Return of the rag and bone man

[Kieran]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... ement.html

"Suez Environnement, the owner of Sita UK, is trying out the new horse-drawn bin lorries in cities across France - saving petrol money and therefore carbon dioxide emissions.
The company, which collects the bins for 62 UK councils, said initial data from the regions shows that people are recycling 15pc to 17pc more waste than before, as they are reminded of the need to be eco-friendly.
"It seems as though the mere presence of horses makes households think and act with more of an environmental conscience," a spokesman said."

Article continues...

[featherstick]

Oooh - gardeners will be happy - lots of horse manure.

[Baldybloke]

The brewery here still delivers beer to the town's pubs with horse drawn drays. And yes the roses are doing fine.

[JohnB]

Oooh - gardeners will be happy - lots of horse manure.

It would probably be controlled waste, and need to go to landfill .

[rue_d_etropal]

Sita run our local tip/landfill. Wonder if they will try it over here. In fact it was suggested that a local horse centre would supply horses to pull a wagon to collect cardborad, which would then be shredded and sold for horse bedding.
Although it sounds a very good eco idea, I have some concerns over using horses, as they are not the most efficient animal around. From memopry one horse(and this is mainly domestic ones) needs one acre or equivalent of grass per year, whereas donkeys only require half that.
Also if there are too many in urban environment, there isn't enough garden space to make use of what comes out the rear end. When cars replaced horses in American cities, it was seen(or more likely smelt) as an improvement to the environment.
Maybe this is ok for occasional use, Bradford here used to use horse drawn vehicles to water the street hanging baskets. I think it was as much a PR exercise as a practical alternative to fossil powered lorry, but small electric vehicle would have been as effective, possibly better.
There are alternatives to collecting from each house. Several houses near my house in France have a bigger wheeled bin which is emptied several times a week. Recycling materials such as bottles, tins and paper have to be taken along to special collection bins, similar to those found in most recycling centres. It appears to work Ok, but I sometimes wonder how much material which can be recycled gets put in wrong bins. I will have to find out what does get recycled. Not worried about paper and cardboard as I use that for my own art and craftwork.

[raspberry-blower]

The brewery here still delivers beer to the town's pubs with horse drawn drays. And yes the roses are doing fine.

Ah - but is the is the beer any good?

[DominicJ]

Rue
Its my understanding that Dabnes recycle the most in Europe, and have only a single bin, the sorting is done by robots.

My Local Authority uses big diesel trucks to collect grass, which it recycles into compost, to meet targets...

[adam2]

I doubt the wisdom of useing horses on a large scale in urban areas due to the lack of local demand for horse manure, and the amount of probably FF used to transport horse food to the stables, and take away manure.

In rural areas, or small towns the idea makes more sense.
Horses have a little sense, unlike motor vehicles, and soon learn where to stop for local deliveries and pickups.

A modern horse drawn vehicle could be fitted with a PV module and battery so as to supply lights, radio, GPS etc.