England is about to get a bit more smelly. That’s because Coalition plans set out yesterday have dictated that every home will soon need to use a slopbucket. This is certainly the most radical of the many “green” plans that are being promoted by Environmental Secretary Caroline Spelman.
Mrs. Spelman has certainly changed her tune. Just last year, she said, “The Government has no plans to force households to put food into slopbuckets.”
Slopbucket Declarations
The slopbucket declaration is part of the long-anticipated Waste Review, part of the package whose goal is to make themselves the “greenest ever” government.
Along with the slopbucket plan, Mrs. Spelman’s overall plan also includes convincing manufacturers and producers to limit their packaging and asking families to refrain from throwing away uneaten foods. She is also encouraging the use of litter bins for recycling.
Opposition Frustration
The government is not, however, any longer promising to have weekly bin collections, much to the opposition’s frustration. Mrs. Spelman said, in response to this criticism, “In Opposition you don’t have a chance to see the Government’s books. You don’t see how much the Government is overspent. When we came in we found the situation was worse than we thought. I think people will understand that.”
Rather than installing a weekly collection of all waste, Mrs. Spelman has proposed that they have “smelly waste” collected separately from other waste and then have that waste used in a recycling project.
Wary of the New Measures
While the review acknowledged that slopbuckets are quite unpopular, they offered creative ways to use them including composting, at-sink disposal units and more. They also said that they are proposing that local “bin police” will be able to slop on-the-spot fines of about £75 to £110 on those who don’t comply.
Certainly, many in England are wary of these new measures. In Newcastle-under-Lyme, for instance, they are already following very strict recycling rules and are juggling nine separate bins! Certainly, for those who live in apartment buildings or other locations without gardens, these bins have become a nightmare.