Glass
Half of all respondents said they would not be willing to bring their glass to a recycling point instead of it being collected at the kerbside if this provided a more efficient collection system and saved the council money (and if more recycling points were provided). Forty three percent said they would be willing to do so, and 7% neither agreed nor disagreed, meaning that half of respondents did not disagree with taking their glass to a recycling point.
There was no difference in response by property type i.e. respondents were not more likely to agree or disagree with taking their glass to a recycling point depending on the type of property they lived in. Those in the age ranges 21- 44 were more likely to disagree with taking glass to a bring site, while those aged 55 and over were more likely to agree to this. Residents were equally likely to agree or disagree no matter how many household members they had, with the exception of those households with five members where 62% disagreed with taking glass to a recycling point.
Two recycling bins
Most respondents (82%) agreed they were willing to have two separate recycling bins (one for paper and card, and one for glass, cans and plastic bottles and tubs), if this saved the council a significant amount of money. Fifteen percent of respondents did not agree with having two recycling bins, with the most common reason being that people had no room for another bin (56%); 27% had room but did not want another bin. Other reasons given include:
- Do not want any more internal bins (to sort waste in kitchen/garage)
- System is fine as it is, don’t want a more complex system
- Do not have time / want to sort recycling into different bins
- Already doing my bit
- Buying more bins would be expensive / don’t understand how new system would save money
- Do not have enough recycling to fill two bins
Property type, number of household residents nor age seemed to influence whether respondents agreed or disagreed with having a second bin (accepting glass), except for those in flatted properties where 30% of respondents disagreed with having another bin.
Of those that agreed they would be willing to have two recycling bins, just over half of respondents said they would be willing to have two recycling bins and bring their glass to a recycling point; this equates to 43% of the total respondents being willing to have two recycling bins and take their glass to a bring site.
Food waste
Eleven percent of respondents did not have the service in their area. Of those that did, 55% said they recycle all their food waste. A further 8% said they recycled their food waste regularly and 7% did so sometimes.
Of the 30% who never use the service, more than half said they don’t have much food waste, and many said they thought the food waste would smell. Thirteen percent give their food waste to their pets and seven percent did not have a caddy. The main other reasons given by residents for not using their caddy were they composted their food waste or were worried the caddy would attract flies or vermin.
The number of residents in a property did not appear to influence how likely a household is to use the food waste service. Those who lived in terraced houses or flats were least likely to recycle their food waste (45% and 36% respectively never do so) and 42% of those aged 21-44 don’t use their caddy.