Concerns aired that Royal fund could threaten recycling

The scheme has been started by a resident who was disenchanted with the authority's decision to run a fortnightly waste collection service as part of its efforts to encourage residents to recycle more of their waste.

The resident, Mandy Gregory, from Donnington, Shropshire – who is opposed to fortnighly collections – claims that the council's refuse collection service is “inadequate” and with the help of a 2,000 start up loan from the Trust, whose president is Prince Charles, has purchased her own dustcart.

Already Mrs Gregory has signed up 60 households to her refuse collection service which she will service on a weekly basis at a charge of 3 a week.

Mrs Gregory will be taking the waste to landfill without any attempt at recycling and so this will count against the council's landfill quota as well as being potentially harmful to recycling rates. Dave Morgan, a spokesman for the council said: “At the end of the day we have recycling and landfill targets to meet, and what Ms Gregory is doing is detrimental to our aims. We are baffled as to why the Prince's Trust would back something so environmentally unsound.”

Business

Trudi Dunlop, spokeswoman for The Prince's Trust, said Mrs Gregory's work had attracted its support on grounds of being a viable business venture. “We have been working with Mrs Gregory to ensure she has a viable business plan, which meets business and legal criteria.”

The decision by Prince Charles' organisation to support the refuse collection services, comes only weeks after the Prince himself commented how the UK needed to step up its recycling efforts. On a visit to the Shotton paper mill he said: “It has always amazed me how in this country we do not seem to be nearly as disciplined as many European countries about recycling.”

Retrograde

Telford and Wrekin has also raised concerns about the health and safety implications of the service method to be used by Mrs Gregory as she will be offering a black bag service, not used in the area since the early 90s. “It is a retrograde step for waste management, black sacks have not been left out the front of houses in Donnington for around a decade and rubbish bags on pavements could cause safety risks,” said Mr Morgan.

The council have been running the fortnightly collection system since last September and it has seen the council's recycling rate increase from 10% to 18% in that time. The system has been proven to work in other areas with high recycling rates. The system encourages residents to sort their waste into separate sections and to recycle as much as possible.