The fund, announced by communities secretary Eric Pickles last night (see letsrecycle.com story), will be available from April 2012 to councils who retain or return to weekly waste collections.
But, while councils welcomed the prospect of extra money, the move was criticised by bodies including the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee, Recycling Association, Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), Association for Organics Recycling and Friends of the Earth.These organisations fear that incentivising a return to weekly collections willunderminethe hard work of councilswhich have successfully introducedalternate weekly collections andlikened the move to going”back to the dark ages”.
“A return to weekly bin collections is an astonishing waste of taxpayers’ money and will have a disastrous impact on recycling, said Friends of the Earth in a statement. “A U-turn on recycling is hardly the action of the ‘greenest government ever’ that David Cameron promised – any available money would be better spent on increasing recycling, reducing waste, and helping councils to cut carbon.”
‘Political fudge’
Peter Seggie, general secretary of the Recycling Association which represents waste paper processors and their equipment suppliers – said that is wassimply a “political fudge” to appease a single government minister.
He commented: “It makes no sense environmentally, economically or socially and sends the wrong message to the general public that politically the environment doesnt matter.
Jeremy Jacobs, managing director of the Association for Organics Recycling (AfOR), added that the move might stop people from separating out organic waste for recycling.
Our concern is that there will be no incentive for people to do any separation and we will go back to the dark ages, he told letsrecycle.com. We know that collecting residual waste fortnightly increases recycling so this does not make sense, especially in times of austerity. I would be interested to hear what WRAP has to say about this which seems to fly in the face of the work they have done to promote recycling.
Concern was also felt among local authorities – the intended recipients of the fund. Lee Marshall, from the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) said that while councils were not likely to turn awayextra money, there was a sense of disappointment about howit had to be spent.
This does not seem like a step in the right direction, he told letsrecycle.com. All studies show that fortnightly collections of residual waste produce high recycling levels and those schemes have been running in local authorities up and down the country for quite some time now and there has been no issue with them. Its an issue that the media and some politicians have whipped up. We dont necessarily see the need of this fund to come forward.
Instead, Mr Marshall suggested the money should be spent on helping councils to collect and recycle mixed plastics such as yoghurt pots and margarine tubs which he said was a “major gripe” among householders. Joy Blizzard, also from LARAC, added that “just a fraction of that money applied to encouraging food waste prevention would be better”.
CIWM also suggested the support should be made available more widely “in three key areas: supporting more recycling, either by expanding the range of materials collected or improving participation; supporting an expansion in food waste collections, which is the main area of householder concern regarding collection frequency; and supporting waste prevention initiatives.”
Labour
Furthercriticismfor the fund came at a political level. Caroline Flint MP, Labour’s shadow communities and local government secretary, said: “This announcement on the eve of the Tory Party Conference is a desperate attempt by Eric Pickles to save face after failing to honour his promise to introduce weekly bin collections. Because of the cuts he has imposed, a number of councils have stopped weekly collections since the last election – including Tory councils such as David Cameron’s local West Oxfordshire district council.
“When Eric Pickles insists that there is no alternative to councils cutting spending by 28%, people will rightly wonder where he has suddenly found an extra 250 million. This is a policy for one week in Manchester – not a solution for the future of waste and recycling.”
Food waste collections
The issue of funding weekly waste collections is complicated by the fact that the Department for Communities and Local Government has yet to clarify exactly what type of collections the fund will cover.
Mr Pickles has strongly implied it is for weekly residual waste collections, but his use of the phrase smelly waste and insistence that the fund will help increase recycling levels have raised hopes among some that it might apply to food waste collections as well.
Hoping this to be the case, the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) gave a more positive reaction to the announcement.
ADBA chairman and Liberal Democrat peer Lord Redesdale said: If Eric Pickles’ announcement on supporting weekly household bin collections means that DCLG is leading the charge for source segregated organic collection, it would be great news. This money must only be available to councils who make the best use of the resources which we throw away.
David Palmer-Jones, chief executive of SITA UK also said he hoped that food waste collections would be supported. He said: “With the Government’s focus on increasing recycling levels, we would strongly recommend that this additional money is spent on providing householders with weekly collections of food waste. This does away with odour issues from residual waste bins and significantly improves the quality of other recyclable materials.”
Due to the lack of clarity about the proposals, the Waste & Resources Action Programme – which was criticised by Mr Pickles today for encouraging councils in the past to introduce fortnightly residual waste collections – said it was limited in what it could say at this stage.
A WRAP spokesperson said: Details on this new announcement are still unfolding therefore its not possible for us to comment on the detail. It was reassuring to hear Mr Pickles in interviews this morning giving a commitment that one objective is to increase recycling.
“WRAP provides information and advice based on our thorough and robust research, which is available to councils to act upon or not, as they wish, but it has always been our view that these decisions are best made locally.
Support
Outside the waste sector, there was stronger support for Mr Pickles’ announcement.The TaxPayers Alliance which has long been campaigning for a return to weekly waste collections saidthe 250 million fundwas terrific news.
Chief executive Matthew Elliott said: Weekly bin collections are the number one service which council taxpayers expect to receive from their local authorities, so it is terrific to hear that councils will no longer have any excuse not to provide this to every resident in their area. Its good to see a manifesto promise delivered despite the difficult financial times we live in. Woe betide the councils who do not reinstate weekly bin collections or who persist with plans to scrap this basic service, causing misery to local residents.
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