Forest BB

In the last couple of meetings we talked about getting another recycling bin upstairs, so that glass could be sorted from packaging at the source, instead of having to sort through it a few days later when everything is nicely fermented...

However, I haven't come up with any good way of doing this. I wanted to move the bin behind the counter where the useless rolling cabinet lives, but Ryan pointed out that the people need access to it, as well as the recycling.

Any ideas?

There are a few empty crates which live at the bottom of the stairs.
We could make sure there is always one beside the recycling bin and encourage people to put empty bottles in them.
It would be nice if folk emptied the dregs out of their bottles and cans before binning/crating them. Could we have a larger recepticle under the drinking water tap for that purpose?

These are both good ideas, but I'd question how much people would make use of the opportunity to do stuff better. I used to always leave a crate or two for bottles, yet people would often completely ignore them and put their bottle in with the other stuff. Also, the crates get in the way quite a lot.

I suggest that if the recycling situation is to be improved, we need an allocated space that is slighty bigger than what we have already, and some really clear instructions that spell out in big letters how things should be done.

eg:

EMPTY DREGS HERE
PLACE EMPTY BOTTLES HERE
PLACE CRUSHED TINS/CANS AND PLASTIC BOTTLES HERE

etc.

The only way I can imagine we could have the space would be to remove the wall next to where the recycling currently sits (in the entrance to the kitchen) and open up the space under the soup urns for a dreg-hole and buckets/crates/whatever.

Also, in an ideal world, the paper bin would be clearly labelled and accessible to all, instead of being under the till where only volunteers can use it and it is sometimes mistaken for a normal rubbish bin.

It's not like me to be pessimistic, but I think we're lucky that people put recycling in the bins at all. If we're gonna seperate it at all I second the fact we need to really make it clear, obvious and patronising. Maybe?

Then again, given the opportunity and something more systematic than sticking it all in one bin, people may make a bit more of an effort.

Hmmmm..who knows! Alex*