Getting in a pickle the fate of weekly collections

It has been a little over two weeks since Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Local Government, launched his 250 million fund to support local authorities in switching back to weekly refuse collections, and the media has been awash with comments and concerns. I believe that local authorities, industry and much of society understand that the real issue is not the frequency of collection but the quality and suitability of the service and support on offer.

Perhaps I take a simplistic view of life; and even with Mr Pickles interest in all things local government, surely waste management, refuse collections and the debate around alternate weekly collections remain the domain of Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for Environment? The division between the two Government departments has clearly not closed in the last 12 months.

If Mr Pickles is true to his word and allows local authorities to make local decisions that are in the interests of local communities and local environments, then why is he making 250 million available to help them keep or switch to weekly residual waste collections? This is little more than a blunt economic instrument to ensure his beliefs are realised.

Why is it that Mr Pickles is not leading the debate surrounding carbon reduction, or acting to secure more money for the public sector, and why should he focus so much of his time on just one of the million services that local authorities provide to UK residents? Simple, he thinks it is a vote winner.

Vote winner

But I would strongly disagree that this policy and its associated fund will be the vote winner he so sorely needs. The UK waste sector has come a long way in the last decade and the data out there suggests AWC is deliverable for many authorities, can be delivered at a lower unit cost per household and can drive-up enhanced recycling rates whilst maintaining customer satisfaction levels. With coverage of AWC closer to 50% than 30% for UK authorities he may be playing to a large target audience. But many of these have carefully designed their services and have achieved spectacular recycling rates (up to 70%) whilst maintaining excellent levels of customer satisfaction, so how many of these authorities would want to switch back for anything other than political reasons? And would the 250 million really be enough to support say 50 authorities trying to re-introduce weekly residual waste collections and another 100 trying to keep them of course not!

This U-turn in Government thinking simply undermines the confidence of those of us in the sector challenged with delivering effective, affordable and sustainable solutions!

Worse is that it adds fuel to the fire generated by certain media outlets concerning waste collection and ultimately will confuse the public about what is a good quality service and what their role should be in protecting the environment and community they live in.

Food waste

If Mr Pickles is committed to help local government to effectively address the needs of UK waste management, then why not make the 250 million available to support the much needed design and roll-out of food waste schemes (as WRAP have done) which remain a cornerstone of Government policy to mitigate against climate change and generate renewable energy? Or perhaps the money could be set aside to help fund a new programme of demonstration projects (as Defra did for a number of years) to prove whether certain technologies can provide a critical role in the UK waste management sector dry AD, gasification, pyrolysis, fuel cells etc. Surely these options would be better use of the funds in terms of our delivery of appropriate and beneficial waste management solutions?

Better still invest it in a UK wide education and awareness campaign (to build on RecycleNow and Love Food Hate Waste etc.) to make people aware of the key waste issues and to encourage them to consume appropriately, re-use, recycle and compost at home, and embrace new facilities that will generate electricity, heat and jobs. This is where Government waste-related policy and funding needs to be focused in the short and medium term, not on internal squabbling and political manoeuvring, but then again what do I know about politicsother than we are in a right old pickle on this one!

All in all I am more than a little frustrated and confused right now. Perhaps policy announcements in the next couple of weeks can add some clarity to this debate and help local authorities make the best possible decisions locally, I hope so.