New Food Recycling Service Launches in Colchester

 

For all residents of Colchester, the Councils new Food Recycling service is about to start.

Check when your Food waste Recycling Kit will arrive Click here to see when deliveries will take place

We would obviously encourage you to reduce your food waste in the first instance and then compost in your own garden, see www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

For anything left over please support this council scheme.

Details from the Council:

Thanks to the Council’s rollout of its weekly food waste collection service Colchester residents will soon be able to recycle all food waste. 

The borough’s more than 62,000 homes already receiving a kerbside recycling and rubbish collection will have a new food waste recycling kit delivered from 14 October.  Urban streets will have deliveries first, followed by rural areas up to 22 November. 

Click here to see when deliveries will take place in each area and for more information about the new collection. 

Residents are encouraged to look out for the kit, delivered to the doorstep, and start recycling straight away, ready for their first collection the following week.  By Friday 29 November, weekly collections from all these homes will have begun. 

Dairy products, meat, fish, bones, fruit and vegetables, eggs shells, bread, tea bags and coffee can all be placed in the lockable bins, helping residents reduce their black bag rubbish and associated smells.

The kit will make recycling all cooked and uncooked food quick and easy.  Each will contain a roll of approved compostable kitchen bin liners and recycling information.  All residents not already part of the successful food waste collection trial will also receive a small kitchen and larger external bin.

Collections will take place in Blue and Green recycling weeks on each resident’s existing recycling and rubbish day.  Adding food waste collections alongside paper, card, glass, cans, aerosols, foil, clothes and shoes, mixed plastics and garden waste, will make it easy for residents to recycle more.

Residents choosing to keep using liners to contain food waste in their kitchen caddy will be able to get affordable rolls of the approved, compostable liners from local stockists across the borough.  A network of retailers and other outlets has been set up in a partnership led by the Council to support both residents and local businesses. 

Everything collected will be turned into green energy for heat and electricity.  By recycling residents are making a valuable contribution to creating a greener borough. 

Residents in flats using communal bins will be able to start recycling both food waste and mixed plastics when these new collections are rolled out further in early 2014.

Green Links

Energy

Energy Management
Good Energy 
Energy Saving Trust
The Green Deal Guide
National Energy Foundation

Renewable Energy Production
Green Energy Team

Food

Grow your own
Landshare 
Online matching service that allows you to find or offer land to growers. If you have a big garden you can offer it on this website for instance.
Grow Your Own (Magazine)
Colchester Allotment Association

Community Projects
Big Garden Project
Colchester Carrot

Local Produce
GFB

Vegetarian
Vegetarian Society
Vegan Society

Wholesale Foods
Suma Foods

New Economics

New Economics Foundation

Sharing Skills
Exchanging skills with other members of your community has taken many forms over the years, from LETS schemes and Timebanks to web based services. In Colchester we have both a timebank and, internationally the web based service Just For The Love of It. Like all community sharing services however, they rely on having lots of members and the members using them both to offer their skills and to request skills. The Colchester LETS scheme folded in 2002. Details of schemes are given below:

Just for the Love of It
This is a web based Community service that lets you share skills, tools, land and buildings.
LETS UK
Time Bank Colchester
Timebanking UK

Finance
Colchester Credit Union
ZOPA UK
KIVA Loans

Sustainability

en-form – The Colchester Environment Centre
Essex University Green Task Force
Transition Town Colchester
Transition Town Wivenhoe

Transport

Colchester Travel Plan

Climate Care
Off-set your emissions by planting trees

Car
The Environmental Transport Association
UK's only breakdown organisation that campaigns for a greener transport policy
Vehicle Certification Agency
Vehicle fuel consumption guide and database
Wombat Car Club
The Colchester based Car club
Essex Liftshare
Free local online car share matching service

 

Cycling
CTC
UK cyclist's membership organisation, including cycling insurance
Colchester Cycle Champions
Cycle Colchester
Colchester Cycling Campaign
Sustrans
Information on the National Cycle Network

Public Transport
Colchester Bus Users Support Group
Transport 2000
Campaigns for Sustainable transport in the UK

Walking
Walk Colchester

Waste – Reduce, Reuse and Recycling

Reduce
Love Food Hate Waste
Stop unwanted Junk Mail

Reuse
Ebay
The famous online auction site that lets you sell everything legal.
Freegle
Freecycle
Give or Take Essex
Like ebay but free. Lets you post unwanted items you want to give away or request items you want.
ReUse Essex
Online directory with search facility listing organisations throughout Essex that collect and redistribute unwanted items, primarily by Charity and Community Groups but also includes some commercial organisations.
Bookcrossing

Recycle
A-Z Guide to Dispose of Waste 
Directory of how to reduce, reuse or recycle specific items in Essex.
Recycle More (VALPAK)
Recycle Now (WRAP)
Information on what can be recycled together with a postcode search of what you can recycle in your area through kerbside collection and recycling bank facilities.
Colchester Borough Council
Details of the recycling facilities available in Colchester.
Use It Again
Waste Busters (Essex County Council)

Water

Water Companies
Anglian Water
Essex and Suffolk Water
Affinity Water (formerly Veolia Water East)

Water Use
Blueprint for Water
7 groups who have set out a blueprint for the UK's Water Supply
Centre for Alternative Technology
has an extensive guide to water harvesting
Environment Agency
Water efficiency advice and to report cases of pollution
Rainwater Harvesting Association
Links to member companies
Waterwise
Campaigns for sustainable water use. Has a useful list of water saving devices

What happens to materials I put out for recycling?

