Rubbish mistake has cost council £500k in a year
WASTE PUT IN WRONG BINS WENT TOWARDS OVERSPEND
PUTTING the wrong rubbish in recycling bins has cost Newcastle City Council £500,000 in the past year, it has been revealed.
City bosses say they are “working hard” to raise residents’ awareness of waste contamination, which has contributed significantly to a predicted overspend of the council’s annual budget by £4.6m.
Lib Dem opponents have accused the Labour-run authority of being at fault for the “disaster” and say other vital services will suffer as a result.
Coun Gareth Kane, the party’s environmental spokesman, said: “Waste and recycling collection has been an absolute disaster for the past couple of years.
“The council is now taking some action to recover it because they have realised how bad it is.
“There is still a tendency to blame residents but it is completely the council’s own fault.”
Last December, Coun Kane claimed that black glass caddies were missing from many blue recycling wheelie bins, and the council had then incorrectly told families to mix their glass with other recyclable materials.
He also said the city had a problem with communal recycling bins having broken lids and being left overflowing with mixed waste.
Coun Kane added: “£500,000 is a lot of money, especially at a time of budget cuts.
“Imagine what that could be spent on – road repairs, crossing patrols, child protection. That is £500,000 that won’t be spent on those vital services.”
A council report said it is trialling using restrictor plates in communal recycling bins and new stickers on recycling bins to tackle the problem. A council spokesman said: “The contamination of recycling is a challenge which is faced by all councils and which we estimate resulted in costs of around £0.5m in 2017-18.
“To address this we are working hard to raise awareness among residents about what items can be placed in their blue bin.
“This includes information in our resident’s magazine and on our bin lorries as well as on the collection leaflets which we are delivering to homes across the city.
“In addition we are reviewing our operational procedures, including providing training to staff so that they can identify and report recycling contamination, enabling us to target our awareness raising to areas where we know there is a greater problem.”
Earlier this month, the council agreed to cut a further £13.3m from its budget in 2018-19.