The Shadow Secretary for Local Government, and Assembly Member for Aberconwy, Janet Finch-Saunders AM, has today expressed further concerns about Conwy County Borough Council’s proposals to move to collect refuse bins only once every four weeks.
The model used in neighbouring Denbighshire, which has fortnightly non-recyclable waste collections, has a much lower waste sent to landfill, per head of the population, than Conwy.
Over the course of a year, the average waste (in tonnes) sent to landfill, per head, in Denbighshire is 0.063, however in Conwy it is 0.175, almost 2.7 times greater*.
Janet said: “Recent DEFRA figures have shown that the amount of household waste rejected for recycling has increased by over 80% in the last four year.
“Whilst we should be recycling as much as possible, it is important to ensure that we are putting the right things in our recycling bins. With such increased pressure on households as a result of much-reduced refuse collections, and confusion over what can and cannot be recycled, I fear that non-recyclable waste will be more commonly put in recycling containers.
“The Denbighshire model, with fortnightly bin collections, proves to be more efficient in terms of reducing the amount of waste going to landfill. For the Council to hit the Welsh Government-set target of a 64% recycling rate by 2020, they need to look closely at what is working elsewhere, rather than pushing ahead with this untested and controversial model.
“I am approached daily by constituents who are opposed to reduced bin collections – and with local government elections coming forward in May next year, I know that such proposals, alongside the year-on—year 5% council tax raises, will be playing on the minds of these constituents when they go to the ballot boxes.”
Conwy County Borough Council have recently issued a leaflet to households, stating that “In Conwy, over 50% of the items thrown into black wheelie bins should have been recycled”, and “By making use of your WEEKLY recycling services, you will have more space in your wheelie bin for non-recyclable waste.”
Local council tax payer Gary Willetts said: “The assumption by Officers that if the “black bin” was only collected on a three or a four weekly collection then this would increase the amount of recycling. Such assumption is absurd.
“There is no evidence to support the opinions of Officers that ALL Council Tax Payers buy food from the supermarket and deposit 50% of their purchases in the “black bin”. Likewise there’s an assumption that old kettles, toasters and other electrical items are placed in the “black bin” each and every week, along with garden waste, by ALL Council Tax Payers.
“The answer to food waste is simply to tackle the problem at source if one exists rather than at the recycling stage.”
ENDS
*Notes: Figures quoted from StatsWales.