DWI Recycle meeting 27th Sept

We had Brian Rumbelow from Dover District Council to speak to engaged audience of about twenty tonight at the Deal With It monthly meeting on the Council's new collection and recycling contract.

There has been a lot local comment on the scheme which has been understandably focussed on the practicalities of the 'wheelie bin' rather than the positive step to reduce our waste going to landfill. Brian gave us some good information on the positive recycling levels achieved in Shepway (it is a joint contract with DDC) in the last few weeks.

A lively set of  questions on the scheme and how we need to go beyond just recycling and look at reuse 'waste' and reduce our consumption. See details at DDC website

Amber Bytheway also spoke on her national petition campaign to stop the use of plastic bags and what happening locally - she is approaching several of the large supermarkets to take up her initative (if you have not signed please follow the link here)

Support Amber's campaign to ban the bag...

Deal's Amber Bytheway has launched a National E-Gov petition to ban the use of plastic bags - You can help make this a reality - Amber needs 100,000 supporters in the next 12 months:

Banish the Plastic Bags

17 billion plastic bags a year are given to British consumers. The average Briton accepts 5 times a weeks. 200 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide and 10% ends up in the ocean. When plastic bags get into the ocean they can entangle, suffocate and even kill marine animals. Plastic doesn't biodegrade, it just breaks up into smaller pieces. The number of plastic bags issued by UK supermarkets in the past year has risen by 333 million. Plastic bags are becoming a big problem and there are better solutions! Instead we should have reusable cotton bags/recyclable paper bags/biodegradable starch based bags. Banish the bags and go with reusable/biodegradable ones instead! If we want to cut the amount of waste sent to landfill this is the big step forward...

You can sign the petition here  at the Government E-Petition site