Derby to remove recycling bins from more households
Derby City Council has announced that it is to extend trials of weekly residual waste collections, and remove kerbside recycling collections from more streets in the district, in a bid to deliver ‘cleaner streets and help residents keep track of their waste collections’.
A trial run of this service was first rolled out to 3,300 properties in the Arboretum area in November last year, after the council found that some ‘inner city’ streets were ‘not suited’ to the council’s full recycling collection scheme. Reasons of unsuitability included ‘the design of properties, high turnover of occupiers, lack of storage for recycling bins, and high levels of contamination, fly tipping and street litter’.
The same trial was rolled out to some streets in Mackworth in August of this year, and the council says that this resulted in: streets becoming ‘less cluttered’; lower levels of dumped waste; and a system that was ‘much easier for local people to understand’.
As such, the next trial of the programme, involving 1489 properties• in Arboretum and several in Normanton, will be rolled out at the end of the month.
Councillor Asaf Afzal, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Streetpride at Derby City Council told Resource: “We identified a problem in Normanton and listened to the community to address their concerns. I, as Cabinet member, then took this decision under my delegated powers.”
Blue recycling bins will cease being emptied from December, with the last collection taking place next Wednesday (26 November). Instead, three additional recycling sites will be introduced at nearby locations ‘giving residents the option to recycle with ease’. Residents will also see residual waste collections become weekly from Wednesday 3 December.
An investigation into what recyclables are going into the black bins is now underway, which will inform ‘any future campaigns to improve recycling rates’.
‘To make a significant difference we need to act now’
Councillor Asaf Afzal, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Streetpride, commented: “Our Neighbourhood teams work tirelessly to engage with local residents, whether that’s through leafleting, door stopping or community meetings, but this has had little impact on attitudes towards recycling.
"To make a significant difference, we need to act now which is why we have come to a decision to use the weekly black bin collection in these areas. This is a system that is very easy to understand and should allow people to get into the routine of regularly filling their bin and putting it out and bringing it in when they need to.
“This is only one element to the wider picture. We need to make sure our communities are working together to keep their streets clean. We need to take pride in the area we live in and talk to our neighbours if we think they might need a little helping hand when it comes to abiding by the rules.”
Derby recycling rate falling
The council estimates that by removing recycling collections from the 147 nominated streets in the wards of Abbey, Arboretum, Mackworth and Normanton, it could save £500,000.
Further, it argues that moving from fortnightly to weekly collections of residual waste helps to ‘enable residents in those areas to manage their waste more effectively’, and reduce fly-tipping and the amount of side waste left out.
However, the move will undoubtedly impact on the council’s recycling rate – which new figures show is already falling. According to statistics released by the council today (19 November), the percentage of household waste that is recycled, composted or reused has decreased from 46 per cent last year to 38 per cent (at quarter one).
The council has attributed the fall in recycling to ‘a combination of reasons, including a reduction in garden waste, changes to reporting rules for recycling and a rise in contamination of blue bins’. But, it argues that it cannot afford to keep paying to dispose of contaminated recycling, and as such removing recycling collections from the worst affected areas would help reduce costs.
Several green campaigners have voiced ‘disappointment’ with the decision, with waste and anti-incineration campaigner Simon Bacon telling Resource: “As a waste and anti incineration campaigner, this latest proposal to remove recycling comes as a great disappointment. The city’s recycling rate has been falling since a high of 48 per cent in 2011 down to 38 per cent, which the city council are now stating. This new proposal can only make the situation worse.
“The council claims contamination is leading to recycling scheme cuts but research I carried out in 2013 suggested no loads of recycling were rejected by the contractor (Biffa) and this was backed only recently by the council’s own Freedom of Information department.
“Service removal will lead to a further decline in recycling and lead to high disposal costs as in 2013/14… the city paid just £10 for dry recycling to be processed against £118 for residual disposal.”
He added that the council could have ulterior motives to wanting to remove recycling collections, saying: “Campaigners also note that the council’s controversial waste incineration plant is now under construction in Sinfin, Derby, with a contract that requires the council to procure waste for the plant with rewards via the Renewable Obligations Certificate scheme for burning biodegradable waste such as paper and card, which fits in nicely with this service removal.”
The leader of the Green Party, Natalie Bennett, is also reported to have said that the move was "horrifying" and would "waste valuable resources”.
•Arboretum 8: Howard Street; Byron Street; Cromwell Road; Princes Street; Harrington Street (between Holcombe Street and Princes Street); St Thomas Road (between Dairyhouse Road and Portland Street); Stonehill Road (between St Chad's Road and Lower Dale Road); Portland Street (between Pear Tree Road and Harrington Street) - all of which falls in both wards.
Normanton 18: Almond Street (between Lower dale Road and Crewe Street); Stanton Street; Woolrych Street; Thorn Street; Young Street; Cameron Road; Havelock Road; Brunswick Street; Netherclose Street; Joseph Street; Hastings Street; Middleton Street; Rawdon Street; Church Street; Charlotte Street and Fairdene Court. Streets that are being added for Normanton that also fall in Arboretum ward that have existing weekly black bins service: Lower Dale Road; Peartree Road; and Rutland Street.