Friday 5 May 2017

People really are rubbish, so organisations must change

The Castle Leisure Centre opened at Elephant and Castle last year and I have been to the pool there many days this year. There are bins throughout the centre, with recycling ones next to general waste bins. I've been amazed over the months at the failure of people to sort their rubbish. Those people who bother to put empty shampoo or water  bottles in the bin seem to do this randomly, about half go in the bin labelled plastics and half in the general waste bin adjacent.

At Taunton station last week I saw the clearest attempt I have seen yet to help people simply sort their rubbish.
Every waste bin has one recycling bin adjoining it, and clear directions are given on what to put where should you be in doubt. 
  Look inside the bins though and you can see that people just don't care at all. There is no appetite amongst consumers to take the tiniest step to sorting their rubbish. They just bung it in a random bin or drop it on the platform.


I can't see any other option than to transfer legal responsibility to the manufacturers and retailers to resolve the waste problem their products create, and so what if it means they must pay people, either directly or via taxation, to sort the waste. The businesses will also need to pay for the cost of enforcement, with significant penalties for non-compliance.