Waste and Recycle
I am amazed when I take recycling bags out for collection that not many years ago everything used to go into land fill which then created methane which is not good for the planet. Below is some of the good news.
Waste Food
Vegetable peelings etc used to go out with general rubbish into landfill sites where the decay of the food created methane. Methane is 25 times more potent than CO2 for climate warming so if your council collects food waste it is important to use this service.
The food is used by Anaerobic Digestion to create methane to generate electricity and the end product is used for fertiliser.
https://www.biogen.co.uk/Anaerobic-Digestion/What-is-Anaerobic-Digestion
Every tonne of food waste recycled by anaerobic digestion as an alternative to landfill prevents between 0.5 and 1.0 tonne of CO2 entering the atmosphere, one of the many benefits of anaerobic digestion.
Recycle
When I carry the recycle bags out each week for collection, I am often horrified to think that years ago this went to landfill.
See the video https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/
We cannot keep on using the earth’s resources the way we did.
Harrow Council do a clear guide https://www.harrow.gov.uk/binguide Hillingdon where I live one can recycle plastic bags. There are many questions on recycling I want answered and I plan to request to visit one. For example, I take metal lids off jars. Harrow had said do not take the tops off plastic milk bottles as a machine takes the wrapper off. The wrapper used to be loose but now is sticky one. What about other plastic bottles and containers.
The recyce bags go to Biffa in Edmonton where they are sorted into metal, paper, glass and plastic etc. London Borough of Hillingdon want to improve the recycle rate from 45 to 50%. I would like to visit a recycling place to understand what is involved better.
In the London Borough of Hillingdon dry cell Batteries can go to the collection unit at the entrance of libraries
Traid will collect textiles in any condition from Hillingdon residents. They collect anything that you would normally take to a charity shop https://www.traid.org.uk/clothes-donations/wlwa/ Everything except Fridge Freezers, Washing Machines, Lawnmowers
BLACK BIN RUBBISH BAGS
London Borough of Hillingdon where I live, take the black bin rubbish bags to Avonmouth near Bristol where they are used to generate electricity. Very little goes into landfill nowadays. See https://www.energydashboard.co.uk/map and click on waste.
It would be good if the information on this page was more well known as up to 40% of vegetable peelings etc go into black bags which has to be separated and any that was not separated, being damp would reduce the amount of electricity being generated.