20-Nov-2006
The Wrong sort of Paper
Well, I predicted it in my earlier blog entry - David Cameron's Diary: It's a Rubbish Tax and an even more Rubbish Idea - you are trapped into fines or fees whatever you do with your rubbish. One of these councils (Northamptonshire) is actually my own authority. It is now reported in the Daily Mail here that many councils will no longer accept shredded paper as a recycling material. This is despite all official advice that we must shred documents that could be used to launch an identity theft.
So, what is one to do with personal documents but still behave in a green way?
There is no question about stage 1 - you MUST always shred your personal documents before disposing of them, but......
Make sure that it is a cross-cut shredder - that means that it will cut the paper in two directions. Earlier shredders cut in single direction strips creating a reatively easy jigsaw puzzle for the determined identity hijacker. If you click on the picture or here, it will take you to Amazon where you can buy a decent shredder for your home.
Stage 2
Option (a) Provided you can set aside an area of your garden, then maybe you should do what I do and that is to compost my green waste - including non-coated paper (after all, it came from trees). Unfortunately, I had to buy a compost bin myself as my Local Authority is not one that provides compost bins as an alternative to roadside collection of compostable waste. This is a strange omission considering that this is an authority that refuses to recycle shredded paper and instead suggests that we compost it. ...... yet another demonstration of the lack of joined up thinking whereby different authorities will provide a composter either free, subsidised or not at all.
If you click on the above picture of a compost bin, you will be taken through to Greenfingers gardening site - this bin is available at £40 and I think represents good value (update - this carries extra value - the price is on sale at £30 at time of writing - 21 Nov 06), but do shop around - this is not a recommendation of Greenfingers as I have not used them before, but I looked and they had a few different types and costs to choose from.
Option (c) You can take small pieces of paper to paper banks - the processes used to recycle from those containers are quite different and shredded paper can be recycled this way.
Option (d) Make fuel briquettes to help start your barbeque - they can be made from paper mache and left to dry out.
Option (e) If all else fails, put it in your ordinary domestic waste - you have little choice by this point. It may not be too environmentally unfiendly provided your local authority operates an Energy Recovery Incineration system.
I hope that the above has helped in some way. If you want more information on recycling, here are a few places to look for extra ideas:
- http://www.recycle-more.co.uk/ - information
- http://www.actionaidrecycling.org.uk/ - recycle for charity
Please follow up with your own postings with recommendations for other useful sites, especially if it can lead to product re-use or charitable donations.
Labels: charity, composting, paper, recycle
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