Recycling is important as we have limited resources. However, it seems that local as well as national government are completely focused on recycling at the consumer point. The whole burden of recycling, as well as appropriate use of resources must start at the producers. Lots of products sold in supermarkets are surrounded by several layers of bulky and unnecessary packaging in order to display pictures and slogans as to why the consumer should purchase a particular product. If the packaging was less elaborate as well as only as large as is necessary to carry the amount of food in the pack, it would be less to discard or recycle at the consumer end. Energy reduction is also all well, but it seems that we concentrate on use of low energy lightbulbs which of course use less energy than conventional lightbulbs. However, it takes more energy to make such lightbulbs and the low energy lightbulbs contain materials which are more environmentally damaging than conventional lightbulbs. Are we not changing to be perceived to be politically correct whilst we are hiding a larger timebomb behind it? It would be better to use normal lightbulbs with less wattage, 40W instead of 60W or 100W. Some supermarkets seem to have removed the 40W lightbulbs whilst one can purchase plenty of 60W and 100W lightbulbs. Should the supermarkets not help in the whole equation as well ? Many Councils now have arranged recycling, in our area the collections are every 14 days. However, we see in the news that despite this, lots of recyclable waste still end up in landfills despite the efforts of the consumers to adhere to requests from the local councils. It is easy to adopt the attitude of 'what is the point' when this takes place.
Electronics Companies are now legislated through the RoHS and WEEE directives which limit use of hazardous materials as well as require producers to guarantee the cost for recycling of electronic devices once they come to end of life. It does not seem that producers of non electronic products are legislated as much. Perhaps a more even-handed approach is necessary from central government. It is now time to show the public the whole picture instead of the media focused superficial points that appear on our screens. People understand the necessity of recycling if shown consistent and well administered ways to ensure that our rubbish dumps are not filled with the goods consumers have separated out for recycling. Media and government must stop blaming consumers for not being able to reach government targets as this only adds to resentment against any attempt to help the environment!!
Tore Skjærstad
I've never responded to a programme before - I'm so cross that your reporter was so negative and made everything sound so difficult! Recycling is really important and easy to do. We all need to think about cutting our waste, especially by NOT producing it in the first place! If you have children or grand children, what will you be leaving behind for them? Mountains of waste, unpredictable weather thorough climate change and them asking questions about why we didn't do something about it when we knew there was a problem!
It's up to each and everyone of us to do our bit - it's not someone else's problem, it's OUR problem!!! Judith Moore, Kendal While we are sure it is helpful to show such a complete novice as Mike experiencing some green issues, I dont think you covered some really important facts - reduce and reuse come before recycle. And what about highlighting the work of our best North East industries that we support - Traidcraft at Gateshead, Acorn organic dairy that supplies our milk in glass returnable bottles and local butter in paper packets that make great firelighters after I have used them to grease the bread tins, all our local farm shops and suppliers rather than the supermarket, local crafts instead of plastic cups - and we do not feel deprived or sacrificing our standard of living in doing what we have always done. We run a green business which shows people how easy it is to be green - we are even putting on Green Christmas weekends in December so perhaps Mike needs to come on one of these to help him understand what it really involves. We are a lot greener in our house than the German house you showed and would be happy to show you round anytime you want some ideas or further information. Dianne and David Nichol-Brown,Polemonium Plantery (p.s. we are hoping to receive our Green Tourism Business Scheme award in the next few weeks.) We moved to Alnwick just over a year ago, and had to learn what our two bins (one green, one blue) were all about. The blue one is the recycling bin and at first we didn't know what should be put in it. However, after putting in the obvious cereal boxes, cardboard, envelopes, bottles etc our kindly bin man took us to one side and explained it properly!
Take out the windows in the envelopes as glassine can't be recycled. No glass in the bin - so, no problem, take it to our fantastic waste transfer station nearby.
Plastic can go in - most plastic bottles have some type of recycling mark on so you can check, including 4/6 pint milk cartons (but not the tops).
Our dustbinman then gave us a sticker to put on the bin to keep us on the straight and narrow.
So, we are now recycling much much more than we were back in Bolton, Lancashire and are very impressed with the commitment shown by not only the dustbinman himself, but the staff at the transfer station who are incredibly helpful. Well Done Alnwick District Council.
