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Rubbish & chips
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grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

Re: Rubbish & chips
Aug 30, 2006, 17:50
pooley wrote:
Thanks jim. I'm fairly new here, and didn't expect to get so deep into something quite so quickly, but (sorry) i'm enjoying disagreeing with you. Thanks for making it fun, and informative, rather than just a row.

Well, this place has certainly seen plenty of rows. I even stormed out in a huff about a year ago when the trolls had become a tad too frequent for my liking. But just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in!* There's just too many groovy folks hereabouts.

I think on this issue we're basically down to the "I just don't think it would work" / "Well, I think it would work" stage of the debate. We both - I believe - agree that the basic principle of people paying for waste disposal in proportion to the amount of waste they generate is A Good Thing. The only question is whether or not it would work in practice.

Having lived for a long time in the UK, and now living in Ireland (plus having experienced the pay-per-bag scheme in Illinois) I have to say that I'm impressed with how well the schemes do work. In Illinois, for instance, they have a different scheme... you buy special tags that you stick onto your bags (in practice they can't be removed as the adhesive bonds with the plastic of the bag) and the bin-men only collect bags that are tagged.

I think the Irish system of paying by weight is probably better, but both encourage people to minimise the amount they throw away. In conjunction with very heavy penalties for fly-tipping they have reduced the amount of waste generated significantly (I recall reading the figures and being impressed, but can't be arsed to track them down right now).

I honestly don't see why such schemes wouldn't work in the UK. Yes there will be the occasional nutter who refuses to comply, and some nasty neighbours who steal bin space. But the vast majority of households will make an effort to reduce waste, more than compensating for the few who object.

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* To be said in an Al Pacino voice.
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Re: Rubbish & chips (pooley)
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