After receiving a 78% approval for the proposal from a public consultation last autumn, the council believes making recycling compulsory is the only way to hit its recycling targets.
And, £6 million annual fines could come from the government's Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme, if the current 100,000 tonne-per-annum landfill rate continues.
The proposed scheme would see householders failing to take part in the borough's weekly green box scheme sent a series of warning letters, with visits by council officers to back up those householders that do not respond.
If householders do not ultimately start recycling, they could face legal action from the council, with officers suggesting a £1,000 fine could be the result.
The borough's organic waste collections are performing well, but officers have warned that dry recycling rates remain among the poorest in London with a 12% recycling rate for the weekly green box scheme. Including organics collections, the council is achieving a 21% recycling rate overall, but believes it cannot hit its 30% target by 2010 without making recycling compulsory.
A meeting of the executive on Monday will consider the “strong agreement” among the 770 responses to the public consultation.
In a report prepared ahead of the meeting, officers laid out plans that would see residents forbidden from placing plastic bottles, glass, paper, cans, telephone directories, textiles, or aluminium foil in their grey wheeled bins designated for residual waste. These recyclable materials would have to go into the green kerbside boxes.
“Additional boxes would be provided to those who required them,” officers said. “The recycling service would remain accessible and free, with assisted collections made available to those residents in need of extra help.”
Recycling would not be compulsory for those households not on the green box scheme, such as Brent residents living in flats.
Costs
Brent officers warned that the compulsory scheme would incur “significant” start-up costs – not least in the immediate need for four extra collection crews, as well as associated new 12 x 7.5 tonne stillage vehicles.
This is because experience from other London boroughs using compulsory recycling schemes – Barnet, Bromley, Hackney and Harrow as well as a trial in Waltham Forest – suggests a sudden surge in recycling tonnages will occur.
“Using Barnet as an indicator, we would assume that, with the introduction of a compulsory recycling scheme, up to 80% of the properties currently served are likely to participate. This would mean that 64,000 households would receive a weekly collection and an average 12,800 properties would have to be visited each day,” officers said.
Waltham Forest's trial scheme saw participation hit 94%, with a 24% increase in daily recycling tonnages, officers noted.
Even with a lower take-up than other London borough schemes, officers suggested 16 crews plus two in support would be needed for the recycling service alone. The borough's refuse service currently uses 22 crews.
Once the vote is taken next week, the council will have to quickly place an order for the new vehicles to receive them ahead of the June 1 start of the scheme. Brent will also have to agree to additional collection costs with its contractor, Veolia Environmental Services.
Brent officers claimed that 150 local authorities in the UK are now either introducing compulsory recycling schemes, or are considering doing so.
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