Into Transition
by Dee Fisher
Spurred on by Dee’s tales of recycling with her neighbours in Boxmoor, we decided to try out the idea on the Manor Estate in November 2010. Pinning notices on lamposts, telling others at litter picks, and writing in our residents’ association newsletter, we gradually spread the word. Out of the shadows the recyclers emerged, dropping their cartons at our door. They are juice drinkers, soup sippers, custard consumers – this much their evidence tells us. Thankfully, these mystery visitors are on the whole well behaved, and their cartons arrive rinsed and flattened. Over one year on, our intake has doubled, and we now take two black bin liners full of tetrapaks to the dump at Eastman Way every month. Have our mystery recyclers doubled in number, or are they just consuming twice as much?
Part III: Making a Difference in Boxmoor
by Dee Fisher
Here are just some of the things that we’ve done in Boxmoor. I am one of our growing number of HiT’s neighbourhood recyclers. I collect tin foil, tetra pak, batteries, and water cartridges on my doorstep and take them up to the tip. Anyone passing 8 Halwick Close, is welcome to drop off tin foil in the ‘grey’ bin for recycling.
You can do the same at the house of another Boxmoor transitioner, at 65 St John’s Rd and 81 Cowper Rd, where you’ll find bins for foil and tetrapak – but please wash and flatten before you drop it off!
I’ve talked to shops in Boxmoor too. At Parrys Newsagents Boxmoor, Jane is happy to have a collection box for batteries in her shop, so you can drop your batteries off when you pick up your paper. I pick them up from there.
On 18/10/11 I took 14 kgms of batteries up to the tip (10 kgs from Parrys and 4 kgs from my doorstep collection box).
Richard from Boxmoor Framers said, “I recycle where he can rather than put it in landfill sites – I pass off cuts of board on to local schools, and use paper bags instead of plastic bags”.
As my friend Den Hudson once said to her son, “one bottle top on its own might not make a difference but if the whole street collect them – it certainly does”!
