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colchesterfoeCostly waste plans
Dear Editor,
Essex County Council's Cllr Tracey Chapman says (Standard 7/11) 'as every other local authority in Essex knows, the more you recycle the more expensive collection becomes'. It depends how you do it.
The county's waste strategy plans three wheelie bins per home and massive costly central waste disposal and sorting plants with 28.5 year contracts. As Cllr Richard Bourne told Colchester councillors, these will cost householders £6000 or more.
Essex councils collecting mixed recyclables in a wheelie bin or plastic sacks have collection costs to their householders about 50% higher than Colchester's.
Mixed recyclables are crushed and contaminated in an HGV compactor and then taken to a costly central MRF (Materials Recycling Facility) such as Rainham. They are mechanically sorted but much lower quality than kerbside-sorted recyclates.
A high fee is charged per tonne instead of income coming to the council for top quality recyclates separated at the kerb. A report in June by the Govt-funded Waste Recycling Action Programme said kerbside sorting was two-thirds the cost.
UK reprocessors such as Aylesford paper, Berryman glass, aluminium and plastic recyclers are pleading with councils to collect separated materials at the kerb for top prices and high quality recycling, providing jobs in this country.
This saves huge amounts of energy and climate change gases. Materials should also be baled and composted locally, saving energy and pollution. All the more important now that markets have dropped for low grade recyclates.
Yours sincerely,
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator,
Colchester & NE Essex Friends of the Earth,
4 Shears Crescent, West Mersea.
Dear Editor,
Essex County Council's Cllr Tracey Chapman says (Standard 7/11) 'as every other local authority in Essex knows, the more you recycle the more expensive collection becomes'. It depends how you do it.
The county's waste strategy plans three wheelie bins per home and massive costly central waste disposal and sorting plants with 28.5 year contracts. As Cllr Richard Bourne told Colchester councillors, these will cost householders £6000 or more.
Essex councils collecting mixed recyclables in a wheelie bin or plastic sacks have collection costs to their householders about 50% higher than Colchester's.
Mixed recyclables are crushed and contaminated in an HGV compactor and then taken to a costly central MRF (Materials Recycling Facility) such as Rainham. They are mechanically sorted but much lower quality than kerbside-sorted recyclates.
A high fee is charged per tonne instead of income coming to the council for top quality recyclates separated at the kerb. A report in June by the Govt-funded Waste Recycling Action Programme said kerbside sorting was two-thirds the cost.
UK reprocessors such as Aylesford paper, Berryman glass, aluminium and plastic recyclers are pleading with councils to collect separated materials at the kerb for top prices and high quality recycling, providing jobs in this country.
This saves huge amounts of energy and climate change gases. Materials should also be baled and composted locally, saving energy and pollution. All the more important now that markets have dropped for low grade recyclates.
Yours sincerely,
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator,
Colchester & NE Essex Friends of the Earth,
4 Shears Crescent, West Mersea.
