What does this mean. Does it mean that “Birmingham is total rubbish” – in other words, Birmingham is an awful place and no sane person would like to live in Birmingham or visit the city?

　　Happily, it does not mean that. “Birmingham’s total rubbish …” is the beginning of a sentence about rubbish in Birmingham. On the other side of the card, there are facts and figures about how much rubbish each of us produces, and what happens to it.

　　Let’s start with some vocabulary. Every day, we throw things away that we do not need any more. We call this “rubbish” or “waste” or “refuse”. In America, they call it “garbage”. Rubbish that comes from people’s homes is called “household waste”. If it comes from shops, offices, restaurants etc, it is called “commercial waste”. And if it comes from factories, it is called “industrial waste”. In England, it is very common for people to put their household waste into big black plastic bags. Once a week, or once a fortnight, you put your plastic bags outside your house, and the local authority collects them. But some people, especially people who live in flats, put their waste into a large plastic container, about 1.50 meters tall. The container has a lid on the top, and wheels on the bottom. There is probably a proper, official name for these containers, but everyone calls them “wheelie bins” (because they have wheels on the bottom!) There is probably also a proper, official name for the wonderful people who collect the plastic bags, and empty the wheelie bins, but everyone actually calls them the “bin men”.

　　A lot of the things that we throw out can be recycled, that means, they can be used again. We can use waste paper to make new paper. We can use aluminium drinks cans to make new cans. And some things that we throw out, such as old batteries or fridges, contain materials which can damage the environment, so it is good if we do not put them in the general rubbish. The local authority therefore encourages us to separate paper, cardboard, cans, tins and plastic bottles from the rest of our rubbish so that they can be recycled. And what happens to our waste after it has been collected? In Birmingham, the paper and cardboard is taken to a factory just north of the city centre, where it is turned into new cardboard packaging. There are also factories not far from Birmingham which take recycled glass, cans and plastics. And the rest of our household waste goes to a modern incinerator in the south of Birmingham, where it is burnt at a high temperature. The heat from the incinerator is used to generate electricity, and some of the ash can be used in the building industry.

　　That is the good side of the story. The bad side is that we do not recycle very much. In Birmingham, we recycle only 20% of household waste. This is much better than a few years ago, but a lot worse than many other towns in England. And in comparison with other European countries, our recycling rates in England are very poor. In Belgium and Austria, for example, well over half of all household waste is recycled. We still live in a society where it is normal to throw things away without thinking about how to re-use them. How can we persuade people to recycle more? Our government has suggested that people should pay for every kilo of rubbish that they produce and do not recycle. They have also said that fortnightly rubbish collections, instead of weekly collections, may encourage people to recycle. However, these ideas are controversial. It is easy to see the problems and difficulties in them, and less easy to see the solutions to the problems. It will not be easy to change people’s behaviour. But equally we cannot go on throwing things away as we do at present.