Following his pronouncement that all householders would have to use a slop bucket for food waste or face punitive fines, the son of the former Lord Stansgate made a hasty U-turn and thankfully withdrew the ridiculous proposal.
The volte-face comes just days after Mr Benn executed a perfect U-turn on the proposal that all dog owners would have to insure their pets and have them microchipped. There was even suggestions that owners would have to undergo compulsory hound training and suitability tests before being allowed to take ownership of a pooch.
Yesterday, speaking at 8am at a London recycling plant, Mr Benn proclaimed: ‘The vast majority of people will say, “Yes, we don't want this stuff to go into landfill, we want to play our part so we can get the value out, help reduce some of the costs, save the planet and re-use materials.”’
No… I’ve never heard a normal person talk to themselves in that way either.
However, by lunchtime, when Hilary’s consultation paper was made public, the minister had changed his mind. The paper said: The intention is that any obligation to sort would fall primarily on the waste collection authority.
It’s hard to imagine anyone working for a local authority being prepared to comb through our rubbish bins and separate half-eaten apples and odd scraps of food in order to achieve Mr Benn’s targets. Mind you, it would be fun to see them try!
I don't see why the councils can't introduce it as voluntary - if they provide us with another bin most of us would use it. I think it should be collected at least once a week though or it would stink.
ReplyDeletePersuasion is always better than compulsion. Thankfully we hardly have any food scraps to throw out as we never cook too much or waste food.
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon all.
ReplyDeleteWe too are a household of minimum waste - we buy locally organically grown stuff from the farmers' market and try to re-cycle as much as possible. Even our local Sainsbuggers now has a bin for recyling batteries.
However, any more nonsense and I will be compelled to start throwing un-mentionables from cats' latrines - Mr Benn please take a note!
Happy Friday to all (apologies for lavatorial comment - blame Type A personality - get wound up quite quickly!).
Best regards, Cats' Mother
Prawns on the menu this evening, I trust?
ReplyDeleteNot too many waste food scraps for us either. Peelings go in the compost and cooked waste goes in the unmentionable pet which has no insurance xxx And at 13 with cataracts, bad hips a collapsable knee would be highly unlikely to get any. Phew was I relieved and sleeping easier when they changed their minds about these laws !!! :) If I wrote this in italics would it convey my sarcasm?
ReplyDeleteWhere I live 75% of waste going into landfill is construction related. What did council do? They insisted that the public responsible for the remaining 25%, table scraps etc., undertake an expensive bin program. I suppose it's just easier to screw the public over.
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