Tuesday 14 June 2011

Wood that we could get rid of our political elite

The Daily Telegraph has a short article on the fact that bin collections are to remain on a fortnightly basis and the FT weighs in with an article by Jim Pickard, the latter a tad more illuminating on the subject.There is another article from the Daily Telegraph which contains a video of Les Deux Grandes Dames - aka Spelman and Flint - each spouting their own verbal waste. So with all this discussion about the problems of waste, the government's response is to produce an 80 page 'Review of Waste Policy in Engand'.

To update Jim Pickard's piece the intention to ban people from sending wood to landfill probably has its origin in some news put out towards the end of last year. In this webpage the EU states:
"Many wood panels, in particular particleboard, can be made from recovered wood. However, wood is not recovered as much as paper, due to its longer-term use and the fact it is disposed of more diffusely than the latter. To increase the recovery level of wood products, it is important to identify solutions to improve collection procedures and stimulate recovery among consumers and producers".
(now you didn't really think that La Spelman would have the original thought about recycling wood, did you? Really?)

Of course all this verbal waste about landfill is nothing but the usual vacuous utterances of our political elite who, in the first place fail to admit their hands are tied by Brussels; and who also fail to inform us that we extract more out of the ground than we put in*. Raedwald did a brilliant, informative post on this subject here


* As it is appears we have some spare capacity, perhaps we could dispose of the majority of our political elite?

Update: Douglas Carswell has posted on this subject to which I have commented (awaiting moderation) "Mr. C: According to  "They work for you", it would appear you have supported the government on every vote for which you were present? You may like to wander over to my place where you were the subject of one post - one that is crying out for your response? Many thanks."

4 comments:

PeterCharles said...

The most obvious trait of MPs is their sheer ignorance about almost everything outside of their personal experience and, it should be said, much within it.

This ignorance leaves them totally at the mercy of advisers and 'experts', people they seem to be extremely poor at choosing for some reason although I suspect it is because they only select people who agree with their own prejudices.

The result as we see every day is ridiculously underestimated costs, inappropriate systems being purchased and the wrong horses generally being backed.

Recycling is one of the big sacred cows of the moment, the value and correctness of it must not be contradicted.

But it is often more expensive to recycle than to make new and recycling of some items, glass is a good example, is highly marginal at the best of times, other things like aluminium are economically sensible to recycle while scrap iron and cans are of limited value, especially when collection, storage and sanitising is taken into account.

I have no idea whether the costs of recycling wood would make economic sense or not, nor I suspect do those who advocate it.

Another truth not often spoken is that if it wasn't for landfill charges virtually nothing other than aluminium from domestic sources would be economically viable to recycle.

Where I live we blessedly only have two bags, one for recyclables and one for landfill. For at least the last six months both bags have been collected and slung onto the landfill wagon. I am sure they don't separate them out once they arrive at the tip.

James Higham said...

* As it is appears we have some spare capacity, perhaps we could dispose of the majority of our political elite?

Yes but do they burn well?

Anonymous said...

We can get rid of them - rope, and gallows and Bob's your uncle! Sooner or later it's going to happen. I predict sooner.

David

WitteringsfromWitney said...

PC:Good points again. I seem to recall one report on recycling plastic which said that it only had a certain life at which point recycling became impossible. Presumably we then dump such plastic in the land?

If methane produces gas, then how about some methane recapturing plants and turning that into energy?

JH: Sure they do, but why create more CO2 - just bury the bastards.

A: I am trying to save the hemp for the 'crats etc!