Excellent Recylcing in Cambridge

We have just moved to the Cambridge area and I have to say I am so impressed by their recycling facilities.  In short, they make it easy for the consumer to recycle.  That IS the secret.  Forget monitoring bins and  punishing people who don’t tow the line, just make it simple and easy to do and the vast majority of people will recycle.  What councils and governments seem to forget is that most people really do want to do the right thing.  Threatening them for bad behaviour only serves to demotivate and alienate the people who would normally recycle, given they have the right facilities.  Cambridge is in my mind the perfect example of a Council doing it well.  They make it easy, and they make it simple.

So how is recycling in Cambridge easy and simple?  A number of things, Waverley (my previous council), take note because you are a long way behind on this: -

• Provide a number of bins to support recycling.  We have 3 wheelie bins plus a caddy and a battery bag.
• Provide clear instructions.  Cambridge provide online explanations of the bins and a really simple downloadable A4 page to summarise what you can and can’t do and what goes where.  Also the bins are colour coded to make it easier.
• Don’t make it tortuous.  Cambridge allow the bulk of recycling to go into a single bin.  Plastic, glass, plastic packaging, paper, all together, no need to sort.
• Make it comprehensive.  There is very little (probably less than 10%) of our household waste that cannot be recycled.  Where other councils don’t support recycling (e.g. plastic wrapping and packaging), Cambridge do.
• Make it regular.  Although collections on any specific item is bi-weekly, there are weekly collections so half of your recycling goes one week and half the next.  I still believe we need a return to weekly collections for organic waste in particular, however this is a minor complaint and given the current financial climate we can live with this in the short-term.

Here’s some interesting statistics, Cambridge County Council recycles well over 50% of household waste.  Waverley managed only 38% and exclude non-dry waste (organic food and garden waste).  Also, Cambridge have identified that a further 28% of what is currently landfill can be recycled or composted so they continue to strive to improve services.  And how about Waverley?  Well not only are they a long way behind but they simply make excuses about why they don’t do plastic packaging, or food, or garden.  They blame their suppliers.  Well, call me old-fashioned but you at Waverley appoint the suppliers, so if they are not up to the job find someone who is.  And if you still can’t work out how to do that on the same budget why not take a trip to Cambridge and I am sure they will be only too happy to show you how it should be done.

Advertisement