Government scraps weekly bin collections pledge

Fortnightly bin collections are to stay in the UK, after expense of changing to weekly forces government into U-turn The government has announced weekly bin collections will not be reinstated, as part of its measures towards a zero-waste economy – a move that is a victory for green campaigners. The decision reverses a pledge by the communities and local government secretary, Eric Pickles, to bring back weekly rubbish pick-ups in the half of all councils that currently have fortnightly collections. Independent research had shown that the cost of reintroducing weekly collections would have been more than £500m over four years. The environment secretary, Caroline Spelman, launched the government’s review of how waste is dealt with a year ago , saying: “We cannot keep putting recyclable and biodegradable material into landfill. It threatens the environment and wastes what are incredibly valuable natural resources.” Bringing back weekly collections could have cut recycling rates by 5%, according to the same research, but cost was the biggest factor in ignoring calls for a return to weekly collections. The environment department suffered the biggest budget cut in the 2010 spending review. Today’s waste review, details of which are yet to be published, will aim to placate those who demanded weekly bin collections by abolishing some of the fines that people faced if they repeatedly breaks recycling rules, or put bins out on the wrong day, though it is unclear how such fines have been levied. The government has already scrapped Labour’s “pay as you throw” pilot to cut waste, which allowed councils to reward households that reduced waste and penalise those who threw away more. But Spelman is expected to endorse other ways of rewarding people to reduce their waste. Other measures in the waste review are expected to address the first part of the “reduce, reuse, recycle” slogan, by encouraging businesses such as toy makers and caterers to cut packaging and waste. Before today, environmental campaigners said the progress of the review did not look encouraging as, while the coalition had pledged to move towards a zero-waste system remained, the specific means to achieve that had appeared lacking. David Symons, director at environmental consultancy WSP Environment & Energy, said: “Although we produce 13% less waste than we did seven years ago, there’s no getting away from the fact that we have a serious problem with waste in this country. Each person in the UK still throws away over half a tonne of waste every year – most of which goes to landfill. “The waste strategy needs to focus on helping busy people cut down on the amount of waste they produce, without making their lives harder with fines and infrequent collections.” Jamie Reed, Labour’s shadow waste minister said: “The government’s policies for getting rid of rubbish are in chaos. Eric Pickles has been humiliated. It looks like the waste review will duck all the major challenges on recycling and will do nothing for the environment or our economy.” Waste Recycling Ethical and green living Green politics Local government Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 14, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.