Weekly food waste collections axed in three Shropshire towns
Friday 30th July 2010, 2:14PM BST.
Weekly food waste collections in three south Shropshire towns will be axed as part of reforms which will save Shropshire Council up to £225,000 a year.
Residents in Ludlow, Church Stretton and Craven Arms will have to put out their food remains with their garden and cardboard waste every two weeks from October 4.
And instead of the waste being taken to a biodigester in Ludlow, it will instead be taken to a composting facility at Market Drayton to produce compost for garden centres and retailers across the county.
It follows the end of a pioneering Government-funded trial in the three market towns which saw residents put out their food waste in blue or brown bins every week for collection. The scheme had been launched in 2007.
Letters will be sent to homeowners from next week onwards by Shropshire Council and waste contractor Veolia Environmental Services advising them of the changes to the service.
Under the plans people will have to put food waste either in a wheelie bin or sack which they already use for garden and cardboard waste. New stronger sacks will be provided to accommodate the extra waste.
A spokesman for Shropshire Council said the move would save £225,000 and said the decision had been taken to ensure food waste collection was carried out in the most ‘cost-effective’ way.
He added there would be no change for households who currently receive fortnightly collections.
Councillor Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for economy and waste, said: “At a time when the council needs to make savings, while still providing the best possible services, these changes will allow us to continue to provide an excellent, though more cost-effective, food waste collection service to residents in Ludlow, Church Stretton and Craven Arms.”
Christine Harvey, clerk of Church Stretton Town Council, said: “We are writing to Shropshire Council to say we are unhappy about this service being lost.”
Any residents wanting more information can call 0345 678 9007.
By Peter Kitchen
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cuts cuts cuts
when is this council going to announce something positive and innovatice
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isnt fortnightly collection a labour government invention? Surely a Conservative Council under a Conservative government would not allow this to happen? I should hope the Conservative MP will take this up with the Cabinet and seek a review as this goes completely against national policy
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Actually it’s a Conservative Council invention. Almost all of the early pioneers of alternate weekly collection services were Conservative Councils – it just became more generally used under the last Labour Government.
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We told you so. Shropshire Unitary Authority is as useless as feared.
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not good
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I am not happy at all
I will not bother recycling in future
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another backwards step from the new council, ever since shropshire county council took over services from the districts its been going backwards and cutting out local peoples wishes and centralising everything, its such a shame they never listened to the 77% of folk in south shropshire who voted against the whole Unitary thing happening
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So this was a trial which started in 2007, the same year in which the Veolia contract started. Did the Council not write separate food collections into the contract, or does this just show another inept omission at our expense? What now for such collections county-wide? Perhaps some enterprising person in S Shropshire could start collecting food for the digester, it couldn’t cost £225,000, could it? How many additional lorries will be needed to transport the food waste along the A49/A53 to the Market Drayton composter(where it will not produce any energy at all), and how many lorries will be needed to bring in food waste from outside the county to feed the digester? Questions need to be asked and answered. Write to your MP, Philip Dunne (I can’t as I don’t live in S Shropshire, but I will ask Mr Kawczynski about the additional traffic around Shrewsbury).
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weren’t it meant to be separated to save money, now they change it to save money – wish I could save money like that.
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YUCK! IM NOT PUTTING ROTTING FOOD INTO MY GARDEN WASTE BIN, ITS ONLY COLLECTED FORTNIGHTLY IN THE SUMMER THIS WILL RESULT IN MAGGOTS WHAT A DISGUSTING IDEA
BRING BACK WEEKLY BIN DAY
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i agree!
