Almost half of councils in England have axed weekly domestic rubbish collections, according to the latest Government figures.
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The number moving to less frequent bin rounds has now reached 169 out of the 350 authorities across the country.
Shadow local government secretary Eric Pickles said the changes, which ministers say would help boost recycling, were a public health risk, and at the same time he accused the Government of showing "contempt" for voters by not publishing the data until May 1st, the day of the local elections.
"Labour Ministers have shown contempt for the electorate, by hiding the true scope of Labour cuts to local services until after the elections.
"Under Gordon Brown, the weekly rubbish collection is facing extinction, while council tax bills soar year on year", he said and he added: "Labour Ministers first forced up council tax through fiddled funding, and are now forcing councils to axe weekly bin collections, issue heavy-handed bin fines and hit families with bin taxes on top.
"No wonder fly tipping is soaring, given it is increasingly difficult for families to dispose of their rubbish responsibly.
"People genuinely want to improve recycling and go green, but Labour's approach of forcing rubbish cuts is not the answer, as it threatens to harm the local environment and bad for public health.
"As with soaring council tax, councillors are taking the flak for policies cooked up in Whitehall."
Commenting on the figures, Environment Minister Joan Ruddock said: "Government has to set national priorities for tackling waste and climate change.
"We cannot go on sending millions of tonnes of household rubbish to landfill and we have to boost recycling.
"But within that framework central Government does not tell local authorities how frequently they should collect waste.
"There would be a justifiable barrage of complaints if Whitehall dictated when people's bins were emptied.
"We want waste managed in a way which suits local circumstances and this is something local authorities are best placed to decide."
The problem is that Joan Ruddock wouldn't know how to encourage anyone to recycle and with fines and penalties and with removing the weekly refuse collection we certainly will not do that. All we will do is increase the amount of rubbish fly-tipped in the countryside, in public parks, in alleyways, and on farmer's fields. It will do nothing to boost recycling rate. However, it looks good on their books – the ones that get fiddled all the time anyway by this so-called “Labor” government – as only collecting the rubbish every two weeks rather than weekly and they can claim that there is a reduction of rubbish collected. That the local councils will have to pick up the bill for cleaning up the countryside and removing fly-tipped rubbish from wherever does not interest those in Whitehall in their ivory towers one little bit.
A disaster waiting to happen and an epidemic waiting to pounce, and the environment, in addition, will suffer too.
Most countries on the European mainland have no problem with weekly bin collections and still getting a huge recycling rate. Why? Because unlike the stupid British Labor government they give incentives to recycling. All the British government seems able to do is to think of new ways how to punish people for not doing something they are told. The real Nanny state gone wrong.
In some EU countries rubbish is actually collected on a daily basis. Something that, obviously, could never work in Britain, like with all other incentives and initiatives that are used in other countries because, as we get told again and again, while this may all work well in those countries it could never work in Britain as Britain is different.
Bin bag tax and all the rest of the penalties this Labor government keeps thinking about are not just gimmicks that will never work; they are in fact stealth taxes. They have no intention of rewarding anyone for doing the right thing. They just want to punish people that do not do as they are told.
If we have systems in place like in the USA with reverse vending machines and recycling centers that actually bought back the aluminium soda cans and beers cans and also the glass bottles and jars we would have an instant reduction in bin volume. If in addition to that other schemes, as used in other countries (and it is not rocket science to learn from good examples and practices elsewhere) that reward people to recycle and to reduce their rubbish bin load, in the same way as the schemes that reward people for cycling rather than using the cars in such and other countries we would see a great effect.
Alas, however, the British government can only think of punishing people rather than encouraging them by means of financial and other incentives to recycle and go green in other ways.
I know the reason too, or the biggest reason aside from the fact that they could not possibly adopt good schemes from other countries, and that is that they would have to pay out money rather than getting some in through fines.
In all aspects the last decade plus of Labor government in the UK has not been beneficial for anything and anyone in the UK. It all looks fine on paper but in reality everything is spin. More spin and faster than most spin dryers.
© M Smith (Veshengro), May 2008
'Public health risk' warning as 50% of councils axe weekly rubbish collections
