Labour and Conservative councillors united to vote on Wednesday (25 February) for re-introducing a weekly system residual waste collections and fortnightly for recyclables.
But the Liberal Democrat cabinet, which brought in the alternate-weekly system of collections, rejected this. Although the combined Labour and Conservative groups outnumber the Liberal Democrats, local government rules introduced by the government in 2000 mean the vote is not binding on the cabinet.
”The council has agreed that further phases will be suspended until completion of a Best Value inspection. “
– Southampton council spokeswoman
But, the cabinet has agreed to a moratorium on further expansion of the new scheme because of public concern about collection frequency.
A council spokeswoman told letsrecycle.com: “There are six phases of the two bin system. We have completed one and are in the process of completing the second.
“The council has agreed that further phases will be suspended until completion of a Best Value inspection of our waste service in August, after which it will decide how to proceed.”
Despite the suspension, council advice to residents remained: “Alternate weekly collections provide more recycling and are more cost effective than the weekly collection.”
Problem
Labour councillor Richard Harris said information supplied to councillors showed that one-third of waste went into the recyclables bin and two-thirds to residuals.
“For a family of four, if the residuals bin is only collected every two weeks it will therefore be overfilled. This is also a problem in areas where students live six or seven to a house. If bins are left a fortnight they will be pretty awful,” he said.
”If bins are left a fortnight they will be pretty awful.“
– Cllr Richard Harris
The two bin system began in the city's Bassett, Swaythling, Shirley and Coxford districts last October, since when 270 tonnes of recyclable materials have been collected, equivalent to 35% the areas' household waste, the council said.
Blue recycling bins take paper, card, plastic bottles and cans but not glass. Separate sacks have been issued for garden waste.
The council said a survey by pollster MORI had found that 96% of residents in the first phase area considered recycling household rubbish to be very or fairly worthwhile, and that 86% had found it easy to sort materials for recycling.
Decrease
Southampton had a below average recycling and composting rate of 11.58% in 2002/03. Excluding compost, its recycling rate decreased slightly from 2001/02.
The unitary council's recycling rate is far below the 25% average recycling rate for the Project Integra partnership of Hampshire councils, of which Southampton forms a part.
Almost 90% of Southampton's 105,306 tonnes of waste went to landfill last year. The city's new twin-bin collection service was modelled on neighbouring Eastleigh's scheme, which is helping to recycle almost 28% of Eastleigh's municipal waste.
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