RECYCLING SCHEME

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Householders have been warned that officials will rummage through their rubbish for personal information to identify those who put out their bins too early. The contents of bin bags that have been put out on the wrong day will be subject to checks by council officials in York who will look out for 'evidence', such as bills or bank statements, that nails the culprit. Neighbours may also be asked to give witness statements and the worst offenders could face fines of up to £1,000.

York's street environment officer Iain Dunn said, "Some people persistently leave their bins out far too early. We need solid evidence to find out who they are. If they keep their rubbish on their property, we won't go through it. If it's on a public highway, we are entitled to." Around 900 properties in the worst-affected areas will receive letters outlining the consequences. Offenders will be issued with a £100 fixed penalty notice or taken to court to face a much larger fine.

Some councils appear to be undermining their own attempts to encourage recycling. Barnsley council is refusing to collect windfall pears from green recycling bins, saying the fruit counts as kitchen waste, not garden waste. It claims it is unable to collect anything that had been in contact with foodstuffs because of European regulations on animal by-products. Tory MP Sir Paul Beresford said, "The whole attempt to bring in recycling has now turned into a police state over rubbish." (Source:This is London, Nov/06)

I see that Derby City Council is determined to extend its 14-day refuse collection scheme. Perhaps the council could explain how it has managed to violate the 1936 Public Health Act, which states that the authority has a statutory obligation to collect the household waste within seven days?

The act has not been rescinded, nor has it been superceded by the Control of Pollution Act. The seven-day collection was intended to combat the breeding cycle of the house fly, combat disease including TB and tackle vermin. The wheelie bin, during the summer months, provides the ideal conditions to encourage breeding.

To state that there will be no contamination is not true. Anyone living near a disposal point can expect problems due to the regular delivery of contaminated waste. The get-out clause for the council will be that it is the responsibility of the private waste contractors to control any outbreak.

Perhaps the ombudsman would like to pass judgement on the legal situation with regards to the scheme. I base my observations on 25 years as a waste disposal officer, including five years as a lecturer on refuse collection. Arnie Cook

Mr Cook's statement is factually incorrect as it makes no reference to more recent legislation. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 has replaced the relevant waste collection sections of both the Control of Pollution Act and the Public Health Act 1936. The Environmental Protection Act was written to enable councils to ensure that we all minimise the wastes we generate and maximise the amount we recycle.

This act does place a duty on councils to collect domestic waste but no actual frequency is specified. It also enables councils to specify the number and types of waste containers that it uses to maximise recycling. The city council takes its public duty to provide a sustainable waste management service very seriously. Consequently, it is introducing its Rethink Rubbish recycling scheme to all parts of the city during the next two to three years.

There are no landfill facilities in or around the city and it makes every sense to compost our organic waste and recycle valuable resources such as cans, glass, paper, textiles and plastic bottles. The Rethink Rubbish scheme is providing households with the convenience of kerbside collections for all these materials. Pat Ethelston, Assistant Director, Highways, Transportation and Waste Management, Derby City Council.

Mandy Gregory, from Telford, Shropshire, was furious that her council had imposed a system where her rubbish was collected only once every two weeks. So, when her complaints were ignored, she took matters into her own hands and spent £8,000 on her own dustcart.

She, with her husband, is now set to begin emptying bins for hundreds of other families equally furious at the council's behaviour. Mandy said, "Everyone is saying they can't cope with just one collection of rubbish a fortnight. Bins are overflowing and people are having to bag up their rubbish and take it to the tip themselves. There are large queues and you sometimes have to wait an hour to dump it."

Telford and Wrekin Borough Council introduced it's collection scheme in an attempt to meet environmental landfill targets. It collects normal household refuse from grey bins one week, and the next week from green bins with garden waste. Mandy said, "The green bins are empty in the winter and the grey ones are full to overflowing."

Mandy, who charges £3 a week to take away two sacks of rubbish, has been banned by the council from touching the wheelie bins it supplies to homes. Dave Morgan, from the council, said her weekly collections were a step backwards because the council was trying to encourage people to produce less rubbish and Mandy's husband, who was a binman for the council, was sacked after bosses told him his involvement in her business represented a conflict of interests.

I am a resident of one of the experimental areas where the domestic waste recycling scheme has been imposed. No one I have spoken to in my area was consulted in any way about the scheme, it was simply imposed. I find this entirely unconstitutional and typical of a paternalistic bureaucracy. Nevertheless, being generally law-abiding citizens, the residents of this area have, by and large, attempted to comply. How the parents of young children, who have nappies to dispose of and regular small amounts of wasted food, cope, I do not know.

Keeping that sort of organic waste for 14 days must take a great deal of ingenuity and skill, if they are to avoid ghastly smells and extremely unhygienic conditions. Nevertheless, they try. Speaking of my own bins, since the system was imposed they have never been emptied properly. There is always a small amount of sticky rubbish fermenting and decomposing in the bottom of the bin. I try to always wrap the kitchen rubbish in a bag but, after 14 days of compression and decomposition, it tends to leak and stick to the side or bottom of the bin.

This was an infrequent problem when the collection of such waste was weekly. Yes, we do pay to have our bin washed out as well. The standard of collection is far below what we have a right to expect. Today, after the collection of the "blue boxes" and bags, I have walked 200 yards and counted 10 plastic bottles, either on the pavement or on somebody's front garden. Outside many houses there are two or three sheets of paper, sticking to the rain-soaked grass or pavement. Clearly, this litter is from the boxes properly left out for collection and disposal.

This is the first time that I have actually counted but I can assure you and your readers that this is the norm. Our political decision-makers are always using the word "partnership". They seem to have forgotten that partners generally agree to changes, particularly if the changes have the potential to cause problems to one side or the other. If this scheme is to work, the politicians must realise that this is a two-way partnership.

But they must also be very aware that, having enforced this policy, they have a responsibility to the electorate to ensure that their staff actually empty the bins and receptacles properly. Before this scheme is imposed elsewhere, we must get it right in the parts of the city that are currently the trial areas. If, for whatever reason, the council is unable, unwilling or incapable of carrying out its part of the partnership, then the scheme must cease forthwith and new ideas, properly canvassed and discussed with the user partners, must be considered. Terry Boston