How Green actually is Brighton and Hove?

[Lush]

Just moved back to dear old Brighton from Worthing, and am surprised to find that this supposedly Green city with its Green Councillors and Green MP seem to be rather backward when it comes to Green issues.

Take recycling.

Worthing - will take all manner of plastics, glass, paper, Tetra Pak cartons once a week in a big friendly wheelie bin.

Brighton - no Tetra Pak cartons AND the glass has to be put inside a separate non-recyclable carrier bag.

Worthing - will supply a garden waste bin for a small fee, or you can buy special big brown bags for garden waste at 50p a throw which will be collected from outside your home weekly.

Brighton - garden waste has to be taken to the tip yourself. Although they helpfully supply a list of buses on the website, should you not have a car.

So enlighten me, with the council elections coming up. What are the Green party doing for Brighton?

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

Why doesn't any local authorities in Sussex use the high quality recycled paints that ARE available, instead of sending 15 million litres a year to landfil?

 

[Deleted User X18H]

What are the Green party doing for Brighton?

Just basic communism really. Plus the fact the Brighton with its 'diversity' and lack of a real local commumity was seen as a prime target for the Greens to 'install' their first MP.

She has done nothing for Pavillion in just under a year , despite what the deluded might tell you. Most of who incidently, don't live in Pavillion.

 

[Mendoza]

Brighton tops domestic food waste league From The Argus)

 

[AMEXican Wave]

I've been amazed how difficult Brighton have made recycling. Only collected every 2 weeks, and if you dare to wrongly sort it, it gets left... well, at that point it goes straight in the main bin at mine to be collected a few days later.

 

[CheeseRolls]

Great combination of militant refuse workers, a Tory led Council and a Green MP, along with a city that is densely populated in the centre and hilly on the outskirts all combine to make this a challenging environment for recycling.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

You need to get like we do.

We all have 3 bins, one for recyclables(gets sorted at the process point), one for garbage and one for green(vegetation) type waste.

 

[beorhthelm]

good point on the green waste. in wealden compostable waste (garden, brown card) is taken in a second "green" bin, though oddly the rules are different from town to town.

but the tetra paks i understand cant be recycled anyway, too much plastic for recylcing as paper or composting, too much paper to treat alongside other plastics. ideally we should do away with completly in favour of recyclable plastic bottles.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

We have always been way behind down here. Horsham District are pretty good these days - but I remember visiting a friend in Leeds many years ago and they were rinsing and flattenning tin cans and into their own bin.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

You need to get like we do.

We all have 3 bins, one for recyclables(gets sorted at the process point), one for garbage and one for green(vegetation) type waste.

That is what Horsham District provide as it happens.

 

[NMH]

Surely if you are going to recycle, there's an onus on you to do your bit and make it easier for them at the other end.

Separating glass? It might be less cost effective and less GREEN to have another machine or more people do that for you - when it's easy enough surely to do it for them?

The garden waste thing sounds interesting, but again perhaps they just can't effectively have someone else in place especially to do that for every precinct - so they don't touch it for selective areas (yet). These things take time, money, and more planning...and sometimes don't turn out to be 'green' at all in the long run.

Anyway, garden waste should be turned into mulch and be recycled where it was grown if possible. Why encourage otherwise by collecting it?

 

[Chicken Run]

I have also found Mid sussex to be way ahead of Brighton (Moved here from Brighton six months ago), the problem with the two wheelie bin system for a place like Brighton would be the large swaythes of Victorian/Edwardian houses who have "On Street" front doors have enough problems already with a somwhat smaller bin at the moment, so if you added a second, the streets would be full of bins, might work out in the burbs though.

 

[sten_super]

Surely if you are going to recycle, there's an onus on you to do your bit and make it easier for them at the other end.

Separating glass? It might be less cost effective and less GREEN to have another machine or more people do that for you - when it's easy enough surely to do it for them?

But the point is they are supposed to be encouraging everyone to recycle; even the lazy CBA types. Making it inanely complicated is not going to achieve that aim. Clearly there's a balance to be had between adding extra sorting processes (which I'm sure you're right does detract from the green credentials) versus encouraging people to recycle (and therefore recycling significantly more). Here we have 3 large wheelie bins; one for general waste (black bin), one for recyclable waste (everything from tetra packs to cardboard/paper to glass, blue bin) and one for 'green' waste (i.e. food or garden, green bin), with the black collected one week and the green/black the next, and it works a treat.

 

[Seagull27]

That is what Horsham District provide as it happens.

Same for me where I live in Essex. Organic waste gets collected every week in a green bin, while recyclables go in a big blue bin and rubbish in a big black bin, and they alternate which one they pick up each week.

 

[Norman Potting]

Glass. If it is lumped together it is usually crushed up and used in road surfacing to make it more durable. The Council recycling it get money for it but not as much as they would if sorted by colour as it can then be re-used to make bottles and suchlike.

Tetra paks and the like. No doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong but I believe these are currently crushed and sent to Scandinavia where they are made and recycled. I think "they" are waiting for enough volume to be generated in the UK to make it worthwhile recycling them here.

 

[The Large One]

We have a Conservative-led council that doesn't take re-cycling too seriously.

If you find community projects, they will be more pro-active, but on a council-led level, you're right, Lush, it is lacking.

 

[The Large One]

Just basic communism really. Plus the fact the Brighton with its 'diversity' and lack of a real local commumity was seen as a prime target for the Greens to 'install' their first MP.

She has done nothing for Pavillion in just under a year , despite what the deluded might tell you. Most of who incidently, don't live in Pavillion.

You HATE the concept of community, and are disgusted by democracy, so you're in no position to comment.

 

[Superphil]

You need to get like we do.

We all have 3 bins, one for recyclables(gets sorted at the process point), one for garbage and one for green(vegetation) type waste.

We have this over in Pulborough area, we get a Rubbish bin, a huge Recycle bin (everything goes, glass, carboard, plastics etc) and a garden waste bin, (grass cuttings, plant trimmings etc)

We have a Conservative-led council that doesn't take re-cycling too seriously.

We have the bluest of the blue in West Sussex, and they've been doing it for a while now, see my post above.

 

[Chicken Run]

It seems the two/three bin works well in provintial towns around Sussex, again not sure it would work around Brighton.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

In Shoreham we have the 3-bin scenario. You do pay for the garden waste one, but that's reasonable, I think. The recycling must definitely NOT be sorted (they don't take it, if it is) - and is only collected every two weeks, but I think that's enough, at least the normal rubbish wheelie is collected every week, and the normal plus recycling are always collected on the same day.

I still feel that more ought to be able to go into the recycling bin. We must have had recycling in Shoreham for over 20 years now - I think we were one of the first.