Public Sector Focus

The Bin Bible: weekly waste collections in England

Kate Ashley reports on the controversy on council waste collection frequency and DCLG’s latest ‘advice’ urging them to return to weekly schemes.

Councils can retain weekly rubbish collections whilst increasing recycling rates and cutting overall costs, the government has insisted.

Local government secretary Eric Pickles has published new guidance on how weekly bin collections can be implemented, aimed at encouraging councils to switch back from fortnightly collections.

He said the so-called ‘Bin Bible’ offered “a helpful insight into how all local authorities can continue to challenge how they organise their waste services in such a way that delivers more cost effective efficient waste collections for their households”.

The government’s Weekly Collection Support Scheme is providing 82 English local authorities with a share of £250m funding to extend or re-introduce weekly waste schemes, as well as bids to build new waste facilities and to start recycling reward initiatives.

Leading the way

The guidance highlights examples of good practice in Bournemouth Borough Council, Lewes District Council and Ribble Valley Council, as well as dispelling ‘myths’ about weekly collections and their impact on cost and the environment. (For more on Bournemouth’s successful waste collection policies, see page 60).

The common ‘myths’ include the idea that a fortnightly collection is the only way to improve recycling rates; that fortnightly collections reduce the overall amount of waste produced; and that weekly collections are too expensive to maintain.

Concerns about European regulations and suggestions that the public do not want to keep a weekly service are also highlighted.

Working in partnership to optimise resources, create capacity and introduce innovation could help all local authorities to provide a better waste collection service for residents, the guidance states.

Best practice would include taking a whole systems approach to resources and staff, collecting new streams of waste at a low marginal cost, creating new commercial opportunities for waste and redesigning services.

‘A clear choice’

Pickles said: “Rubbish collections are the most visible service that people get for their £120 a month council tax bill. People deserve a comprehensive weekly service in return for their taxes.

“We have exposed 10 false fictions fortnightly bin barons cling to as excuses for cutting services. If councils adopt this new guide as their ‘bin bible’, they will be able to save taxpayers’ money and still increase the frequency and quality of rubbish and recycling collections.

“Across Britain there is a clear choice on offer. The government in England is standing up for weekly collections; by contrast, the administrations in Wales and Scotland are moving towards monthly collections.”

‘Potentially damaging’

But critics of the Weekly Collection Support Scheme, and of weekly collections in general, warn that a more frequent service would be significantly more expensive. At a time when local authorities are dealing with huge cuts to their budget, such a move may be impractical even if it is desirable.

CIWM chief executive Steve Lee said: “While it is very welcome to have good practice examples from those local authorities who were successful in securing funding from DCLG’s Weekly Collection Support Scheme, this guidance is potentially damaging from a number of perspectives.

“It is insulting in its use of provocative terms such as ‘lazy’ and ‘idle’ to describe councils who have moved to fortnightly (or alternate weekly) collections. It is misleading in its assertions over the cost of waste management collection and disposal, which may be a
small proportion of the average council tax bill but represents the third-largest area of spend for local authorities.”

£140m switch

Lee continued: “It ignores a government estimate that the cost to local authorities of a wholescale move from alternate to weekly collection ‘would be in the region of £140m in the first year, and £530m over the period of the Spending Review’.

“And it deliberately overlooks the fact that variable frequency collections have been running successfully for well over a decade, helping over 50% of councils to provide better value for money, to invest in improvements to recycling provision, and to encourage
residents to reduce their residual waste.

“Whether on a weekly or an alternate weekly basis, UK householders benefit from convenient and reliable kerbside waste collection and recycling services. By creating more unhelpful debate over the frequency issue, Mr Pickles’ office undermines these efforts and obscures the bigger issue, which is that waste is a significant cost to our society and, rather than having a ‘basic right’ to weekly waste collections, we have a collective responsibility to create less and recycle more.”

Cheltenham Borough Council’s cabinet member for sustainability, Cllr Roger Whyborn, told the Gloucestershire Citizen: “This is something that has been a personal crusade for Eric Pickles over the years, but it isn’t something most local authorities agree with.

“In the main, the rationale behind fortnightly collections is pretty sound.”