Green waste and food waste recycling

I have received a number of emails from residents in my ward concerned about our proposal to stop doorstep collections of green/garden waste and also food waste.  (To be clear, co-mingled mixed recycling collections (paper, plastic, metal and glass) will continue unchanged, as they are collected by the same vehicles that collect general waste.)

We do not make decisions like this lightly.  However, in a situation where we have had more than 50% of our support grant from Central Government cut over the last five years, we are running out of areas where we can make savings via efficiency, or cutting less efficient services.  As a result of stopping this collection service we will achieve a budget saving of £1m, which would otherwise have had to be cut from areas such as youth services (which we have chosen to enhance this year), libraries or the voluntary sector.   

Food waste will be collected by positioning dedicated food waste bins in up to 150 locations in each ward across the borough, with sensors to alert the Council when they are nearly full, for optimal efficiency of collection.  The food bins will look like this:

The options for garden waste will be:

• Take the waste to the Hornsey Road Recycling Centre
• Use a communal collection point in the locality
• Pay to have the waste collected by the council.

       Garden waste collection bins will look like this:

These new arrangements for green waste collections have been trialled in Tollington Ward over the summer, and reports are that recycling rates have not suffered as a result.  There does however remain the question of where the communal recycling points will be located, and the risk that they may become a sort of general dumping ground for rubbish.  I am still waiting to hear how the locations for green waste collection points will be established, and whether there is a maximum distance criteria for this.  With regard to assisting disabled people, the council already provides support for residents with mobility difficulties, and this will be expanded to include green waste collections for those residents.

I realise that some residents are not very happy about this proposal, and I can understand why this is causing concern, but the harsh reality is that the Tory government’s cuts to local authorities are really starting to bite, and we won’t know if this is an effective (ie positive value) cut unless we try it.