East Cambs plans to scrap plastic bottle collections

East Cambridgeshire district council said it had “never faced a more difficult financial situation”, and the withdrawal of the plastic bottle collection service is one of many cost-saving proposals tabled for the environment and transport committee meeting on Thursday January 28.

The district council said it had carried “a root and branch review” of all the services which it provides and added that, in order to meet the 2010/11 shortfall, “some very difficult decisions have had to be taken”.

The fortnightly plastic bottle kerbside service was introduced in April 2008 as part of an extension to its existing collection contract with waste management firm Veolia Environmental Services. The council had previously only used bring banks to collect the material.

Councillor Fred Brown, leader of East Cambridgeshire district council, said: “Unfortunately some services have been proposed for cuts from community grants to the possibility that our plastic bottle kerbside collection service could be withdrawn.

“The decision is based purely on our need to make significant savings, this is not a decision that we have taken lightly but we had to act now to balance the budget.”

The service cost an initial £81,000 to introduce, however, council minutes from June 11 2009 show that, even though the recycling service as a whole under spent its provision in 2008/09 by £21,681, difficulties in delivering the plastic bottle collections had seen it overspend on the service.

Plastic bottles collected by Veolia are currently taken to the Cambridge-based waste management firm Donarbon for sorting before being sent for reprocessing by plastics recycling firm Pearsons in Thetford, Norfolk.

Banks

The council said, if the proposal is accepted, that residents would still be able to use the plastic recycling bring banks, which were expected to be removed when the kerbside service was introduced but were kept following a review of the overall waste service in March 2009.

“No one has been immune from the review,” added Cllr Brown. “We intend to find over £750,000 in staff savings alone which will inevitability lead to redundancies as well as a pay freeze which will affect all staff.”

Cllr Brown said that a suggestion to end the distribution of free black bin bags for residual waste had already been rejected due to the “universal impact” it would have had on residents and the area.

Currently residents are given a plastic sack to use for the plastic bottles, which is put out alongside the black box for dry recyclables, including paper, newspaper, magazines, junk mail and cardboard.

Residents can also place glass bottles and jars in a separate bag alongside the collection, as well as another bag for aerosols, food and drinks cans and biscuit and sweet tins.

The result of the vote taken on the proposals by the environment and transport committee will then go to a policy and resources committee, which is collating the proposals made by various committees.

They will then either agree or reject the proposals, before going to full council on February 23 where a formal decision about the budget for 2010/11 will be made.