Monday, June 27, 2005
Recycling - the facts . . . £10 administration fee, enforcement and
THANK YOU TO 92% OF OUR POPULATION!
Cabinet members will hear tomorrow (22 June) that the overwhelming majority of the Borough's residents - 92% - are correctly sorting out their rubbish for recycling. But action needs to be taken to help the minority understand the need to use each bin properly - otherwise hundreds of tonnes of rubbish could end up in landfill, at a cost to the Council Tax payer.
Cabinet will be looking at recommendations from the Policy Development Committee which recently recommended getting tougher with those who deliberately choose to contaminate their blue bins with waste that cannot be recycled. The occasional wrong item in the blue bin doesn't cause a problem, they can simply be picked out.
But contamination such as dogs' mess or dirty nappies means the whole recycling process grinds to a halt while everything is hand-cleaned. And to make sure that such potential contamination is spotted at source - before it gets into the recycling system - people are being asked to ensure all the rubbish in their blue bins is unwrapped. This also helps to speed up the process, because everything has to be taken out of carrier bags or bin liners before it can be sorted into the different piles - metal, paper, plastic and so on.
Members of St Edmundsbury's waste management team will visit people who have a problem recycling to help them understand the need for it and explain what goes into which bin. If they still continue to refuse to use the correct bins the council can take enforcement action (which could include taking them to court).
Contaminated bins - or blue bins that have wrapped rubbish inside which could be hiding contamination - will not be collected unless the householder removes the contamination. If they then want to have their bins emptied before the next scheduled collection they can choose to pay a £10 administration charge for a refuse freighter to be sent out again.
As some people have said they don't have enough room in their blue bins Cabinet is being asked to agree that extra sacks could be made available, for a nominal 10p each - which covers the cost of the sack and also supports local shopkeepers by giving them the chance to make a small profit.
And because by law we have to cut the amount of biodegradable rubbish going into landfill - we get fined if we send too much to be buried - we are reminding people to use their brown bins for garden and uncooked green kitchen waste such as vegetable peelings. The black bin is still available for such waste if people do not have a brown bin or sack.
Cabinet member for Environment, Cllr Jeremy Farthing said:
"I have to thank the overwhelming majority of people in our borough who conscientiously take the time to recycle as much of their rubbish as possible and use their bins correctly. If we don't get that message across to everyone else then that tiny minority could be responsible for hiking up the Council Tax for everyone as we will all have to pay the cost of having our refuse freighters turned back."
THANK YOU TO 92% OF OUR POPULATION!
Cabinet members will hear tomorrow (22 June) that the overwhelming majority of the Borough's residents - 92% - are correctly sorting out their rubbish for recycling. But action needs to be taken to help the minority understand the need to use each bin properly - otherwise hundreds of tonnes of rubbish could end up in landfill, at a cost to the Council Tax payer.
Cabinet will be looking at recommendations from the Policy Development Committee which recently recommended getting tougher with those who deliberately choose to contaminate their blue bins with waste that cannot be recycled. The occasional wrong item in the blue bin doesn't cause a problem, they can simply be picked out.
But contamination such as dogs' mess or dirty nappies means the whole recycling process grinds to a halt while everything is hand-cleaned. And to make sure that such potential contamination is spotted at source - before it gets into the recycling system - people are being asked to ensure all the rubbish in their blue bins is unwrapped. This also helps to speed up the process, because everything has to be taken out of carrier bags or bin liners before it can be sorted into the different piles - metal, paper, plastic and so on.
Members of St Edmundsbury's waste management team will visit people who have a problem recycling to help them understand the need for it and explain what goes into which bin. If they still continue to refuse to use the correct bins the council can take enforcement action (which could include taking them to court).
Contaminated bins - or blue bins that have wrapped rubbish inside which could be hiding contamination - will not be collected unless the householder removes the contamination. If they then want to have their bins emptied before the next scheduled collection they can choose to pay a £10 administration charge for a refuse freighter to be sent out again.
As some people have said they don't have enough room in their blue bins Cabinet is being asked to agree that extra sacks could be made available, for a nominal 10p each - which covers the cost of the sack and also supports local shopkeepers by giving them the chance to make a small profit.
And because by law we have to cut the amount of biodegradable rubbish going into landfill - we get fined if we send too much to be buried - we are reminding people to use their brown bins for garden and uncooked green kitchen waste such as vegetable peelings. The black bin is still available for such waste if people do not have a brown bin or sack.
Cabinet member for Environment, Cllr Jeremy Farthing said:
"I have to thank the overwhelming majority of people in our borough who conscientiously take the time to recycle as much of their rubbish as possible and use their bins correctly. If we don't get that message across to everyone else then that tiny minority could be responsible for hiking up the Council Tax for everyone as we will all have to pay the cost of having our refuse freighters turned back."
