Oct 2, 2007
Waste Strategy Flaws Sell us Short on Recycling
The draft waste strategy proposed by the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) for Reading, Wokingham and Bracknell Forest Borough Councils has only served to show up flaws with the PFI deal and fail to give residents the recycling facilities they want, Liberal Democrats have said as part of their consultation response on the strategy.
The consultation was due to close on Monday (1 October) – the same day as Reading Borough Council holds its review of alternate waste collection. It has highlighted that the PFI partnership detail makes no provision of the recycling of food waste – the largest single component of bins – or for kerbside collection of glass. The document has not been widely advertised and the deadline for consultation has had to be extended.
Commenting on the strategy, Cllr Gareth Epps, Liberal Democrat Environment spokesperson on Reading Borough Council, says:
“The problem with this document is that the key next steps – more and better recycling – are only listed as pipedreams. But in years to come, construction materials and glass will be banned from going to landfill. There is no vision in this document and it is hard to see how the waste PFI will succeed without a radical rethink.”
“The original PFI failed to make provision for food waste collection and for improvements such as kerbside glass collection and recycling of Tetrapaks. This is the first chance people have had to comment. What were the councils thinking when they signed it?”
editor’s note:
The re3 Joint Waste Partnership Strategy consultation is available at: www.re3.org.uk. The Partnership is a 25-year Private Finance Initiative waste disposal project.
For more information on recycling (like where can you recycle “TetraPaks”?) follow this link Learn how recycling works.