Incidentally, this was a statement from the Council in the Summer for the Northumbria in Bloom Judges (my wife is on the Alnwick in Bloom Committee and put this in the portfolio):
The government measures our recycling performance with the Best Value Performance indicator 82. The government has set Alnwick district a target of 18% for 2005/2006. We have set ourselves a demanding recycling target of 30% for this year. Our recycling performance at the end of February was just under 30% -29.8%.
This is a committed and interested Council and Richard Thompson, head of Environmental Services is extremely helpful and approachable. Paul and Sue Allcroft
I will tell you the same as i have told Tony Blair (by email but got no response) - at least 75% of pollution can be got rid of in just a few years. The answer? Compressed air cars etc, they have been made for a few years now and they are 100% pollution free, the problem is the government will not push it because they will loss billions in taxes. Alfred Dodds I would like to recycle more but... The council will not take supermarket plastic bags, thin plastic packaging, old telephone books, thick magazines, cellophane, polystyrene etc. I have a compost bin but we could have an area wide compost bin and sell the compost back to gardeners. The council are now against allotment gardens having bonfires (potential complaints) but provide no resources to dispose of /recycle wood branches. There was a chipping machine which was stolen and never replaced? Why not have a collection service which could chip at the door. Recycling should be mandatory and the weight deducted as a cost from each houses council tax. All council buildings should have solar panels and /or windmills. All public services should offer free bus /metro passes rather than lease cars or travel expenses. There should be decent travel expenses for cyclists on a daily rate to encourage people to travel mare often by bike. Why have we dangerous cycle paths on main roads? Scotswood would have been an ideal site to provide a path separate from the road and pedestrians. Instead we have just produced a very fast road for cars. Fine motorists who drive along cycle/bus lanes. Why can we not put bikes on metros? Other cities can manage it, put one carriage at the back for people to stand with their bikes. The council could give free energy light bulbs to every household, send them out with the council bill. Employ energy savers, people who would go out and talk to people and businesses on how to save energy. Does this happen already? I do not think so other than occasional govt initiatives which last five minutes appear to do little and disappear without most people being aware of them. I drive a large car my work pays me more to drive it than if I got a small one. Wrong attitude. Finally we need to discourage large cars more. Pay more for petrol/car tax. Different sized parking spaces, free for small cars, exorbitant for big ones. We need carrots and sticks but we need to know about them.
Lesley Mcintosh Ok. let's start with recycling - my local council does not collect glass, wood or metal - only paper, plastic and tin cans are collected so to recycle items not collected I have to make a car journey. Hybrid cars - how much pollution is created in the making of these cars - lead batteries for starters which have to be disposed of - it was calculated that over 60% of a normal 10 year old car's pollution was produced in the making of the car - better to run cars as long as possible. Wind turbines - again has it been calculated how much pollution is generated building these 80 ton plus concrete towers and their turbines, to say nothing of the laying of cables to them plus the service requirements. Better perhaps to invest in large diesel engines running on vegetable oil which will at least produce power when it is required and not only when the wind blows. On to green petrol - very carcinogenic - far more dangerous than any leaded petrol and the levels of platinum, palladium and rhodium required in the Catalytic converters (which only work in the summer) - again has it been calculated how much pollution is generated digging up these metals and what happens to the old Cats? Stored like old refrigerators perhaps. Basically what I am saying is that we are told by the "greens" how to be greener but I seriously doubt that their ideas have been put to any sort of test - all they do in my opinion is shout loud enough to panic the politicians - and they are very successful at doing it. Peter Freeman I must say that I am rather disappointed that someone like Mike Parr reckons this green living is confusing. Even 30 years ago, when I was a teenager, our household knew about reducing waste, recycling and local foods. Our councils try and make recycling easy and on the whole theyre doing a good job. As far as Im concerned its just laziness not too. The biggest issue for us, living in rural Northumberland is personal transport. With the best will in the world neither my wife nor I can get to work without a car although we do try and share lifts, work from home if possible, but were still driving far too far. One thing I felt was missing from the story tonight was the fact that recycling of waste alone isnt really enough, although its a start. As a society were drowning in waste, we dont have enough holes in the ground to put it in and no-one wants a waste incineration plant on their doorstep. Surely the first thing we should all do is reduce waste. In a choice between the pre-packed locally produced courgette and the ones you have to put in a bag, the bag would win in my book. Usually they are cheaper and they dont sit in a plastic tray. Cheaper and less waste: not a contest. Having said all that, its important to keep the issue in the news. I have two teenagers and I want them to have a future as well. They know what to do, they do the reduce, re-use, recycle bit and if teenagers can do it anyone can. Peter Samsom, Wark
My husband and I are certainly pro re-cycling and do our best to be environmentally friendly. We use bins for glass, tins, newspapers, garden waste and now a fortnightly general waste bin. We also compost all our vegetable waste. However, we have two areas of concern:
The practice of supermarkets to "double wrap everything". If meat is in a plastic tray and cling filmed, they insist on putting it in an additional plastic bag, presumably to prevent contamination of other foods. We always refuse this.
