Council urges residents to check the facts about wheelie
bins
Harlow Council is urging residents to check the facts before
signing up to a Daily Mail campaign against wheelie bins.
The Council will be introducing wheelie bin collections across
the town from September and has already awarded a contract to
operators Veolia for the new service. The Mail is urging councils
across the UK to abandon plans for the bins or to revert to black
sack collections.
Chairman of the Environment and Community Committee Cllr Tony
Hall said: “The Mail article implied that all wheelie bin
collections work in the same way. That’s not the case. We want to
stress that Harlow’s food waste will be collected weekly and that
we will be providing help to people who can’t physically manage the
bins. The bins will not be chipped, as implied in the article.
“We appreciate that people don’t find the bins attractive. The
councillors who agreed the contract all live in Harlow and we will
also be putting the bins in our gardens and onto our streets.
However there is a stark choice for us all – recycle more or
risk paying more council tax if we don’t hit Government
targets. If The Mail asked people whether they would prefer
to recycle more or pay more tax, I think the decision would in
favour of recycling. There would also be the question of what
we would do with over 54,000 plastic sacks every fortnight and I am
pretty much with the scientists about climate change. Although
Harlow’s contribution to minimising this may be small, I would
rather that we do what we can rather than undermine the efforts of
others.”
The new contract will come into effect from September and
residents will be provided with two wheelie bins for recyclables
and non recyclables, a food waste bin and a kitchen food waste
caddy. The food waste will still be collected weekly and the
recyclables and non recyclables bins collected on alternate weeks.
A number of homes that aren’t suitable for the bins will remain
with the current collection system and the Council will also be
providing assistance to those who cannot manage to move the
bins. Surveyors have also been looking at collections from
the rear of properties where possible.
The new bins will:
• Provide extra capacity for residents’ recycling and focus
more attention on recycling as much as possible
• Reduce littering, split bin bags and foraging by animals and
vermin
• Reduce danger, from manual handling of bags, to bin
collectors and residents from sharp objects
Nearly three quarters of the town’s waste is currently sent to
landfill meaning only around a quarter is recycled or composted.
Based on figures from April to November 2008, 73% (13,564
tonnes) of household waste in Harlow went to landfill. Just 24%
(4,424 tonnes) of household waste was recycled and only 2% (396
tonnes) collected for composting, well below the Government target
for 2010 of at least 40% and the current average in Essex of over
44%.
Councils will be fined if they fail to reduce the amount of
landfilled bio-degradable waste, and landfill costs will increase.
The potential extra costs of doing nothing have been estimated at
£1 million per month across Essex which would have to be passed on
to council tax payers.
Councillor Hall added: “Apart from the environmental impact of
doing nothing, there is the financial and human cost. The Mail
trivialises issues such as the danger to bin collectors from bags,
but these collectors do not deserve to have their livelihoods and
those of their families put at risk if they are injured or disabled
because someone puts glass or a knife in the black sack.. It is an
insult that The Mail thinks these people, who do a valuable job,
are not important.”
More information is available on the councils website at
www.harlow.gov.uk/wastecontract