The amount of waste the city recycles has fallen again, making the council drop even further towards the bottom of the UK’s recycling league.
A new report shows that while the number of missed collections for both refuse and recycling collection is improving, the amount recycled has fallen from 26.8% to 25.5%, pushing it down four places to 306 out of the UK’s 326 local authorities.
The report says the low rate is due to the city not having food waste or garden waste collections – but although the latter is set to be trialled, the former has been discounted as an option.
The report, due to be considered by today’s policy and resources committee, says: “Realising a step change in recycling rates in Brighton and Hove and hence a reduction in the amount of residual waste produced requires a significant change in policy.
“Proposals for food waste collection and fortnightly refuse collection in suburban areas of the city have been worked up, but they would cost more than £1m a year, so have not been pursued.”
The report says just dropping suburban refuse collections to fortnightly without a food waste collection would encourage people to recycle more, but this has also not been pursued.
Instead, the council hopes a trial of recycling wheelie bins in the suburbs will prove effective, and improve communications to encourage more people to recycle, with savings from increased recycling rates ring-fenced into a community fund.
The number of missed refuse collections now stands at 99 per 100,000 residents from April to September this year, with 131 missed refuse collections.
No comparitive figures are available for the previous year, as it wasn’t then broken down into general waste and recycling, but the report says this is improving. However, it is more than the rate at other similar authorities, where 83 refuse collections and 43 recycling collections were missed per 100,000 residents in the same time period.
The report says the data is still being checked, and it’s likely Cityclean over reports as it’s proactive in identifying missed work.
There is another way. Council are the puppets of the contract that owns the waste.
My street has a kerbside cleverly paid for through a local partnership. Why is this solution not supported by the City Council?