| Teaser Text | Nostalgia and hindsight can be warming and difficult to handle in equal measure, and I have felt a little of both as I read this article from 1990. Recycling policy, services and performance have changed a great deal in the last decade, but how does this article on recycling service potential from 1990 stand the test of time?
The article details the experiences of Leeds in the late 1980s and its attempt to develop a blueprint that would revolutionise the recycling of household waste – namely the introduction of source segregation! The six-week trial across 100 households was a huge leap from the traditional bring recycling banks on offer, requiring residents to separate their wastes into a number of different containers to help identify the level of recyclable materials in the bin – on average 75 percent!
This “experiment” was a number of years ahead of its time, identifying the level of recyclables in the rubbish bin five years before the Conservative Government introduced its aspirational 25 percent recycling target, and recognising the value of waste composition studies to inform service design and delivery – something that most waste collection authorities do as a matter of course today. |
