glass packaging containers has started a 'TweetRecycle' challenge on twitter. It is urging twitter users - and encouraging those not using twitter to do so - to tweet about the number of glass containers they have recycled. It hopes that tweeters will have collectively recycled 75,000 bottles over the next three months and in tweeting about it also raised awareness about glass recycling.

Find out more at:

http://bloginabottle.com/

More about wheelie bins

I am not going to write a blog but refer you to this one about the Daily Mail wheelie bin campaign below:
http://straightsays.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-about-wheeled-bins.html

Where can you recycle your old Sky remote control?

Does anybody know the answer to the above question? Products seem to break just as soon as you have brought them these days. I have recently brought a new Sky remote control because the zero on the old one was not working.
Who knows where I can recycle the old one?

To wheelie bin or not to wheelie bin? That is the question.

The Daily Mail has started a new campaign. It has declared war against the "monstrous wheelie bin" that is causing havoc across the land.
To a certain extent they have a point. I agree with Wheelie Bin Direct MD Clive O'Riordan. He says that some councils have given out four/five wheelie bins to residents. This can be a nuisance.
In the area where I live we still do not have wheelie bins. We have the black bin bag system. I think if we had wheelie bins it would clog up the area.This is because I live in a small cul-de-sac and we just don't have the space. I also don't think it would be the best system if we introduced wheelie bins into the area.
However, as O'Riordan concluded, the wheelie bin is ugly but it is a "necessary evil".

Batteries recycling

There is a lot of activity at the moment around battery recycling and in the 5 June issue of MRW we are looking at it in more detail.

With the potential compliance schemes all now in the process of seeking approval to comply for the battery producers (which technically includes anyone who places batteries in the UK market so includes electrical manufacturers small and large, retailers - with some small exceptions and the battery manufacturers themselves).

It appears that store take-back and possibly some local authority collection mechanisms will be the main way for domestic batteries to be returned to meet the targets set by the EU.

But the difficulty remains that batteries are usually small enough and easy enough to throw away in the residual waste bin and volumes are pretty small on the whole.

To make this work, we need to have a good publicity campaign when the eventual system is up and running - something which definitely didn't happen with waste electrical item recycling.

That campaign should focus on reminding people to take old batteries with them to the supermarkets to be recycled. Then, the supermarkets should be allowed and encouraged to use reverse hauling of batteries to justify the collections in terms of sustainability.