Back in June the Conservatives on Wokingham Borough Council voted to change rubbish collection from 2012.  On Thursday evening they are due to confirm their decision and decide what the process will be for awarding the contract for rubbish collection.  Except in council-speak it’s called “waste”.

Now there are good reasons why something has to be done.  Financial ones:  the council has to pay a tax on every ton of rubbish that goes to landfill, which it can’t afford if the amount of rubbish going to landfill stays at current levels.   And environmental ones: transporting rubbish around the countryside and burying it in vast holes is not the way to make the best use of resources, uses up land, creates contamination etc etc.  As the slogan goes, far better to reduce, reuse, recycle.  But is what they are planning to do a good idea?

What are they planning?

Well, from 2012 the council will be issuing everyone with 80 blue plastic sacks a year – or up to 120 if you can prove more than 4 people live in your house.  And that’s your lot, unless you pay.   Recycling will be the same as now – in the black boxes – but will be collected every week.  There are no plans to widen the range of things that you can put in the recycling.  Green waste, which at the moment is collected in green bags, will no longer be collected free.   You will be asked to pay £60 a year for a wheelie bin (or if for some reason you cannot have a wheelie bin, for different bags) for your green waste – or you will have to dispose of it yourself.

Nothing in there about reducing the amount of rubbish in the first place.  Nothing about enabling more stuff to be recycled or reused, or encouraging people to think about recycling and reuse.  In fact, by charging for green waste and by refusing to take away people’s rubbish if they run out of bags, the council may well be encouraging people to fly-tip.

Did you know about any of this?  You should.  A few weeks ago a green A4 leaflet was delivered to every household telling them all about it.  Unfortunately it seems to arrived with all the other advertising materials that get shoved through doors, so lots of people appear to be completely unaware of it.   Please get in touch and tell me whether you do or don’t remember getting the leaflet – I want to know how effective the publicity has been, and whether it represents value for money.

And now you do know about it, what do you think?  Again, get in touch, and let me know.   I have my doubts about how well it’s going to work – and a few ideas of my own about what might be better – but I’m open to other suggestions.   As I say, please get in touch.

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