What a Load of Rubbish

Rubbish - we all produce it but we all want it disposed of somewhere else, preferably not near where we live. Living in a town or village that has a landfill site is no fun, I know because I live in such a place, where a site has been in operation for 20 years and has recently been given an 18 month extension, despite a vigorous campaign from the village. The likelihood is that the operators will apply for an additional extension when this one expires.

 

I do have some sympathy with Local Authorities because they have to deal with a problem they didn’t create; the problem is created by us. Landfill sites in both East and West Sussex are basically full up so the County Councils have to look at new sites and inevitably, and understandably, there is fierce local opposition. To my knowledge, East Sussex now have no ‘land disposal’ sites for non-recyclable general household rubbish so are having to export outside the county and West Sussex are going to be in the same position very soon. It is possible, but I can’t say with absolute certainty, that some of that East Sussex rubbish is coming to my village so it then becomes my problem!

 

People are generally much more aware these days about recycling and Local Authorities, with varying degrees of success, are improving the facilities to enable them to do this. My local authority, Horsham District Council, is actually pretty good and the amount of our non-recyclable rubbish is much reduced. But still, on ‘wheelie-bin’ day, many in my village are still overflowing with rubbish and it is sad to say that even given the opportunity, there are still some people who are just too lazy to sort their rubbish out. It’s not their problem, let someone else deal with it, but these are some of the very same people who have protested so vehemently about the extension of our landfill site.

 

At the Trust, as soon as there is a planning application for a new landfill site we will be asked to support objections to it. Our charitable constitution will only allow us to comment on the impact on wildlife, not on the issue of the landfill site in itself and this can be difficult if there is no information in the first place as to the wildlife interest. If there have been no surveys done then we can’t comment on the application and then people are disappointed we cannot support them.

 

Other forms of disposal that are proposed, such as incineration, are also opposed, while dumping out to sea is a disaster and just creates real problems in the marine environment. Charging households for the disposal of rubbish is a possible solution but I suggest that this will not be universally welcome and will undoubtedly lead to a huge increase in fly-tipping.

 

So what are we going to do? Perhaps we should start where much of the waste is generated, the excess packaging produced by the retail trade and supermarkets in particular. In Germany, the supermarkets have recycling points outside where customers can dispose of their packaging, they operate financial rewards for returning plastic and glass bottles, all done by companies that trade in this country, though nothing like this is operated here. We need to lobby Government to legislate that such facilities are introduced, or try direct action like a friend of mine who takes off all the packaging at the check out, much to the annoyance of other customers and bemusement of staff.. The real point is that there should be strong lobbying for a real reduction in packaging at the start.

 

Another possibility is that communities take responsible for their own rubbish then residents will understand the consequences of what they produce.  Some towns and villages have already had great success in reducing the use of plastic bags, there are thriving community compost schemes and a great interest is growing in community vegetable gardens.

We can, with the right incentives and framework, do something ourselves to drastically reduce the amount of rubbish we generate and the fact is that if we don’t want to have landfill sites next to us we are going to have to all take more responsibility for what we produce.

 

 I can then look forward to the day when I enjoy the natural smells of the countryside around my village and not the stench of other people’s rubbish

 

Mike Russell Head of People and Wildlife at Sussex Wildlife Trust

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