Comments from Our Waste Round Table Dicussion

Last week, we held a round table discussion with the Chamberlain Forum including representatives from residents' groups and community recyclers to talk about the issues of waste in Birmingham connected to our campaign to Halve Rubbish.

During the discussion, people were invited to put their thoughts onto post-it notes, in a similar way to how people might be tweeting comments in other meetings. They were collected and written up afterwards to provide an interesting snapshot of the thoughts of the participants, so here they are:

• Zero Carbon FC. What do they do with the rubbish from playing fields?

• ‘Nature’ is good at recycling.

• A Birmingham Problem?

• Success story on paper.

‘Rubbish Capital of the Midlands’ – Incinerator strategy.

• Rats because of the way we deal with waste.

• Hidden cost of waste includes fires/fire service.

• Fires of rubbish – how much could the fire service save per year without them?

• Waste is co-produced.

• Waste = Misplaced resources.

• Bikes are incinerated when they go to HRCs! That’s crazy. How many other useful things?

• Rubbish is mixed up waste.

• Litter is rubbish that is scattered.

• There is always waste, what matters is what we do with it.

• ‘System’ puts stuff in the wrong place.

• Separation is the key.

• “Compost is the most valuable resource in the world”. Proper job.

• Council can make it easy or make it difficult for communities to recycle.

• Decentralise: lots of little local solutions – avoid ‘grand plans’.

• What is the optimum number of AD plants for Bham?

• Council could help by providing sites for community recycling in town centres. How can this be facilitated?

• Legislation to prohibit recyclable products (food waste, cardboard etc) in landfill will stimulate the need for recycling. Is this imminent?

• Local Green Fund – get people in Bham to put money in! £40 per person will do it!

• No point exchanging nuisance social problem with a bigger one of deprivation. Economic development is the key.