Recycling goes compulsory for all residents in Barnet

Residents could be fined up to 1,000 for “persistently and deliberately” failing to use their kerbside recycling services under the scheme.

”While many people talk about how they can encourage recycling, Barnet is taking a stand.“
– Cllr Matthew Offord, Barnet Council
The compulsory recycling scheme was trialed last year among 21,000 households with the council claiming a significant success with an 18% increase in the amount of household waste recycled (see letsrecycle.com story).

In a meeting on Tuesday, councillors voted to extend the scheme to all 113,000 households in Barnet. Residents will have to place glass bottles, jars, tins, cans, paper and magazines in their recycling boxes rather than their refuse bins.

Those that do not use their recycling boxes will receive written warnings, visits from council officers and finally formal notices in a bid to encourage them to recycle. As a last resort, the council will prosecute residents who refuse to adhere to the scheme, using powers under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Target
The first such scheme in the UK, Barnet is using the compulsory approach in an attempt to reach a public service agreement target to recycle 30% of the borough's household waste by 2005/06.

Barnet’s cabinet member for environment, Cllr Matthew Offord, said: “The initial phase of our compulsory scheme has been an out and out success and we expect the borough-wide scheme to follow suit.

“Everyone accepts that landfill and incineration is not sustainable and we must recycle more of our household waste. But while many people talk about how they can encourage recycling, Barnet is taking a stand and demonstrating an innovative example to the rest of the country,” Cllr Offord said.

One of seven London boroughs forming the North London Waste Authority, Barnet generates over 146,000 tonnes of household waste each year, of which about 18,000 tonnes (12%) was recycled in 2002/03.