Recycling ‘blunders’ waste council cash
OPPOSITION LIB DEMS RUBBISH LABOUR’S GREEN CREDENTIALS
A COUNCIL is said to be facing a £586,000 black hole in its finances – because people are putting the wrong rubbish in recycling bins.
The claim is made by the Liberal Democrats, who blame the contamination on ‘blunders’ by Labour-run Newcastle City Council.
The party’s environmental spokesman, Coun Gareth Kane, said: “For years we have been calling on the Labour administration to get their finger out on recycling, but those calls have fallen on deaf ears.
“Now, a series of blunders means that other vital council services will have to be cut to compensate.”
He claims the Lib Dems have discovered the council has removed black caddies for glass from many blue recycling wheelie bins, and then told the public that they could mix glass with other materials.
But glass damages paper mills so must be kept separate, or everything must go to landfill, the Lib Dems say.
They also say communal bin lids have broken and many are overflowing with mixed waste. Some recycling points were omitted from collections, leading to overflowing bins, litter and contamination, they claimed.
Coun Kane said: “The Labour leadership have nobody to blame but themselves – this is a selfinflicted wound caused by poor management. “Newcastle Lib Dems have long advocated increasing recycling to save the council money, but under Labour we are going backwards. This is bad for the environment and bad for the city.” They said the £586,000 figure was provided by council officers to the scrutiny panel after questions from Lib Dems and that it represents contractual penalties. Coun Nick Kemp, cabinet member for neighbourhoods and regulation, said: “Newcastle City Council is committed to reducing the amount of waste our city produces and have set ambitious targets to do this through our waste management programme. “It would be good to know that the opposition share these ambitions.
“It is extremely disappointing that the opposition simply criticise, but they offer no solutions as alternatives and also appear to pour scorn on the Waste Commission, even before their report is published.
“Last year, we collected and treated over 142,000 tonnes of waste – more per resident than other UK cities and national figures showing an increase in Newcastle’s recycling rates up 4% to 42%.
“Contamination of recycling bins is an issue, and challenge, faced by every city and it relies on residents using the right bins.
“As a council we are working hard to tackle this through public awareness campaigns, work in schools and targeted enforcement.”
Planning the budget of 2018/19, Newcastle City Council said it needs to save £13.3m because of ongoing Government grant cuts.
By 2020 it will have cut £282m in spending and is in the second year of a three-year programme which will shave £60m from spending.
It is claimed the figure quoted by the Lib Dems is covered by the waste management budget and does not affect any other council service.
The Labour leadership have nobody to blame but themselves – this is a self-inflicted wound caused by poor management