Powys county council has rejected proposals to switch to a monthly collection of residual waste, stating that it would “not be the best time” to alter collection frequencies with a lockdown in place.
Powys will continue to provide residual waste collections every three weeks
Currently, all households in Powys receive weekly recycling collections and three-weekly collections of rubbish. An additional fortnightly collection of garden waste is available to subscribers.
As part of the annual budget for the council, proposals were put forward to extend the three-weekly collection service to monthly, whilst retaining the provision of an 180L bin.
The report said the move to four weekly collections would help encourage “more recycling” and, alongside other changes, could deliver savings of £114,000.
However Powys says that after consideration, it has decided to continue with the three-weekly collections of residual waste, as well as its weekly recycling collections.
The council said that despite budget pressures, with current coronavirus restrictions in place, it “would not be the best time” to alter the frequency of its kerbside residual waste collections.
Proposals
The proposals to move to monthly waste collections were put forward in January, partly to cut costs and partly because residents continue to recycle “well” (see letsrecycle.com story).
Under the plans, it was also possible that the council could make cuts to vehicles and staff.
‘Concerted effort’
Cllr Heulwen Hulme, cabinet member for waste and recycling, said: “The current Welsh Government waste strategy ‘Towards Zero Waste’, which charts a path to zero waste by 2050, very clearly identifies the need for us to all be recycling more and wasting less. By 2025 we must hit a county-wide recycling rate of 70% and for every percentage point below that target, we can expect to receive a £100,000 fine.
“The pandemic has been hard for us all. We have had to all adapt to a different way of life and cope as best we can with the situation.”
“The pandemic has been hard for us all. We have had to all adapt to a different way of life and cope as best we can with the situation. With us all staying at home, whilst there has been an increase in recycling from the kerbside we have also seen a 15% increase in rubbish going into the wheeled bins and purple sacks this year, and although we totally understand why, we would like to remind residents to make a concerted effort to recycle as much as possible and reduce the amount of waste they throw away.”
Recycling
In May 2020 Powys county council claimed it had reached the Welsh government’s 64% statutory recycling target for 2019/20, with a rate of 64.4%.
In December however, it announced a “clerical error” had gone unnoticed and sent across to Natural Resources Wales and Welsh Government for verification before being rectified. Its corrected recycling rate for 2019/20 is 63.05%
The post Powys rejects monthly collections due to lockdown appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
