Islington Tribune - Letters: Cashing in on business waste

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

Islington Tribune - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 27 April 2007

Cashing in on business waste

• COUNCILS are reluctant to become involved with recycling waste from businesses because they will lose money if they do (Businesses are throwing away a hole lot of waste, April 20).
Businesses have to pay for waste to be collected, and as recycled waste will no longer be part of the normal waste, which is usually charged by amount, then this amount will be correspondingly reduced by the quantity recycled.
As a small business owner I fell foul of a council’s “rubbish police” a few years ago.
They tried to sell me a waste collection contract but I explained that all my waste, which is only paper, is recycled through the council’s street banks.
Not good enough. I was told that businesses are not allowed to use these for recycling – not even for paper.
I was told the “solution” to my alleged “problem” was for me to buy orange bags into which I could put all my rubbish which would be collected from the pavement outside my premises.
This was all about revenue raising and the council officers clearly did not want to know about the recycling aspect as it would reduce council revenue.
My response was that I would continue to recycle my waste until such time that notices appeared on the paper banks stating that the deposit of business waste was not permitted. It would appear the situation is still much about the same.
Councils make much effort to exhort residents to recycle, but the amount of glass and cans generated by bars, pubs and restaurants perhaps exceeds that generated by domestic households.
It would take the councils less time to collect a greater volume from commercial premises than from households, but the councils do not want to do this because they would lose out on revenue from the normal waste collections for which businesses have to pay.
What is the point of massive and expensive council recycling education efforts aimed at domestic households while they fail to take the opportunity to collect from businesses – when they could collect perhaps a greater volume than they do from residents and at less cost?
JOHN ADAMS
Winston Road, N16

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Islington Tribune, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@islingtontribune.co.uk. Deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment: