BROMLEY’S PLANS FOR WASTE DISPOSAL AND RECYCLING
| Published: 15th September 2008 14:12 |
I am delighted to be writing this article updating you on the subject of Waste and Recycling, as well as Bromley Council's future plans concerning both, and to be able to do so at this time given the apocalyptic nature of the reports on related matters being carried in the national press on a virtually daily basis!
Please allow me to begin by telling you what Bromley is not going to do:
- We are not going to move to fortnightly waste collections for food waste;
- We are not going to put microchips in waste bins;
- We are not going to charge per weight of waste produced;
- We are not going to introduce an extra annual charge to collect your waste on top of Council Tax;
- We are not going to ban black bag side waste when your bins are full;
- We are not going to send people to snoop through your bins! (Though any household seen not to be recycling will receive a visit from a Waste Advisor to enquire whether the Council can help them in any way to begin doing so.)
I hope that reassures anyone who might have been harbouring fears from anything that you might have read to the contrary.
Set against that, it is unquestionably true that the nature of the waste and recycling industry in this country is changing rapidly. Driven by the European Union's ‘Landfill Directive', the Government has imposed massive extra landfill taxation on Local Authorities across the country to 'encourage' them to do more to recycle. Last year the tax was £24 per tonne; this year it is £32; next year it jumps to £40; and in 2010 to £48. Whatever the outcome of the next general election, there is widespread expectation that this trend will continue.
Recycling more is clearly a good idea and this tax has had the desired effect of forcing recycling rates higher. Against that, the additional pressure it has added to Council Tax levels is extremely worrying. Every penny the Council spends putting waste into the ground is a penny it cannot spend on either good causes elsewhere or using to help contain future Council Tax rises.
The inescapable truth is that doing nothing or trying to maintain the status quo is unsustainable. To try and do so would condemn millions of pounds of Bromley Council tax-payer's money to be wasted over the coming years. I do not believe tax payers money should be spent in that way.
So what are we planning to do that's so different from elsewhere, why do we think we can do better and how do we plan to go about it?
The first benefit we have is the power of hindsight - a truly wonderful gift! We have deliberately avoided being in the first wave of Boroughs introducing such measures to enable us to learn from their mistakes and ensure that whatever we do introduce not only works - but works well. Add to this the fact that Bromley starts from a position of already having the best 'dry' (paper, glass, tins and plastic) recycling record of any London borough and we know we are well placed to do so.
As you might have picked up from the local press, we have already been trialling schemes in various parts of the Borough to see what can be achieved by collecting waste in different ways. And the results have been impressive: average recycling rates have jumped from 35% to 50% in the areas concerned. We are now poised to further finesse the trial as information and experience from other places has demonstrated that this rate can be driven higher still with only marginal changes of habit being asked of our residents.
The plan in the trial area is that anything ‘putrescible' (smelly food waste) will continue to be collected weekly, but from dedicated Council supplied bins that are both airtight and rodent proof. If the trial works, not only would recycling levels rise, but associated concerns around vermin and hygiene would reduce, as too will tales of foxes ripping open black plastic sacks as there will be both more space for rubbish available within what is currently the 'main' bin (soon hopefully to be known as the 'non-recycling' bin) as well as nothing putrescible being left in 'black sack' overflow to attract them.
Black box paper recycling will also be upgraded to a weekly service at the same time, since the trials have demonstrated that up to 20% extra material can be salvaged by providing a weekly service.
In addition, in the trial area only, the Council is going to suspend the 'plastic bottles only' rule and widen the range of plastics accepted to include washed items such as yogurt pots, margarine tubs, food and ice cream containers. The reason for doing so at this time within the trial areas is to create extra space in residents' 'non-recycling' bins which should then be devoid of food waste, paper and bulky plastic items often containing nothing but air!
However, for the time being, the plastics collected will subsequently have to be separated and the 'non-bottle' types sent to incineration as we can still only recycle plastic types '1' '2' & '3'. As the plastics recycling market matures (estimated to be a year or so away) these types of plastic too will be recycled.
This is important, because despite the total number of annual doorstep collections rising from 13 to 17 million should the trial prove successful and it become rolled out Borough-wide, it is intended to then collect the 'non- recyclable' waste bin every other week in exactly the same way that the green recycling box container is collected today.
So that's where we are at today and the rough direction of current thinking, though nothing has yet been set in stone.
In closing, I would just say to that dwindling band of determined non-recyclers amongst you, please do join in and give it a try. The argument about whether it's a good idea or fair to be asked to do so has long since finished. The only question now is how best we can all work together to maximise the Borough's performance, protect shrinking landfill capacity and help to keep Council Tax as low as possible.
If you wish to learn more, please visit the Council's waste management and recycling website: www.bromley.gov.uk/environment/recycling. Alternatively, you can contact me on colin.smith@bromley.gov.uk or phone 0208 462 5061.
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