Recycling Right?

We should all know what we can put in our household recycling bin. Yet most of us would still be surprised by what you can't.

Sometimes that lack of knowledge can have devastating consequences. Last year, a fire broke out at the Kingsway waste depot which caused so much damage that some of the fire-ravaged work spaces are still out of service. Thankfully, no-one was injured. An investigation into the cause of the blaze is ongoing, although it is suspected that it was sparked by a used battery. Batteries should never be disposed of in your green and black bins. For safe disposal, take them to your nearest tidy tip at Progress Way or Eaton Green Road. Alternatively, ask your local supermarkets if they have dead battery bins – many now do.

Destroying the notion that our household recycling waste is magically dealt with by a wave of a wizard's wand as soon as it lands at Kingsway's waste and recycling plant still seems to present a challenge.

Charging up Luton!

The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to get back to its original state. So contamination is a key word to remember when you are deciding whether your waste items are recyclable or non-recyclable.

For example; the UK pizza market is estimated to be worth around £5 billion each year. That's a lot of dough, both ways you look at it. Around 80 per cent of those pizzas consumed are home delivered, usually in cardboard boxes. After you've munched through all that mozzarella, putting that packaging with the pizza-sized grease stain in your green recycling bin is actually the wrong thing to do. At the recycling processing plant, the oily box will be rejected and removed.

Here's a tip; tear the stained half of the box off first so that the rest can be recycled.

Recyclable bottles and plastic cartons should be treated the same. No rinse could mean no recycle.

Yet public enemy number one at the recycling plant is the humble black bin bag. You've gone to all that trouble to collect your rinsed recyclables in one place but, if the contents are obscured because they are bagged, then they are hauled out of the processing machinery and discarded with normal rubbish. What a waste!

Clear recycling sacks are acceptable as the plant workers can see what is inside them, yet the recycling of items is so more efficient if they are loose. Then you can fit more in your bin.

Bragging Routes

Following the adoption of its Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Strategy, the council held its first supplier engagement event, marking the first step in Luton’s journey to scale up the number of chargepoints in the town. Supported by the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure funding, the ambition is to increase the number of publically available chargepoints from 45 to over 200, by 2025. This will mean residents without driveways are still able to charge their personal electric vehicle.

Nearly three quarters of respondents were in support of plans to improve cycling and walking schemes in the town and help make active travel the natural choice for local journeys. Feedback to the recent survey revealed what people considered to be the most important cycling and walking corridors. The council will now work on designing the schemes.