Action Briefing Oct 2005 - Nov 2005
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

We are (nearly) all recycling guinea pigs now

Birmingham City Council is experimenting with multi-materials household recycling. A pilot kerbside recycling collection scheme, covering the Quinton and Kings Heath areas, started the week beginning 19th September and will continue "until the money runs out".

Green recycling boxes have been distributed to 10,000 households, half of whom will receive a weekly, the other a fortnightly, collection of glass bottles and jars, steel/tin cans, aluminium cans, and plastic bottles "squashed with tops on".

The pilot is certainly welcome, but it's not the kerbside-sorted collection we had been promised. Instead, it appears that the materials are being 'co-collected' in a standard refuse lorry for sorting at a materials reclamation facility (MRF) in Darwin, Lancashire (although the sorting operation may be moved to a site nearer to Birmingham if the pilot is a success). Kerbside-sorted materials are generally higher quality and fetch a greater re-sale value than co-collected materials.

Thank you to everyone who has contacted us so far to share their experiences of being a recycling guinea pig. We're very interested in your experiences of the scheme, so if you live in one of the target areas, please get in touch. Did you get clear information on what you could put in the box? Have you seen the collection in progress, and was it working well?

Call Kate Nancarrow or Andy Pryke (via Maud) on 0121 632 6909 or e-mail info@birminghamfoe.org.uk. The Council hotline for enquiries about the scheme is 0121 303 5446.

Andy Pryke