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Grey/Black Bin (Residual Waste) |
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Wastes that are not collected through the Tri-Cycle Scheme or cannot be recycled at a Council HRC |
Waste collected in your Grey/Black bin is sent to landfill. Landfill sites are considered bad for the environment and unsustainable. You should therefore reduce the amount of waste you put into your Grey/Black bin.
The purpose of a landfill is to bury the waste in such a way that it will be isolated from groundwater, will be kept dry and will not be in contact with air. Under these conditions, waste will not decompose much. A landfill is not like a compost pile, where the purpose is to bury waste in such a way that it will decompose quickly. Waste put in a landfill will stay there for a very long time. Inside a landfill, there is little oxygen and little moisture. Under these conditions, waste does not break down very rapidly. In fact, when old landfills have been excavated or sampled, 40-year-old newspapers have been found with easily readable print. Landfills are not designed to break down waste, merely to bury it. When a landfill closes, the site, especially the groundwater, must be monitored and maintained for up to 30 years! When we throw rubbish "away," it just goes somewhere else.
Landfills are not only bad for the environment, but they permanently remove various raw materials from economic use. All of the energy and natural resources (such as water) that were used to produce the items "wasted" are lost. This loss is said to contribute to damage of forests and agricultural areas, including in less-developed countries that derive a majority of their export revenues from raw materials. However, recycled materials compete in the marketplace with new materials.
