The compulsory recycling scheme will initially run as a trial in five wards along the North Circular Road. The council then hopes to expand the scheme across the rest of the borough during 2007.
” Residents have responded well to recycling, but it is time to up the ante and ensure everyone does their bit. “
– Cllr Bob Belam, LB Waltham Forest
Waltham Forest will become the fifth London borough to require householders to use their kerbside recycling services.
Fines
Barnet, Bromley, Hackney and Harrow all require their residents to participate in weekly kerbside recycling services. Those householders that “persistently and deliberately” fail to do so risk legal action and potentially fines as high as 1,000.
Residents could also incur smaller, on-the-spot fines for failing to recycle their waste.
Waltham Forest is hoping the threat of fines will stir householders to help reach a 28% recycling rate in 2006/07 and 33% in 2007/08.
Although the borough is above the government-set recycling target of 18%, without the compulsory system, current measures would see the borough failing to reach its own target of 23% target set for 2005/06, officers believe.
Cllr Bob Belam, lead member for environment, said: “Residents have responded well to recycling, but it is time to up the ante and ensure everyone does their bit. The council wants to recycle 28% of the borough's household waste this year to keep ahead of the government's tough recycling targets.”
“We're already one of the top-performing councils in London thanks to residents' enthusiasm and want to build on this. Councils that fail to meet their recycling targets may be subject to fines, which is something we want to avoid,” Cllr Belam explained.
The borough is concerned that under Defra's Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme, it could be liable to an annual penalty of almost 3 million by 2010 if it does not cut landfill rates.
Alternate weekly
In a further bit to increase recycling rates, the council is also considering switching to an alternate weekly collection system. This would mean switching the existing weekly collection of non-recyclable waste to a fortnightly cycle to encourage residents to recycle more and throw out less waste.
Under such a system, kerbside recycling services would remain on a weekly frequency.
Waltham Forest, which is also a member of the North London Waste Authority along with the pioneers of the compulsory recycling system, Barnet, has promised a “light touch” to ensuring residents use their recycling boxes.
Under the scheme, recycling staff at the council and contractors ECT Recycling will carry out checks to make sure residents are using their black kerbside boxes. At the outset, the compulsory scheme will take in the collection of paper and cardboard, glass and cans. The council said it could extend this to textiles at some point in the future.
The council will begin writing to households in the trial area in August to inform them of the new compulsory scheme. The trial will begin in September, with an initial review in October. In November, the council will consider a switch to an alternate weekly collection scheme, and January 2007 should see Waltham Forest considering whether to make recycling services compulsory in the rest of the borough.
Contract
Meanwhile, the borough of Waltham Forest is preparing to tender for a new recycling contract, since the existing six-year deal with ECT Recycling is due to end in March 2007.
The council looks likely to offer two options for its waste services – separate recycling and refuse collection contracts or a combined package.
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Officers are thought to favour the combined approach, since the current, separate arrangements “result in fragmented services using two vehicle fleets, more staff, extra contract management and the inflexibility to respond to changed services needs”, a report on the service noted.
Waltham Forest is likely to mount an in-house bid for the contract, for which about 100,000 would be allocated from council funds.
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