Greener Scotland

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I think Scotland has it over us in the way they lay out their roads, and their use of the roundabout. Here's another way in which they are ahead: they are much better at the whole reduce, reuse, recycle movement than we are. I'm speaking in general terms here, of course, and I'm sure one can find outliers in each county. As a rule, though, it is just much, much easier here to be green.

The process of dealing with one's trash (always called rubbish here) basically requires one to recycle almost everything. The council of Fife issues four different rubbish bins to each home or flat: a green one for plastic and tin (aluminum too, though they don't use that word here too much, which is a shame because it's always fun to hear them pronounce it!), a grey one for paper and cardboard, a brown one for food and garden waste, and finally a wee blue one for the remainder. This blue one is the smallest of course, and with the recycling "scheme" they have put forth, one really shouldn't have too much left to put in this last one. Also, though rubbish day comes once a week, they alternate what they pick up when, and they only collect the blue one every other week. That means that one really does have to be stingy with what one discards in this bin, because after it's discarded it's going to stick around for a while. The council places stickers on top of each bin to explain what can and can't be discarded, and the council also issues fines if an item is placed in the wrong bin. All in all, it's a system that is clearly working well. In 2010, the Scottish government set forth a "Zero Waste Plan" and tasked council with recycling or composting 50% of household waste by 2013. I think they missed that mark by just a bit, but at this point the recycling rate is about 43%, certainly much higher than the rate of recycling in the United States.

The bins outside our house. Notice the blue one, for general rubbish, is about half the size of the others. Thank you for NOT noticing the disgusting mold in the corner, by the way...

A sticker one top of one the bins directing the user, in a typically polite British way, what to put in the bin and what not to put in the bin. Yes, please, to tabloid magazines, but no thanks to sweet and crisp wrappers (which, by the way, is referring to certain foods here. Despite the implication here, wrappers do not come in varying flavors or textures, so not to worry...).

Not only are they recycling more of what they bring home, but they aren't bringing home as much to throw away as we are in the first place. When you purchase something from a store here, they never give you a bag to put it in. They do ask if you need a bag, and if you do they will gladly sell you one. Most stores have durable, reusable shopping bags "on offer" like they do in the U.S., and most folks have a decent collection of those in the boot of their cars and their homes, etc. But they also sell thin plastic shopping bags, meant for only a few shopping trips, for about 5 pence each. It's rare to see anyone buy one, because most people here are also equipped with a foldaway shopper bag in their pocket or purse or wherever. I saw a number of people with these in the first few weeks we were here, and so I bought the one below for myself and one for Emma. It comes with a wee case and so when it's not in use, one can stuff it back into the case so that it takes up almost no room. This thing is rarely in the case, though, and I find that I am using it all the time, at the grocery store, the drug store, the vegetable store, etc. Yesterday I popped into town to return some library books (carrying them in this bag), and on the way home I stopped for a bit of cheese at the cheese shop in town. The woman at the shop took my money, gave me my change and the wax-paper wrapped bit of cheese, and in it went in the bottom of the bag. A few stores down, I stopped at the bakery for a baguette, and after that transaction the baguette went into the bag as well. At the end of the street, I stopped into a little produce shop that sells a different soup kit each week. This is a printed recipe for a vegetarian soup and all the vegetables that one would need to make it. This week's soup was sweet chili and swede, and so along with the printed recipe, an onion, a red pepper, a chili pepper, a half of a swede and a few cloves of garlic, plus a vegetable stock cube, went into the bag. By the time I got home, I had the fixings for dinner, and aside from the wax paper that covered the cheese, I didn't have a single bit of rubbish to throw away. Imagine how much rubbish I would have after a quick trip to the supermarket in the United States to gather items for a family dinner!