Eastleigh offers to be “pay as you throw” guinea pig

The government has said it does not favour charging for waste collections based on the amount of non-recyclable waste householders put out for disposal. Instead, environment minister Elliot Morley has said he favours more “positive” schemes that give householders incentives to recycle their waste. A 5m trial of incentive schemes has been established by Defra and is expected to begin in October (see letsrecycle.com story).

” I believe that if Labour retains its place we will at least be given the provision to use pay by weight refuse collections in the near future.“
– David Burton, Eastleigh BC
Despite Defra's stated refusal to back pay-by-weight residual waste collections, the Hampshire borough's head of direct services, David Burton, said yesterday that following a Labour win at the General Election, the UK would see a variable charging scheme introduced “within two years at the most”.

Mr Burton was speaking at an open day event held by refuse vehicle specialist FAUN on Anglesey last week. He said: “I believe that if Labour retains its place we will at least be given the provision to use pay by weight refuse collections in the near future and we will have to rise to that.

“The government will probably want a guinea pig to trail a variable charging system and we at Eastleigh would be quite happy to be that guinea pig,” he said.

Eastleigh
Eastleigh borough council is among the top ten councils in the country when it comes to recycling – reaching a 31% rate in 2003/04. The council is unusual in that its success has come largely through the collection of dry recyclables rather than large amounts of green waste.

The council is now bringing in new green waste collections to boost its recycling rate further, but Mr Burton said other measures will be needed by councils such as Eastleigh in future.

He said: “In the face of new legislation limiting the amount of waste that can be sent to landfill councils need new ideas to be able to get more waste out of the residual stream and into the recycling stream.”

Mr Burton explained that with new onboard weighing and bin chipping technology becoming ever more advanced the possibility of analysing individual households would become easier.

Political
However, Gerraint Rees Jones, group engineer municipal services at Gwynedd council, warned that variable charging systems would be difficult to get past councillors because they were likely to be unpopular with residents.

He said: “There are a lot of political implications involved with charging by weight for refuse collections. I imagine it is something that members would not take lightly and there would be a lot of complaints from residents, it would be difficult to take on board.”

Gwynedd council has just begun a trial to limit householders in the amount of waste they can leave out. Householders must make sure their wheeled bins have their lids properly closed, and cannot leave out any extra waste on the side. Mr Gwynedd believes that this, rather than charging by weight, is the way forward.

He told letsrecycle.com: “The households on the trial were given 240 litre bins and told that the lids had to be shut properly and any side waste would not be collected. To start with we had 10% more complaints on average, but after six months the complaints had dropped and we have seen a drop in the amount of side waste left.

“It is simply a case of training the residents to use the scheme properly. We believe that we will see an increased recycling rate in the areas that are on the trial as well.”