Recycling no longer top priority, says best performing council

Victoria Burgess, street scene improvement and development manager at East Lindsey district council, told delegates at the LARAC conference last Thursday (October 8) how the local authority had successfully achieved a 58% recycling and composting rate in 2007/08.

This was achieved by moving from a weekly black bag and recycling box collection system in 2006, costing £33 a household, to an alternate weekly refuse and recycling service using wheeled bins costing £61 a household. Ms Burgess highlighted the simple, equitable and flexible nature of the service had helped to make it a success.

However, looking to the future, she said that financially things were “not looking rosy” and that priorities within the council had changed.

She said: “We have also got to think about the political will at the council. We have met our targets and priorities move elsewhere in providing more for less.”

“We are not looking at raising the recycling rate as now it's more about value for money,” she added.

Savings

In order to save money, Ms Burgess said that East Lindsey was looking at collection round rationalisation to make savings of fuel and carbon and the possible introduction of larger collection vehicles in rural areas so that they would only have to off-load once. Longer days and a shorter working week for collection operatives were also on the cards, she added.

In addition, she said that the council was likely to suspend green waste collections for up to four months over the winter – even though this had implications for its recycling performance.

She said: “If we suspend green waste collections for four months – we collection 50 tonnes a month – we will save £175,000 and will reduce our recycling and composting rate by 4%. That's something we are looking at right now.”

Ms Burgess added that the council was also looking at charging for replacement bins which it currently provided free of charge but was costing the council £80,000 a year.

WRAP

The need to cut back was also echoed at the LARAC event by Phillip Ward, director for local government services at the Waste & Resources Action Programme, who explained how joint working – be it informal or through the establishment of formal Joint Waste Authorities – could save councils money.

He claimed that efficiency savings of up to 8-15% were achievable in this way and that councils such as Lichfield and Tamworth expected to save £740,000 a year by working together.

He said: “It is very clear what the agenda is going to be for public expenditure for the next few years. It is going to be about doing more for less… this is something that we are going to have to face up to.”

CIWM 

Steve Lee, chief executive of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, also agreed that spending cuts regardless of the outcome of the general election were “pretty much inevitable” and that local authorities were telling him they were having to make 5% cuts, rising to 7% in once case.

Speaking to delegates, he said: “We are not talking about nips and cuts. We are talking about major organs.”

He added that the theme of next year's Futuresource conference and exhibition, to be held in London on October 15-17, would be “more for less”, in order to reflect the wider trend.