Thursday, May 21, 2009
Voted, and what came with the ballot paper.
The postal ballot paper came this morning (Thursday 21st) and is already (as of 12.30) back completed at Civic Offices. It is possible that the party is massively in the lead in the South-East Euro-Elections at this point. The long ballot paper looks quite tatty actually, black on yellow in this case, and the party symbols are rather similar looking blobs. The Tory Tree without the colour coding is frankly pathetic. Once you find it the Labour Rose looks like a rose if you really study it for a minute, but you have to find Labour first before you realise that the symbol is for Labour and of course it is The Labour so it is down amongst the Ts party-wise.
The Bird of Liberty does stand out from most of the others and may be a familiar enough sight to attract the eye for many to where our party is listed.
The plum positions of course for the donkey vote are BNP (top spot) and UKIP (bottom spot). UKIP symbol probably the most distinctive again.
For my bit of MK the ballot paper arrived in the same post as a LibDem Euro-election leaflet and a couple of days after a FOCUS went out with the Euro-Election back page. Another booster was that the news on TV as I opened the envelope was of the Gurkha decision (hurrah). Downer of course is that the other news on TV was of the Rennard resignation. Sad day to pick for such a move, the day when postal ballots arrive on doorsteps.
Also in the same post a letter from MK Council announcing the rollout of the new Green Waste collection arrangements. It is possible that some residents will recall this is the fruit of years of work by MK LibDems in control of the relevant cabinet positions.
Briefly Milton Keynes will now have weekly collections of:
1 General waste in black sacks
2 Recyclable dry waste in pink sacks
3 Domestic food waste in new tight-seal containers, which will deter rats when put out
4 Green garden waste in green wheely bins
The domestic food waste will be treated as a raw material for agricultural products.
Let's see how all that works out!
Oh and Ryan the cheque will be in the post this evening.
The Bird of Liberty does stand out from most of the others and may be a familiar enough sight to attract the eye for many to where our party is listed.
The plum positions of course for the donkey vote are BNP (top spot) and UKIP (bottom spot). UKIP symbol probably the most distinctive again.
For my bit of MK the ballot paper arrived in the same post as a LibDem Euro-election leaflet and a couple of days after a FOCUS went out with the Euro-Election back page. Another booster was that the news on TV as I opened the envelope was of the Gurkha decision (hurrah). Downer of course is that the other news on TV was of the Rennard resignation. Sad day to pick for such a move, the day when postal ballots arrive on doorsteps.
Also in the same post a letter from MK Council announcing the rollout of the new Green Waste collection arrangements. It is possible that some residents will recall this is the fruit of years of work by MK LibDems in control of the relevant cabinet positions.
Briefly Milton Keynes will now have weekly collections of:
1 General waste in black sacks
2 Recyclable dry waste in pink sacks
3 Domestic food waste in new tight-seal containers, which will deter rats when put out
4 Green garden waste in green wheely bins
The domestic food waste will be treated as a raw material for agricultural products.
Let's see how all that works out!
Oh and Ryan the cheque will be in the post this evening.
Labels: Chris Rennard, euro elections, Milton Keynes, recycling, voting
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Friday, July 27, 2007
TetraPacks: A bigger problem for recycling than the 'weeky or not' row.
The next big recycling problem is almost upon us – Tetra Packs and similar cartons, and even more so the new compact pouches originally developed to hold US military rations.
Cans and glass jars are due for a steep decline as supermarkets make more and more use of the pouches–and that will change the whole balance of the waste disposal cycle. If we don’t get a grip on this change before The Market leads us into it we will find ourselves with a massive increase in landfill flow and greatly increased costs to the taxpayer.
Most areas do not have facilities for recycling Tetra Packs, something which the TP company commendably tries to tackle. It has a website with lots of links, notes on policy initiatives and a call on the public to contact their local authorities if they do not have TetraPack recycling facilities locally. Unfortunately things are not quite the way described on the website… for example the only facility in the UK capable of dealing with tetrapack-type waste has just closed down so all material needs to be exported to European facilities. And there are real practical problems with the solutions suggested on the web.
However a number of new Pack Collection Bins are due to be opened for business on 31st July across the UK in various authorities. These are provided free by Tetrapack. Keep an eye out for these, and do note how well they are administered. As with all these central collection facilities (outside supermarkets for example) a key question is how often the bins are cleared. There are a lot of packs out there and overflowing bins would be a real public nuisance.
The use of these packs for fruit juices and smoothies has resulted in a big jump in this waste flow – but the big big impact will come with the new pouches. These are the snip-the-top, stand-up-in-the-microwave packs. For things like cook-in sauces, soups, and similar foods now sold in cans or jars, they represent a huge attraction for the shops as they are much easier to store and display. Plus, a whole new range of prepared dishes are emerging in this new packaging. Market forces are selecting this as the first cycle of costs and benefits shows clear cost and handling convenience pluses for producers, retailers and shoppers. But the choices freely made in this cycle lead to big costs in the next round. We need to think about this carefully…
Cans and glass jars are due for a steep decline as supermarkets make more and more use of the pouches–and that will change the whole balance of the waste disposal cycle. If we don’t get a grip on this change before The Market leads us into it we will find ourselves with a massive increase in landfill flow and greatly increased costs to the taxpayer.
Most areas do not have facilities for recycling Tetra Packs, something which the TP company commendably tries to tackle. It has a website with lots of links, notes on policy initiatives and a call on the public to contact their local authorities if they do not have TetraPack recycling facilities locally. Unfortunately things are not quite the way described on the website… for example the only facility in the UK capable of dealing with tetrapack-type waste has just closed down so all material needs to be exported to European facilities. And there are real practical problems with the solutions suggested on the web.
However a number of new Pack Collection Bins are due to be opened for business on 31st July across the UK in various authorities. These are provided free by Tetrapack. Keep an eye out for these, and do note how well they are administered. As with all these central collection facilities (outside supermarkets for example) a key question is how often the bins are cleared. There are a lot of packs out there and overflowing bins would be a real public nuisance.
The use of these packs for fruit juices and smoothies has resulted in a big jump in this waste flow – but the big big impact will come with the new pouches. These are the snip-the-top, stand-up-in-the-microwave packs. For things like cook-in sauces, soups, and similar foods now sold in cans or jars, they represent a huge attraction for the shops as they are much easier to store and display. Plus, a whole new range of prepared dishes are emerging in this new packaging. Market forces are selecting this as the first cycle of costs and benefits shows clear cost and handling convenience pluses for producers, retailers and shoppers. But the choices freely made in this cycle lead to big costs in the next round. We need to think about this carefully…
Labels: recycling
Comments:
In addition to tetra-packs, no one really in our local council seems to be grasping the issue of recycling cardboard packing - not the corrigated stuff, just the thing that wraps around a ready meal,fish-fingers,etc. Why have they been able to do this for over 15 years in Australia, but not here...???
# posted by 
: 7:18 pm, July 27, 2007
: 7:18 pm, July 27, 2007
The pouches that I've seen seem to be much smaller and lighter than the equivalent capacity jars and cartons. Surely then, this is a reduction in packaging which is even better than recycling - and something to be cheered, not bemoaned.
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