More than 80 councils are currently operating alternate weekly collection schemes for residual waste and recycling. However public opposition can be strong, with concerns about potential health and hygiene issues around collecting residual waste fortnightly.
Speaking at a Stoneleigh Live seminar on alternate collections yesterday, the operations manager of recycling company Abitibi-Consolidated Europe, Pete Mansfield, said: “We work in some capacity with over 50% of local authorities in the UK covering about 10 million homes in the UK.
”I would perhaps advise councils not go for the schemes at election time as they can be contentious.“
– Pete Mansfield, Abitibi-Consolidated
“A number of those implementing alternate schemes find political support is so important. I would perhaps advise councils not go for the schemes at election time as they can be contentious.”
He indicated that there was likely to be heightened sensitivity around alternate schemes at election time because councillors were more likely to be swayed under pressure from the local electorate.
“It would be preferable, of course, to get all local political parties on board,” he added.
Chesterfield
Mr Mansfield pointed to Abitibi's work with Chesterfield borough council, which is currently implementing an alternate weekly collection scheme to 20,000 of its 90,000 homes.
The council, which has a recycling rate of 19%, believes that once it has rolled the scheme out to the entire borough it would easily be able to supersede its 25% target for 2005/06 and is expecting to achieve at least 35%.
“The borough is a Liberal Democrat area, but both Labour and Liberal were in favour of the scheme and political support was crucial to getting Chesterfield's alternate service off the ground smoothly.”
Cherwell
Ed Potter, of Cherwell district council, told the audience that his council has implemented a successful alternate scheme with strong political support. But he said that schemes could run well in an area with no overall political control.
Mr Potter said: “Our district has a Conservative majority, the Conservatives chose not to comment on the scheme but they didn't object to it. We were given full backing from the executive, even when they were told they might get black bags turning up at their office. Our waste portfolio holder also promoted the scheme in the local media.
The situation in Southampton last year demonstrated how volatile political support for alternate schemes can be around election time.
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Despite Southampton's electorate supporting the proposed scheme with an overwhelming majority and Labour, Conservative and Liberals all being in favour of the scheme prior to local elections, after the elections all parties voted to scrap the scheme.
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