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As someone who has not had the separate food waste collection and has always used the green bin for our food waste (apart from that which is compostable) and who had the same worries about smell and maggots i can assure you that it is not a problem
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As a committed home composter i won’t give any of my waste to the council anyway its better to DIY in the garden. I put most peelings and food waste into my composter and its all natural it doesnt smell or anything
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Does Councillor Rosanna Taylor-Smith really believe the advice of her officers when she says it will cost the council no more money. Is she not smart enough to do her own research and realise that most of this waste will go to landfill costing tax payers thousands of pounds? Does she not agree with her own party? Conservative Environment Secretary Caroline Spellman has called for a ‘zero-waste society’ and said her government wanted to greatly increase the country’s capacity for anaerobic digestion.
Greg Barker, her climate minister in the “greenest government ever” said:
“Turning waste into something usable is a no brainer! So I want to investigate how we can be far more ambitious in our use of anaerobic digestion. In the face of the challenge to build an economy that cuts carbon emissions, which ensures energy security, and which creates green jobs to help bring back economic prosperity – anaerobic digestion ticks all of these boxes. Plus it has the added benefit of reducing waste going to landfill.”
I fear the councillors have just not done their home work on this becuase this is such a short sighted decision. They have aduty to hold their officers to account and think for themselves not just believe what they are told. I fear that this is the hand of Veolia at work, because they need the food waste to burn in their incinerator, and they get more if it goes to landfill because they own the landfill sites too.
Local experts agree: –
“Once you go for incineration, you close the door on the production of biomethane”, says Michael Chesshire, Technology Director of Biogen Greenfinch, which runs an AD plant for Shropshire County Council, one of only three based on food waste in the country, “it’s a big risk”.
Shropshire Conservatives were at odds with their own party over Unitary Council and now again over Anaerobic Digestion, I call on the Conservative MPs to get on the phone to David Cameron and get him to whip his Tory Councillors into shape, their rebellion again and again is unacceptable to me as a committed environmentalist and party loyalist.
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how on earth will it keep more food waste out of landfill if you collect fortnightly instead of weekly?
I think the councillors are misadvised.
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urgh sloppy seconds
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It seems to me that the coucil are making money from our services… the garden centres can use it to produce compost! … but then we’ll have to buy that compost LOL it’s the same of the can’s and plastic… they have it pre sorted cause were stupied enough to do it they sell it on in bulk to company’s that will re-use and it’s back on the shelf and we purchase the products and start the process again… it’s not money saving it’s money making and still we have increased bills
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madness, there is so many other things the council should cut first, waste collection in the main service we all get as taxpayers and they are cutting it, thats not fair
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its all academic anyway because conservative mp and cabinet minister eric pickles has PROMISED to bring back weekly bin day across Shropshire
See -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/businessandecology/recycling/7836540/Weekly-bin-collections-to-return-as-Eric-Pickles-orders-watchdog-to-reverse-guidance.html
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stinky !! i’d rather bin it because then at least you can put it in a plastic bag so it wont attract vermin
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stupid councillors forget that the cost of waste to landfill is set to double in the coming years, how short termist is that all the savings will be wiped out and we’ll all be paying for more waste to landfill which is ultimately going to increase council tax
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Its always a very contentious area
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which ever way you look at it, IT STINKS!
what a load of rubbish shropshire council is!
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im going to complain to my councillor, oh hang on their the ones who made this decision!!
TIME FOR A CHANGE!!! VOTE THEM OUT
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throw it over a hedge and be dammed
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No food waste in my house, all goes down the waste disposal in my kitchen sink. Pretty simple people, you should try it.
And at the risk of being controversial you should lobby for single stream recycling.
Forget all these separate bins for cans, bottles, paper, … Everything goes into one bin and gets sorted at a recycling center. Immediately removes a bunch of jobsworths checking to make sure you haven’t put newspaper in with your bottles, and speeds up collection dramatically.
And if the council is any good they’ll start running all the other rubbish through the sorter to extract all the recycleable materials that people couldn’t be bothered to put in the right bin.
Sell all the recycled materials to China and India and bingo, big money maker.
Side benefit is the end of discussions to build an incinerator in Shrewsbury coz you won’t need it.
No need for thanks. My pleasure. Just go and do it.
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