10th February 2009
Councils are spending millions of taxpayers money on deploying expensive domestic waste collection systems and recycling facilities, which are unable to meet the recycling targets of the future and placing an ever increasing burden on households.
A new report “What a fine mess” by Carbon-info.org highlights the ever increasing cost of operating council managed waste collection and recycling facilities in Wales, which has left households with the increasing difficult responsibility of sorting their waste into an ever increasing number of black, green and brown wheelie bins and bags.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, a team of researchers from the Hampshire based environment organisation asked probing questions from every Welsh council about collection costs, recycling targets, and carbon footprint of current collection systems.
The findings, including the questions asked and answers provided by each council, are presented in a 37 page report. Of particular interest to council tax payers are the amount of money councils pay to private contractors to collect and recycle domestic waste.
For some councils this cost has doubled in just a few years and now runs into millions of pounds. Unfortunately, the rising cost does not match the recycling rates the councils have achieved. The report casts doubt about the approach taken by Welsh councils and if existing waste collection systems are able to deliver ever increasing recycling targets.
“We were surprised to learn that costs are going up so rapidly. This is not matched by the deployed systems, which seems to have hit a ceiling in terms of the recycling rate that can be achieved,” said Carbon-info.org’s Chairman Flemming Bermann.
The report costs just £9.50 incl. VAT and can be downloaded directly from Carbon-info.org’s web-site:
http://www.carbon-info.org/product_wrr/welsh_report.htm
