Although the borough is still one of the better London boroughs when it comes to recycling levels, the council was heavily criticised in 2001 when it was found to have miscalculated its recycling rates for the previous nine years (see letsrecycle.com story).
It was found that rather than the predicted 45.5% recycling rate, the actual rate for 2000-01 was 23.5%. Since then, recycling rates have fallen further.
“We are averaging a monthly recycling rate of around 18-19%,” admitted council spokeswoman Veronica Hurren. “But Sutton still has the second highest recycling rate of any London borough and we are taking action to continually improve our rates.”
Contamination
Part of the reason for the unrealistically high recycling rates was that much of the material that was being collected as 'recycling' was so contaminated that it had to be landfilled. The extra Landfill Tax led to the waste management service going over budget by around 1.7 million a year.
Householders currently have a green wheeled bin for recyclables – collected on alternate weeks – and a brown bin for unsorted refuse, collected every week.
However, some residents with over-full brown bins were thought to be using their green bins for unsorted waste. Commenting on this, Ms Hurren said: “The bins cannot be collected because they contain such items as glass or food.”
She explained: “A recycling contamination officer visits residents with contaminated bins to explain what should or should not be put into them, and give them advice. And we are about to start a major publicity campaign aimed at reducing contamination, increasing recycling and cutting the amount of waste everyone generates.”
Minimisation
The banning of extra sacks is seen as one way of cutting the amount of waste generated by Sutton householders. However, local feeling is that the measure will be forced on residents too quickly, with too little time to prepare. There is also some concern that Liberal Democrat-led Sutton may substantially increase council tax to cope with its financial problems.
Deputy Conservative leader Joe Magee told the Sutton Comet: “I think it's ludicrous. My feeling is that if people want to use black sacks then they should be allowed to. The council is threatening to put its rates up by 20% and this is just a way for them to save money.”
Composting
Sutton is hoping to build a 30,000 tonne capacity composting facility with 2m it received from the National Waste Minimisation and Recycling Fund. The council's green waste collection service will be extended from 16 to 24 weeks in 2004, and the new facility will be built and run by Thames Waste Management at its landfill site on Beddington Lane.
The council's current 16-week per year collection picks up around 2,600 tonnes from the kerbside and 1,800 from a CA site at Oldfields Road. Around 90,000 tonnes of waste is produced in Sutton each year.
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