How Green Is My Street

Submitted by: Matthew James Roberts

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Recycled waste is measured as it is collected. Refuge collectors have sheets of each street and just mark in (in biro) the total collected for that street. Someone at the council's recycling center enters in the data. Information on how many people live in each street is used to get an average "avg. kg per person" figure for each street.

The website should list the top 10 best and worst avg. kg per person recycling streets.

There should be no way to identify individuals (and there is no public interest in doing so) just streets.

The councils could offer prizes for the best streets i.e. a reduction in community charge (this need not even be substantial). As the government has spent a huge amount of money on recycling facilities and its green agenda is currently quite prominent this is a good way for them to make sure the services are used and for them to receive a return on their investment.

This helps the environment and encourages "the worst" streets that don't recycle much to recycle.

This could also be quite fun as it encourages street rivalry and points, in a culture where our youth strive to attain high scores in games.

This scheme is not socially discriminative as everyone has an equal opportunity to benefit from the scheme.

This would be a national campaign.

What information or services do you need?

Google maps (though any website which allows you to put a balloon above a street will suffice), total weight of recycled material by street, how many people live in each street (to arrive at an "average kg per person" figure).

If on extreme budget and time constraints the information may be represented purely as a table and "searchable" without a map.