 

Sometimes there are rumours that you spend your time separating your rubbish only to have it landfilled with the rest of your waste, please be assured Colchester Borough Council makes every effort to recycle all the materials you put out for recycling:

Glass - 9% of household waste. Glass bottles are melted down and made into new bottles. Less energy is required to melt cullet than convert raw material into glass. One tonne of recycled glass eliminates the need for 1.2 tonnes of raw materials.

Cans - 5% of household waste is metal. Steel and aluminium cans are also melted down and can be made into new cans and car parts. Every new steel can contains 25% recycled steel. Recycling cans saves energy - Aluminium can, 95% energy saving. Steel can, 75% energy saving. Recycling also reduces the need for aluminium ore mining and imports of the aluminium ore, bauxite.

Plastic Bottles - 6% of household waste, by weight. They can be turned into fleece jackets, rulers, furniture, drains and car dashboards. It requires 20,000 plastic bottles to recycle one tonne of plastic.

Paper & Card - 27% of household waste. To keep up with UK paper consumption, a forest the size of Wales is required every year. 2.5 million tonnes of paper ends up in landfill sites every year. so by recycling we save natural resources and energy - paper recycling uses 40% less energy and 40% less water than new paper manufacture.

Textiles - 3% of household waste. 95% of all textiles thrown away are recyclable. High quality second-hand old clothing can be sold for re-use, usually through charities. Medium grade textiles can be recycled into industrial rags and wiping cloths. Low grade textiles can be recycled to produce filling and flocking for the furnishing industry.

Oil - It only takes 1 litre of engine oil to pollute 700,000 litres of freshwater. It's an offence to pour engine oil down the drain. Engine oil can be recycled and refined for secondary use. Take used oil to an oil recycling bank. For free advice on engine oil disposal and to find your nearest Oil bank, contact the OIL CARE HELPLINE: 0800 663366.

RECYCLING

We dump around 83% of our waste in landfill sites. Unfortunately some sites are poorly managed which causes a range of environmental problems not least the production of methane gas, which contributes to climate change. A liquid called leachate is also produced as the waste decomposes This can seep into underground rivers and streams and into the surface water to pollute the natural environment and cause health problems. A further 9% of household waste is incinerated and this can create pollutants such as extremely dangerous dioxins, heavy metals and the gases that cause acid rain.

Recycling waste helps avoid these problems. For example recycling aluminium cans and foil saves 95% of the energy required to produce new aluminium. Recycling these, paper and glass also reduces the need for raw material extraction, which often causes widespread environmental damage- and it also reduces the need for landfill space and incinerators.

Each year in Britain we use more than 6 billion drink cans, 12 billion food cans, 1.7 million tonnes of glass and an average of 2 trees worth of paper each In 1996 almost 25 million tonnes of household waste was generated in England and Wales. More and more people are now recycling their waste. Recycling is the processing of waste or rubbish back into raw materials so that it can be made into new items. Even so before recycling we should attempt to reduce our waste, by buying fewer disposable items and more that have a longer life span. We must re-use our products- using the same bags for shopping, buying refillable items and repairing products instead of buying replacements.

WHAT CAN BE RECYCLED?

A typical household dustbin contains glass, paper, card, plastic bottles, steel and aluminium cans and biodegradable waste such as vegetables- all of which can be recycled. Each ton of paper recycled saves 15 average sized trees, as well as their surrounding habitat and wildlife. More than 20% of our waste is compostable.

Composting is simple and the end result improves the quality of the soil without using chemical fertilisers, peat or commercially produced compost.
Glass: This is one of the most easily recyclable materials. In the UK we now recycle 29% compared with 15% a few years ago. We still have a long way to go to match the Dutch who recycle 75%
Plastic: An estimated 100 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide every year, accounting for 4% of oil consumption. Harmful toxic chemicals are used in some plastics to make them flexible and to stop discolourisation and cracking. A great deal of plastic is used in packaging. Where possible do not buy disposable plastic products or anything that comes with plastic packaging in the first place. Re-use whatever plastic containers you have for storing household items- though not food- and always re-use plastic carrier bags. Plastic recycling schemes are slowly becoming available. Your old plastic can end up becoming drain pipes, fence posts, telephones or even fleece jumpers.
Cans: Facilities are widely available.
Textiles: These can be recycled by taking them to a local charity shop where they will be sold to aid the work of the charity.
Furniture: If this is in good condition charities such as the Salvation Army will accept it. In Colchester the Shake Trust (Colchester Furniture Project) will also accept it if it is in good condition. They pass it on to local people in need. Their telephone number is 01206-543438
Paper: Paper recycling is widely available and is probably the most recycled material.
Always try to buy recycled products, but be cautious of those with broad environmental claims because there may be little evidence to back them up. In the case of paper look for the highest content of post-consumer recycled paper. Look for wood products bearing the Forest Stewardship Council logo which tells you that the wood comes from a sustainable source.

Recycling is not a new idea. Since life began one species' waste has been used by another as a resource. This is known as the "closed resource loop of natural ecosystems and we are mimicking this whenever we re-use or recycle our waste.

• For further information please see the following web sites www.wwf-uk.org.uk

• www.greenpeace.org.uk

• www foe. co.uk

• www doc.mniu. ac.uk/ariclace/factsheets