EAST Riding of Yorkshire Council is poised switch to fortnightly green bin collections – despite a Government warning that English councils that fail to provide a weekly bin collection could lose some public funding.
East Riding Council said the roll out of the fortnightly collections of the blue recycling bins and the green landfill bins is being driven by residents.
But Tory local Government Secretary Eric Pickles is widely reported as saying there was no “plausible reason” why some councils had fortnightly rounds.
In a BBC report he is quoted as saying that residents deserved better and promised to “look closely” at the grant funding given to councils.
East Riding of Yorkshire Council Driffield ward member Symon Fraser said Mr Pickles had been referring to councils which went against the wishes of residents and had no argument with those who were doing what the residents wanted.
“Trials of fortnightly collections of both blue and green bins in Driffield, Little Driffield and Cranswick have been well received and the reaction of residents has been hugely positive,” said Coun Fraser
“More importantly, local residents have been telling me that since the improved recycling facilities have been in place the waste in their green bins has dropped to the lowest ever amounts and that they are perfectly happy for these bins to be collected fortnightly”.
In 2004 East Riding residents had only the green landfill bins and there were 51 collections a year. Residents now have three bins and under the new service there will be 78 collections a year. In 2004 the annual recycling rate was 14 per cent, this year it will be 54 per cent.
In April the council started trialling fortnightly collections and month after month the recycling rate was 70 per cent, among the highest in the country. In those same months it was 60 per cent in the non-trial areas.
In the trial area the waste collected from the bins and sent for recycling went up by 30 per cent, while the waste in the green landfill bins dropped by 35 per cent, stopping council tax payers money being spent on landfill tax.