Brent Council guidance
Opposition and backbench councillor's are able to ask questions of Lead Members at Brent Full Council. The answers are published in advance and the questioner has one minute to ask a follow-up question live. Suggestions for follow-up questions welcomed in comments below the article.
Question
from Councillor Hirani to Councillor Krupa Sheth (Cabinet Member for
Environment, Infrastructure & Climate Action):
Given
the serious concerns being raised by residents across the borough with regards
to the Blue Bag Recycling Scheme will the Cabinet Member for Environment,
Infrastructure and Climate Action agree to commission an independent
report on the roll out of the scheme and its financial implications. It does
not appear that this scheme has been properly thought through and should
therefore
be suspended until a full investigation and report can be provided to Full
Council. This is strongly backed by an e-Petition with over 2000 signatures demanding
the scheme be cancelled.
In
advance of this, can the Cabinet Member for Environment, Infrastructure and Climate
Action also address the following operational issues:
ANSWER
We have seen a 50% increase in tonnage of paper and cardboard collected through October, the first month of the new service. By removing paper and cardboard from the dry mixed recycling stream, contamination is at a low 1%.
The higher quality of paper and cardboard collected results in higher rates of fibre recycled. Further data and results will take at least 12 weeks to spot any additional trends.
It is important to note that recycling, even if rejected due to high contamination, does not go to landfill; any rejections are sent to an energy recovery facility.
(1) How
is it possible to keep these bags dry during the rain events we have
had recently?
The blue
sack is weighted at the bottom to avoid it being blown away and is weatherproof
when the lid is fully sealed using the Velcro strips, to protect the contents
inside. Please ensure the lid is sealed. Any faulty/leaking sacks will be replaced
free of charge.
(2)
Where are residents expected to store these bags?
The sack
can be folded and stored inside when not in use or kept outside by your other bins
where there is space to do so. Residents can choose whether to store their sack
indoors or outdoors, so long as it is presented at the kerbside on the scheduled
collection day.
We
appreciate that not all residents will have space to store their blue sack indoors.
We advise those residents to transfer their paper and flattened cardboard
to the blue sack at their convenience, as they have previously done with their
blue lidded recycling bin, placing it between other bin containers.
(3)
What is expected to happen to cardboard and paper when these bags are
full? Should this be placed into the Blue/Black Bin?
If the paper
and cardboard sack becomes full, residents may present any excess paper and
card in a bundle next to their sack on collection day.
Please do
not place paper and card in your blue-lidded recycling bin, as collections
crews will be instructed not to collect these bins on the same week as the blue
sack.
Residents
are advised not leave any excess cardboard out alongside their sack when rain
or strong winds are predicted. Instead, we are advising those residents
who continuously have more paper and cardboard for one blue sack, to order
an additional sack. Residents can order a second bag or additional bags
for free.
(4)
Residents in flats do not have these blue bags so what are they expected
to do with their cardboard and paper?
Those in
flats with shared communal bins are not part of the changes and will continue
to use the large recycling bins for mixed recycling, which is being collected
separately to kerbside properties.
(5) Was
training given to Veolia when dealing with these blue bags as it appears
that on some occasions the cardboard/ paper has been blown around
and not collected?
Training
has been given to collection staff ahead of the recycling collections with further
training and monitoring ongoing with collection issues occurring and being reported
to Veolia.
(6) How
much does this scheme cost and are there any actual savings?
Can you
show the figures?
The change
to alternate weekly twin stream recycling collections for street level households
was estimated to save the council £1.2m per annum on annual disposal
costs for waste when compared to the weekly comingled recycling collection
(where all recycling goes in one bin).
We will be
monitoring the impact of the service in the coming weeks and months in order
to assess the impact of the service change on our recycling and saving targets.
Concern over the changes to the recycling system caused Willesden Green Residents Association to hold a public meeting on the issue.
Association Planning Representative, Sonia Locke, said:
Everyone is pretty dissatisfied and it will be a year until anything changes. I think what we know so far is that people want to recycle and separate recycables, but this is not the way to do it. This system is simply not working.
