REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

LAST WEEK, Belfast City Council erected several marquees in the grounds of the City Hall to promote the benefits of recycling.  A series of stunning audio-visual displays showed how this can be done. Walk on the floor projection and it affects the screens on either side. Kick aside a pile of newspapers to reveal a box of eggs!  Chase a pile of crushed cans round the screen and you'll find a batch of fresh new cans.  This was immensely popular with a group of schoolchildren in front of me who had great sport with it.  I expect that the council hopes that the message of 'reduce, reuse, recycle' will remain with the youngsters when they get home. Visitors to the exhibition came away with a pencil, pen and ruler made from recycled materials.

I think that this is excellent. My old granny was brought up in an era when nothing was wasted.  Waste was the ultimate sin to her.  In her day, ragmen came around to collect old fabrics and potato and vegetable peelings were collected as pigfeed. She would have been at home with this rediscovered aspect of today's society.

In this respect, Carrickfergus is well ahead of Belfast in its approach to recycling. In my part of the city I was only issued with a Bryson House kerb box in February. Prior to this, everything went into the bin and landfill. Now I fill it with newspapers, magazines, foil catfood trays, glass bottles and jars, cans and plastic bottles. 

Frustratingly, I often put out plainly recyclable items that are rejected by the Bryson House collectors.  A brand of yoghurt I sometimes buy has a carton that can be broken down into component parts: card, and a clear PET plastic middle. These were left behind to go into my regular black bin. The same applied to the supermarket microwaveable lasagna and baked potato trays, even though I washed them out with used dishwater and they are clearly marked with the recyclable label.

These days it is hard to come home from the shops on a Saturday afternoon without four or five supermarket plastic carrier bags. It's often hard to refuse them at shops! Shortly after acquiring my new-fangled kerbie, I tried to dispose of a large accumulation of these bags.  They were left behind for the black bin.  What a waste! What a disappointment! 

It seems to me that it's about time that the local district councils in Northern Ireland and Bryson House got their joint acts together on this if they want to be taken seriously on recycling.

Another aspect of the recycling problem that needs to be addressed is what is to be done with the collected paper, cardboard and plastic.  Currently most of this stuff is shipped out to China for reprocessing into useable material.  It seems to me that a series of local plants to process these recyclable materials would be a great bonus to the economy of Northern Ireland.

WORMS

A fascinating item on display at the recycling fair came from the Co Down firm, Finnis Organic Worms.  The worms live in a series of three stackable plastic trays – The Worm Works.  You simply add kitchen scraps, teabags, shredded paper, onion skins, and other food leftovers.  The worms eat the scraps and digest the food. This results in terrific compost and liquid fertiliser that can be drained off by a tap in the bottom of the tray assembly. Ingenious.  If you can't bear to waste food scraps and have a garden this idea may be just what you need.  I aked a company representative if any Ulster councils had shown an interest in this innovative recycling initiative.  So far the answer is no.  Perhaps this might be an issue to lobby your local representative over. Find out more from www.thewormworks.com or from ringing 028 9753 2686.