Barnet gathers evidence against non-recycling households

The first council in Britain to make recycling compulsory for residents, Barnet has never yet been forced to bring householders to court for not recycling. Those that have been warned in the past have backed down and started using their weekly black box service.

” There's no excuse not to take part – we've made it possible for everyone to recycle in Barnet.“
– Cllr Matthew Offord, LB Barnet
But as the compulsory scheme continues, two households in the Golders Green area have been issued with legal notices warning that if they fail to recycle, they could be fined up to 1,000.

Barnet officers will spend six weeks gathering evidence, by monitoring the residents' black boxes, to prepare a case to take to the magistrates' court.

While there is no set threshold for how much waste households must recycle under the compulsory scheme, legal action is reserved for those that “persistently and deliberately” fail to place any items in their recycling boxes.

The council told letsrecycle.com yesterday that the householders in question still had the chance to avoid legal action if they respond to their legal notices by using their multi-material collection service.

“Disappointing”
The householders have already had letters sent to them urging them to get recycling, as well as personal visits from council officers. Barnet cabinet member for environment, Cllr Matthew Offord, said it was “disappointing” that the householders were still not bothering to separate out their waste for recycling.

Cllr Offord said: “The vast majority of residents understand the importance of recycling, and together are recycling over 27% of their waste.

“There's no excuse not to take part – we've made it possible for everyone to recycle in Barnet, with our free weekly doorstep collections from every house in the borough. We would, of course, rather see people recycle than take them to court, but I have always maintained that we will take action as a last resort,” Cllr Offord said.

Since Barnet launched its compulsory recycling scheme borough-wide in March 2005, similar schemes have been established in the London boroughs of Hackney and Bexley.

Through Barnet's scheme, the borough has reached its government-set target to recycle 27% of household waste by 2005/06. The borough narrowly missed out on an extended public service agreement target to reach a 30% recycling rate.