Brent envisages fortnightly waste collections

 What will be the impact on fly-tipping?

A Briefing Note for Brent Council's August 11th Forward Plan Select Committee suggests substantial changes in the Council's Waste Strategy.  The aim is to save £500,000 annually and increase recycling rates to 50% by 2020, reduce reliance on landfill and reduce the carbon footprint of waste collection services. It will mean that most households will now have three bins. The 'savings' will presumably include job losses as a result of the move to fortnightly collections.

They propose for low rise properties:

• Alternate weekly collections using existing wheeled bins with a 'no side waste' policy( Nothing left next to the bin will be collected.  The health and safety implications of fortnightly collections will have to be examined)
• A new bin to collect mixed dry recyclable materials to include cardboard on alternate weeks
• Green bins for organic waste to be retained for 60,000 properties and extension of the weekly scheme to cover the remaining 28,000 properties. New properties to receive food waste collection only (What will happen to their garden waste?).  Cardboard will no longer be collected from green bins as it will be included in the new dry recycling bin All 88,000 households to receive a kitchen caddy.

For high rise properties:

• Extension of the scheme to cover all flatted properties (something Brent Green Party has been pressing for)
• Delivery of some estate  refuse directly to a MRF (material recycling facility) for sorting and subsequent recycling
• Organic waste to be collected from suitable properties only (what will be the criteria?)

The compulsory recycling policy will be retained and there will be targeted work to remove trade waste from the household stream and to minimise contamination of kerbside containers. (Contamination means that the contents cannot then be recycled).

If the paper is approved there will be public consultation from August until October 2010. Interestingly one of the channels  listed for consultation  is BRAIN which the council has decided to close down in September.

FULL REPORT HERE