Birmingham recycling, is it on the increase?

• Feb. 23 by Rebekah Douglas (1)

Recycling is on the increase as the door step collection service has reached over 20,000 homes in Birmingham. The city council are encouraging locals to start taking care of the environment and have suggested that almost all housing in Birmingham will be provided with the service by the end of the year.

Recycling is one of the best ways for the country to keep on top of all the waste.

RWM aka. Recycling and Waste Management exhibition are a company who organise exhibitions of art work that is made entirely from recycled materials. Their website www.rwmexhibition.com post news and updates concerning waste and recycling and news on their exhibitions.

An article posted by RWM states,

‘Regulation drives recycling and many would argue is key to the growth of our industry. But staying one step ahead of the increasingly complex world of green legislation is an ongoing challenge. Unless you have a legal qualification, your best chance is to take advantage of all the free information sources available to you via the web, your network and industry events like RWM.’

http://www.theenvironmentsite.org/forum/waste-recycling-forum/15343-you-interested-helping-waste-recycling-music-festivals-like-bonnaroo.html

In this time of economic crisis it may be worth while looking into working in the recycling industry. Clean vibes, the event waste and recycling team, is a company that are now taking on people for paid and voluntary work to clean up the UK!

A post on the BBC news website claims that supermarkets are hindering the success of recycling as they are the largest package producers in retail,

‘UK Supermarkets produce too much packaging, almost 40% of which is non-recyclable, local councils say.’

‘The local Government Association survey says supermarkets should pay towards the collection of their packaging as an incentive to cut back.’

http://blog.emap.com/rwm/2009/01/08/rwm-will-provide-a-welcome-opportunity-to-be-positive-in-2009/

Recycling in Birmingham shows signs of improving. The Birmingham City Council website states,

‘This collects paper and card from your blue box and glass, cans and plastic bottles from your green box every fortnight. On alternate weeks we collect your green sack containing garden waste. We hope to roll out the full service to everyone by the end of this year.’

However I can say from personal experience that I know this has not caught on everywhere as I do not have recycling facilities at my rented house in Edgbaston at this moment in time.

As the council have promised to provide everyone with the service, I assume that I will be helping the environment recycle later on in the year!

For housing which has not yet been given the door step collection like mine, there are five household recycling centres located around the city and many other recycle bins located in different areas.

For more information on how to recycle or to find out locations of recycling centres, visit:

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/recycling.bcc