I honestly think we need to re-examine our waste policy and not leave it to local councils. Why, because they all come up with different solutions to the same problem and different solutions cost more and lose the benefits of economy of scale. Each council employs the same consultants who basically do the same work and come up with the same conclusions. Why not do this work once and pay once? We need a national policy that eveyone understands. I find it is just too difficult deciding whether a particular plastic bottle can go in the recycling so it tends to go in to general rubbish (land fill) and I have driven past one of those often enough for it to annoy me. Changes are also not communicated well. For instance, it used to be that, in West Lothian, we could not recycle Tetra-Paks but it appears that we can though there is nothing explicit to say so. Should labels be taken off glass jars? Who knows? Certainly there is no advice anywhere.
The solution is probably quite simple. There should be 4 categories of rubbish; Dry, Organic, Glass & Other. Councils will collect organic every week so it doesn’t form a health hazard, ‘Other’ and ‘Dry’ every two weeks alternately. Glass should taken to a bottle bank. ‘Dry’ is anything that is solid (unbreakable) and will dry. It can be sorted and the recycler decides what can be recycled. This then can include electronics, batteries, clothes, etc. It does mean that it should not be crushed when collected to make sorting easier. Breakable items should be left next to the bin to be loaded carefully to aid recycling. ‘Other’ is things like nappies, used kitchen roll, and other waste that cannot be recycled. In Vessel Composting can deal with all organic matter even meat and dairy and it produces useable products. The trick is to power public buildings by the methane produced and sell the fertilizer back to the public.
This solution makes it simple for the household, will reduce Methane from rotting food in landfill, as well as reducing the total volume of waste in landfill sites. If it is simple for the householder to do then they will do it. Of course, including German type fines for not doing it properly with encourage even more to do it!