Councillors vote to halve your rubbish bin collections

Posted on September 20, 2006

The change from weekly to fortnightly dustbin collection predicted in the LBO last week has been voted through by councillors.

South Bedfordshire council (which covers Eaton Bray) is aiming to be among England's top performing waste recycling districts, with the introduction next year of a new alternate week household refuse/recycling collection service.

It is hoped this will encourage residents to recycle more of their waste, although it is likely to be an unpopular move with many people, who will just view it as getting less service for their spiralling council tax.

The decision to drop the weekly bin collection in favour of a fortnightly service was made at a meeting of the district council's executive committee last Tuesday.

Householders will have their refuse (black bins) collected during one week and their recyclable waste (orange sacks) during the following week.

The current fortnightly composting (green bin) collection service will continue unchanged, as will the weekly refuse (black) service to blocks of flats and properties on black sack collections.

South Beds Council's executive portfolio holder for the environment, Cllr Brian Spurr, said: "All the evidence in other authorities has shown that the introduction of an alternate week collection [AWC] service encourages people to recycle more of their waste and reduce their refuse, which is exactly what we want to achieve as a council, in order to make South Beds a cleaner and better place to live.

"Most of the districts that surround us already have an AWC service and those that don't are considering introducing it.

"If has worked successfully in many areas, in fact 80 per cent of the high performing local authorities, in terms of recycling, use this method of waste collection.

"Provided the reasons are clearly explained to residents and it is effectively communicated, it is generally widely understood and accepted.

"Landfill sites are rapidly filling up and local authorities face significant penalties unless we continue to improve our recycling rates and reduce refuse."

An information campaign will be rolled out to explain the details of the new collection service to residents, as well as provide advice and support on how to reduce and store refuse, and the environmental benefits of recycling more waste.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 19 September 2006