We are really concerned about recent news reports of people being prosecuted for mistakes in recycling. It is all too easy for mistakes to occur. We believe people should only be dealt with when they have deliberately refused to separate recyclable waste. We also have a problem with prosecutions for "putting the bins out on the wrong day". Holidays etc mean this is sometimes a problem. The Harrisons, North Yorkshire
I've just finished watching this and think North East are getting a raw deal. I think more people in this area would recycle if they had better bins to put their recyclable waste in. The boxes that we have been provided aren't practical. They have to be kept inside as there's no top on them, leaving my garage the only place to put them. Because I don't go in the garage that often I don't recycle as much as I could or remember to put it out when I do. I, for one, would put all my recyclable rubbish in a specific wheelie bin if one was available. You would then put all plastic bags, bottles, packaging and paper in there knowing it's easily accessible to put the waste in and it's covered up so can be left outside without blowing away. Also, how about putting specific plastic recyclable bins near to Newcastle's many training grounds? I live near the Newcastle United training centre (Haydon Grange) and find that when I walk my dog she picks up an empty plastic bottle to play with nearly every day. Apart from the litter aspect affecting the environment, there's lots of opportunities there! Anne-Marie Spetch
I have just watched your programme on environmental issues. I am furious that it has been stated that the North East have the lowest recycling % in the country. I have been living in Jesmond for two years and have found recycling in this area extremely difficult. I blame the council for the half hearted effort which has not encouraged residents to recycle - but instead turns us off. I lived in Leeds for four years before I came here and recycling was not a problem. Large coloured bins were given to residents so as much waste was collected on a weekly basis and most items could be recycled. This became the norm for me and when I moved here, I expected to carry on as I had left off. Instead I found I was given a VERY SMALL box, which is filled after just a few days, and which is only picked up every two weeks! I have asked the council for more, yet they have not been given to me. And frequently the box isn't even picked up for a month, as they forget to collect mine from my doorstep. Which gives me the same rubbish for a month before Ii can even consider collecting anymore. Before commenting on those who should be recyling more, please look at the services provided. Maybe we are the lowest in the country simply because we dont seem to have a local government truly behind us in the first place. Jozefa Marriott It's all very well wanting all of us to go green and recycle, but surely prevention is much better than the cure, it's time for the government to get tough with those responsible for all these overflowing land fill sites, namely the high street stores who constantly over-package their products, with the humble Easter egg as one prime example. the buck stops at their door, not ours.
Alan Simpson, Newcastle
I think all this environmental business is a load of rubbish - you gave all these big scary numbers of how many people are going to lose their homes and how the whole world is going to end and the way you put it across was that it was going to end tomorrow.
