Speaker for 5th April 2016
Talk by Fiona Watters on 'Council Waste Management and Recycling'
Coleraine Probus members got to hear first hand about the Council's efforts in recycling and waste management from Council Officer Fiona Watters. The management of household waste and the promotion of ideas for recycling are taken very seriously by the Council because of the size of the problem and the cost involved in dealing with it. To give some ideas of just how big the problem is Fiona gave some graphic details, for instance; the average household creates one tonne of rubbish per year; it costs about £100 per tonne to dispose of it in a landfill tip; all landfill sites are almost full; there is a problem finding more suitable sites (would YOU want to live next to a rubbish tip!? - WebEd); at present 60% of our rubbish ends up in landfill site. The conclusion is simple - this is a huge waste of money and resources, we need to produce less rubbish.
The Council waste strategy can be seen as 'The 3Rs' - Reduce; Reuse; Recycle - and Fiona gave examples of practical ways Probus members rethink their waste with these 'Rs' in mind. Perhaps the most surprising concern in the 'Reduce' section is the amount of food councils have to deal with. Throughout the UK, there is enough food waste to fill over 600,000 bin lorries - that's about 15 million tonnes. Certainly a lot of that is unavoidable, but around 5.4 million tonnes comes from households that is avoidable - cooking to much; buying 'two4one' offers that are not used; fruit and veg. left to go rotten, and so on. The Council are currently promoting a 'Food Smart' campaign to increase peoples awareness of this terrible waste and the effect it has on both Council and residents budgets - it is estimated that households 'throw away' between £10 and £14 of food every week!
Part of Fiona's talk was a 'Quick Quiz' for club members. Questions included: 'Is it safe to eat food after its 'Best Before' date' - YES, this refers to 'quality' rather than food safety. NEVER eat food after its 'Use By' date has expired. And: 'Name a fruit that should NOT be kept in a fridge' - Bananas, grapefruit, lemons, limes, oranges and pineapples.
Fiona went on to talk about and give examples of the many ways of 'Reusing' things: these ranged from the ordinary giving to 'Charity Shops' through to pieces of public art and jewellery (made from old silver teaspoons!) and some facts about 'Recycling'. For instance: recycling one tonne of paper saves enough electricity to power a three bedroom house for one year. In the Causeway Coast and Glens Council area, there are over 55,000 Blue Recycle Bins, and these have to be collected every two weeks and the contents sorted - a massive task. Fiona gave a 'recap' on what items are and are not suitable for the Blue bins (which led to a lot of discussion with members).
The next bin to be introduced to the whole Council area will be the 'Brown Bin', for food waste, this has been successfully piloted in parts of Coleraine, Portrush and Portstewart. These will be distributed during this financial year to comply with current legislation which requires all councils to have a food waste collection by 2017.
Fiona's talk prompted much lively questioning and could have continued far longer, however time constraints meant that Billy Platt was requested to propose a vote of thanks for the speaker. This was for providing the most interactive and inclusive talk the club had received more a number of years, a very enjoyable and interesting talk that was never a 'waste' of time and one that should be 'recycled' in as many venues as possible. Well done Fiona for getting the members talking and thinking, now all that remains is to do something about cutting down on waste for the sake of our beautiful area, isn't it…
More Information:
1. For a look at a short version of Fiona's talk, and think about some of the 'Facts and Figures' involved, Just 'Click' on this link.
2. For more details of the Council's innovative 'Food Smart Campaign' Just 'Click' this link. (this will open in a new window)
