Bins - the great debate

Everyone has a view on how often our bins should be picked up, how often they are left unchecked, or how we can do more to aid recycling.

This week a committee of MPs called the fortnightly collection regime spreading across the country into question.

We look at the great bin debate.

THE arguments for fortnightly bin collections are well rehearsed - but equally as controversial.

The system has been rolled out by councils across ast Lancashire over the last few years in a bid to increase recycling.

But residents have protested about mounds of rubbish overflowing intheir back yards as the bins fail to deal with the amount of rubbish they produce.

Earlier this month Blackburn with Darwen Council trumpeted a return to weekly collections for household waste, honouring pre-election pledges by the new coalition leadership.

Recycled waste will still be picked up every other week but the soon-to-be-introduced burgundy bins will be 100 litres smaller than the current 240-litre receptacles.

Critics say the new system, requiring extra bin wagons and staff, will be costly and have little impact on recycling rates across the borough.

But the council is confident that the change will only improve the authority's recycling record.

Meanwhile council leaders in Burnley have incensed hundreds of residents with its hardline approach to waste collection.

People who repeatedly leave extra bags beside their bins have been warned that they face financial penalties - an amnesty was only declared during the busy Christmas and New Year period when collections are scaled down.

Every tonne of household waste which doesn't get recycled ends up going to landfill in East Lancashire.

Local authorities are measured by the Department of the Environment on how much they send to recyclers.

In the past decade there has been an upwards trend in recycling - which is just as well as the Government intends to financially penalise councils who send excess amounts for landfill in the next couple of years.

Blackburn with Darwen got off to a slow start in the recycling stakes, registering just four per cent annually between 1998 and 2001.

But their performance increased fourfold by 2001-02. And apart from a dip the following year, the rate has steadily increased to 24.2 per cent.

Likewise Burnley languished at just two or three per cent before gradually improving to give a 2005-06 total of 22.1 per cent.

Pendle is the leading district council, judged by recycling rates.

Once again from a shaky starting figure, recyclers in Nelson and Colne boosted it up to 19 per cent by 2003-04 and 29.5 per cent over the next two years.

Hyndburn has excelled after some initial lethargy - after sending just six per cent for recycling until the end of 2003, things did get better, with 17 per cent avoiding landfill by 2003-4.

But at 24.7 per cent, Hyndburn's recycling pedigree is now among the most impressive in East Lancashire.

Ribble Valley has some way to go in the green stakes - it too has improved from a measly six per cent in 1998 but had still only achieved an 18.7 per cent rating, according to latest figures.

Rossendale echoes that trend, sending between three and seven per cent of waste for recycling initially, increasing that to 23.9 per cent by 2005-06.

East Lancashire still has a healthier record overall than some of its north west neighbours - Lancaster only comes in at 16.4 per cent, Wirral's record is poor at 11.8 per cent and Liverpool's more depressing still at 9.9 per cent.

Hyndburn has used the alternate weekly rounds system for the past four years.

As council leader Coun Peter Britcliffe says: "If it aint broke then why fix it".

He accepts that Blackburn with Darwen's decision might suit the needs of that borough but he is happy that fortnightly collections suits the needs of peope living in the likes of Accrington, Oswaldtwistle and Great Harwood.

Coun Britcliffe said: "Blackburn have taken a decision and obviously they think that it will work for them.

"We do still have weekly collections - it's just that we collect different kinds of waste in different weeks."

He sits on the Local Government Environments Board, a 10-strong panel made up of representatives from across the UK.

The panel recently discussed the report of MPs on the Communities and Local Government committee who called the fortnightly collection regime into question.

Concerns were raised over the public health implications of the system by MPs and the effect on recycling rates was questioned.

Opinion was divided among panel members - but it was agreed that different solutions would often work for urban and more rural areas.

"The one thing we are perfectly sure about is that morally there is a demand for councils to recycle - we have got to think about our resources, which are already scarce, and we have to think about climate change," said Coun Britcliffe.

"We cannot change the effect of what we have done today in 30 years time - but what we are doing now will be felt in 40 or 50 years time. We cannot be selfish."

Blueprints have been unveiled by Lancashire County Council for a large-scale waste technology park' for East Lancashire, located between the M65 and A56 at Huncoat.

The development would include a composting plant, for household garden and food waste, a department for dry recyclables such as paper, glass, metals, textiles and plastic, and a mechanical biological treatment facility to turn the remaining waste into a new product.

Coun Britcliffe says that if these proposals become a reality then a return to weekly bin rounds could be on the cards, as the waste would be collected and sorted at the site.

But for the time being he is happy with Hyndburn's fortnightly rounds, and recycling record, whatever the critics might say.