How do your scientists know what is going to happen in the future? You have no idea whatsoever - that bald bloke you had on he has no idea what is going to happen tomorrow let alone in the years to come. What sort of information do you base those statistics on because I'd love to know? I'm not completely against it - I do think we should recycle because I think that is just a way to make use of good resources, not because Ii think it will save the planet - all the other business like buying specially manufactured cars and developing your house is just a way to make the rich more money and they've latched on to all this stuff and are making a fortune for nothing. The programme also made me laugh because what difference does it make where your food comes from? Do you really think just because you buy British food, they will stop selling food from other countries? Actually it would probably do the complete opposite - it would make them reduce the amount of British food so you have less of a choice and then what are you going to do? Tell people to stop going to supermarkets - what a joke, people have to have a life if them sort of people you had on tonight get their way one day everyone will be made to stay in the house use electricity when they are told they can use heating when they are told they can (if at all) and they must walk everywhere etc. Global warming is just one of those natural occurrences and by the time it has any significant effect on the planet, the sun will have most probably burnt out or we will have been destroyed by a collision with a meteorite, which there is more scientific proof of because it has happened before to our planet so maybe we could put our focus on something more important. Joseph Winstanley I think going green is a good idea if we act now - then I think in the years to come it will get better and we should only recycle
not landfill rubbish as I like recycling my rubbish as we have two bins where there should only be bin and that's for recycling,
only we always take bottles & other glass to the bottle bank to our local rubbish tip. And I also think public transport such as
park & rides they should be more of them just for bigger towns not small ones. Tracey Thorpe Your feature on recycling was very interesting but I can't understand why some councils will recycle different things from others! Our flat comes under North Tyneside council and they will not recycle cardboard... and we all know how much of that there is! What I would love to see is a programme where you follow the recycling from pick up point to where it finally ends up as you hear terrible stories about it being dumped elsewhere, and I would hate to think that all of my efforts were in vain, I know lots of other people with the same worry. How about some secret filming to see just what does happen? Maggie I watched your programme on Monday regarding the 'green' theme which I found interesting. I was a little taken aback by Mike Parr's views on recycling. I do feel that we need to do more about this issue but what I find puzzling is that different council areas seem to have different recycling procedures. My brother lives in Newark and they recycle plastic but not tins where we (Gateshead) do not recycle plastic. You would think that everything recyclable is recycled. I have logged on to various websites to found out where our nearest plastic recycling point is but so far this has proved difficult. Recycling can work but more needs to be done, all councils should be providing the necessary bins or whatever for all things recyclable and not choosing just a few items; people should be encouraged to be 'green' and if necessary incentives given in order to achieve this; manufacturing businesses should be challenged and supermarkets should be looking into alternative packaging of items etc and stop providing plastic carrier bags. I think a lot of people have Mike Parr's (former) views on 'green' issues, once this has changed the environment may be better for it. Tracey Fawkes
I have a small black box for re-cycling. I have asked the council on four occasions, since either last year or early this year, for a second box (the last time being July of this year). On two occasions I was told my request would be forwarded to the area manager...
Needless to say, I am still waiting. I should like to say that it is due to the inefficiency of the local council that recycling in the North is poor. Annie Coulthard
As a resident of Newcastle I think I am playing my part in association with the initiatives the City Council has introduced by:
1. Composting all vegetable waste and recycling onto my garden.
2. Taking part in the "Brown Bin" trial putting all grass & hedge cuttings, bush & tree pruning's into the bin provided, which is then collected every fortnight and recycled by composting at the council's facility in Westerhope, and then sold as valuable garden compost a few days after it was collected from the brown bins.
3. Separating re-cyclable items like cans, glass, paper, plastic, fabrics for collection every fortnight which is then sold on to be reused.
4. Taking larger items to the council run recycling sites where the refuse has specially designed areas for each category of waste and disposed of.
Resulting in our waste bin never being more than half full. This results in the council putting less into landfill and avoiding the Government's onerous Landfill surcharge which I am led to believe is £145.00 per ton over the government quota.
Come on BBC & Mike Parr, stop the old journalism trick of "not spoiling a good story by telling the truth" Go and talk to the leader of the City Council also to Les Clarke at the council offices at Cyprus Grove and hear from him the initiatives he has introduced on behalf of the council to reduce our rubbish. When going on about how far the supermarkets bring produce around the world, what about showing the other side of zero miles on fruit and veg from all the allotment holders in the city?
Encouragement helps to make the point rather than highlighting the negatives.
The BBC could help global warming by cutting down on the hours it broadcasts on the TV channels, therefore televisions would not be on all during the night! I will be interested to see if you spread the Good News.
Keith Hilton | 
Inside Out - North East: Monday October 23, 2006
