Another go at recycling

The bins outside our flats are multiplying. Originally we had 3 big black bins, then 3 black and one purple for recycled rubbish. Then 2 black bins and 2 purple. Now 2 black, 2 purple and one small brown bucket marked food waste. Apart from the stupidity of the local authority leaving an unsecured small brown bucket for food waste (it will be gone within a week from the front of our east end flats) the issue of recycling as a practical reality has not been addressed well.

For example, we have already had a warning sticker put on the purple recycle bins saying non recyclable stuff had been put in and we should not do it again. Really! Our bins are outside the flat on a busy road. Anyone can and does put their rubbish in there. At best we can but hope that the fines start to come.

What I am unable to work out as of yet is why the government does not sort out this problem at source. It is simple. There is enough packing and materials now that can be recycled to warrant the government giving industry 5 years to change all packaging and goods to use recyclable materials only. There is little that goes into our bins which is not sourced from the supermarket. There is little in the supermarket which cannot be packaged in recyclable materials.

Take away the issue of having to work out what to recycle and what cannot be recycled and hey presto your landfill drops to almost zero. Maybe it is to simplistic, maybe naive but I would be happy to hear the reasons why this cannot be done if anyone has them.