Cllr Elaine Sherrington - "Recycling - The New 3 Rs"

This is the text of a talk given at the Heaton & Lostock Labour Party's Branch Meeting on Wednesday 19th September 2006 by Cllr. Elaine Sherrington, Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management on Bolton Council.

Elaine Sherrington, Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management was warmly welcomed to the meeting.

She began by stating that the decision to support a return to weekly grey bin collections had been a vote winner at this year's local elections and she believed it was the main reason why we have de-facto control, of the Council after two years under the Lib-Dems. Because this had been a key election pledge we had to implement it straightaway and we have done so, despite the problems, including Council officers who even now have a "fortnightly collection mindset". Some of them still need convincing that the weekly collections won't reduce the recycling rate as efforts are made to maintain and improve it.

The implementation of the fortnightly collections, brought in by the Lib-Dems was a costly exercise. By simply getting the bin men to put stickers on the grey bins advising householders of the return to weekly collection we have managed the situation relatively smoothly and at little cost. We have managed to implement weekly collections borough-wide in just three months.

When the Lib-Dems were in power recycling was around 28% and this has increased to 35% in June with a small dip to 32% in July (possibly due to holidays, etc.). We don't yet have figures for recycling rates under the weekly grey bin collection regime. It's thought that there will be an initial small dip followed by a continuation of the upward trend as long as the Council is proactive in promoting recycling. The recycling rates published in the Bolton Scene were wrong, having been miscalculated, and corrected figures will appear in The Bolton News.

Elaine said that she had received very few communications regarding the weekly grey bin collections but she has been contacted quite a few times regarding the recycling service, which she described as "not as straightforward as it could be".

Ninety per cent of residents in the Borough now have the facilities to recycle and the Council is working with Bolton at Home, Housing Associations and private landlords to make them available to all, especially in multi-tenancy buildings (flats, difficult to reach places, etc.).

There are number of new initiatives which will be trialled in the west of the borough:

Paperchase has come up with a weighted bag (it has a piece of recycled rubber tyre sewn into the bottom) which will not blow away in the wind as the present bags have a tendency to do. This will be trialled on Ladybridge first.

An experiment with full size maroon wheelie bins to replace the green recycling boxes will take place in Westhoughton. This will be on a small scale to begin with because of the cost. John asked why full size bins were being used. Elaine replied that there is no difference in the cost between half and full size bins and the existing trucks can handle them whereas they would have to, at least, be modified for half size bins. 3.

Cardboard recycling will start, probably as a pilot in Horwich and it is hoped to be able to do this at "no cost" to the Borough. GM Waste has put out a tender for all "pulpable" waste (paper, cardboard, egg cartons, etc.) and if successful Bolton would be the first to do this in Greater Manchester.

These new initiatives won't be free but will still be cheaper than paying the levy which would be imposed if we don't reach our recycling targets. If we are ahead of our targets we can amass points through the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS - more information via http://www.defra.gov.uk/Environment/waste/localauth/lats) and these can be sold to other authorities who have failed to meet their targets.

Some money has been allocated for education on recycling in the schools and community, especially in the Deane, Daubhill and Derby areas, places where there are quite a lot of people whose first language isn't English and who may have little knowledge about the subject.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), working through Defra, has given Bolton £50,000 to come up with new ideas for recycling and the Council is looking at how non-recyclable kitchen waste (especially cooked food) can be dealt with. Additionally, United Utilities wants to work with us on recycling of cooking oil, especially from restaurants, takeaways, etc. The oil is cleaned up and would then be used in Council vehicles.

Finally Elaine reminded members of the "New 3 Rs" - Reduce (consumption), Reuse and Recycle. In regard of the last of these she strongly recommended the Bolton Freecycle Group - which enables people to find homes for objects they don't want anymore. John said that he is a member of this and wholeheartedly recommended it (details at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BoltonFreecycle)

Following an interesting discussion the meeting was declared closed at 9:30 pm. Elaine was thanked for attending and talking to us and Ian and Sheila were thanked for the use of their home and their hospitality.

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