Call for reversal of Shropshire cardboard recycling rule
Wednesday 23rd November 2011, 9:00PM GMT.
More than 700 people have now signed a petition calling for cardboard kerbside collections to be reinstated in Shropshire. The online petition is calling for the decision to be reversed.
From the start of next week, more than 130,000 homes in the county will face a ban on putting cardboard in garden waste bins following a decision by waste firm Veolia, which is responsible for disposing of rubbish for Shropshire Council.
Households wanting to recycle cardboard will now have to take it to one of the county’s five household recycling centres or to dedicated recycling banks.
An online petition was set up earlier this month calling for the decision to be reversed and has attracted considerable public support.
Today a total of 737 people had put their name to the petition, which has been set up on the Shropshire Council website. But today Veolia said that one of the claims made in the online petition was not accurate.
A spokesman for the waste firm said: “In the quote it says ‘Its only advice to householders is to drive to a recycling centre to dispose of it, but it will then be sent to landfill’. This is not true.
“We have told residents that if they put their card in their black bins it will be sent to landfill, so if they want to continue to recycle it they need to bring it to their local recycling centre or to one of the bring banks around the county.
“We realise how inconvenient this is to residents and we are working with Shropshire Council to find a solution as soon as possible.”
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They simpley have to listen to the people .- we pay (handsomely) for this so-called ‘service’ and we just must have a c-bord pick up, it is just so much mass i have 4 or 5 big boxes and loads of little bits already piled up waiting for a good home and the ban hasnt even started yet
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As I’m the person who started the petition, I guess I’d better respond to Veolia’s comment. Yes, strictly speaking they are correct. They did also suggest that householders could put cardboard in bin liners that are destined for landfill, but that is not the point. The issue is that people do not want to do this, nor do they want to follow the other advice which is to drive cardboard to recycling centres. However, what would have been far more constructive would have been some form of statement to explain exactly how they and Shropshire Council are working behind the scenes to provide a replacement service that will recycle cardboard. So, if you haven’t done so already, please sign the epetition and encourage others to do the same.
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It’s not a case of not wanting to drive-I don’t have my own transport, so unless I want to lug bags of cardboard across town to my nearest facility I’m out of options, particularly as I don’t have any means of burning it either. You can be sure I’ll be signing the petition!
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Thanks for getting this petition started, Patrick.
It’s currently on 1185 signatures:
http://petitions.shropshire.gov.uk/petitions.ti/cardboard
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What we should be saying is for the Con-dem government to reverse their rediculous rule that organic farmers cannot use cardboard in the compost due to toxic inks this is the root cause of the problem and without this national legislation we could just continue with business as usual and compost it
I thought this government wanted to end red tape? Well they have just made more new red tape and its cost us our cardboard collection
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I thought it was an EU rule?
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no nothing to do with the EU
its shropshires interpretation of a UK rule – other english and welsh councils are still composting cardboard though so shropshire has gold plated it
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No,Andy its definately not an EU rule the quality of compost they produce in Romania, Greece etc is inevitably not nowhere near as good as ours.This is just something Veolia and Shropshire Council decided to do.Other Councils in the UK still compost cardboard and garden waste together.See http://www.tmbc.gov.uk/cgi-bin/buildpage.pl?mysql=1110
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The councils website says they must stop composting cardboard because of changes to PAS100.
A simple google search disproves their argument by revealing that: –
a) PAS100 specifically INCLUDES cardboard and paper on the list of suitable materials for composting
b) PAS100 was ammended in JANUARY 2011 – is nearly 2012 now?
c) farmers dont need to meet PAS100 whatsoever only shops do
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whoevers idea it was its a stupid rule and should be reversed
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bet they dontdo it in france
one rule for us and one for the rest of the eu typical
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Just checked its at 835 signatures and counting! Brilliant! Keep signing everyone. http://www.petitions.shropshire.gov.uk
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One option for them would be to collect all recycling including cardboard mixed together and send it to this brand new state of the art recycling factory just a few miles up the road in Shotton. This would save money and allow cardboard and everything else to be recycled locally, efficiently and easily. I beleive other councils have been doing this for about ten years now, perhaps Shropshire should catch up with the 21st century.
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Re:Recycler – totally agree with you on that one, we used to live in Warrington and there you had a separate bin for both cardboard and paper, which both cardboard and paper were then sent to Shotton for recycling which is a far better use of resources than using cardboard for composting.
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Well atleast they admit its veolias decision.Now they have accepted the problem they should concentrate on sorting it out, i dont care how they collect it so long as they recycle it.It is simply unacceptable in this day and age to consign cardboard to landfill just because the profit margin is not there for this private firm who are adding to the public deficit with their use of public spending.
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It seems to me that Shropshire Council has misinterpreted the rules and over reacted. Other councils are continuing to compost cardboard and garden waste together so why dont they? They are using rules designed for shop bought compost as an excuse not to spread the stuff on farmland! Simply OTT. If the compost is not up to retail quality simply just give it away instead. I’ll have 100 tonnes off you for our allotments for starters I bet hundreds of others would too, I dont mind the odd bit of stuff in there
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I’ll have a couple of hundred tonnes for the grounds pls
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it shouldnt need a petition for them to listen to us, our political ‘masters’ are actually our servants, our employees not our bosses, we pay their wages they just need to get it sorted NOW not wait and see
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Now non of my card board will be recycled.
Shame really.
Stupid idea really.
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My partner is disabled and we have lots of cardboard in the form of boxes containing medical supplies every fortnight my normal waste bins are full now I have now way to dispose of the boxes. Thank you Veolia.
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This is simple. Nobody wants cardboard to go to landfill unneccesarily. Expecting people to drive to a recycling centre with it is a bit much. So could Veolia just organise an alternative to it going in the green bin for composting? Cardboard can be recycled easily into cardboard. Recyclable cardboard has a value and there are processors (like UPM Shotton’s MRRF plant) that can handle it easily. There are other processors within Shropshire who would no doubt take it.
It is not asking much for Veolia and the Council to agree an alternative method for collecting cardboard from households and recycling it locally. Job done.
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Agreed
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complete agree. get it sorted pronto whatever it takes and send the bill to veolia. its their change
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there is also alot of MRF in west mids area which is probably nearer too all take mixed cardboard with cans, plastics and the like in there. so that gets rid of their collection problem straight away
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What a nonsense! The council makes money out of cardboard recycling,yet they decide to ditch because of yet more farcical legislation! The world is going crazy all the cardboard will now end up in landfill as most people with busy lives don’t have time to go to the recyling sites especially those who live in rural areas. Pure madness!!
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simpletons at the council cannot figure out how to collect it separate? why not just do what they do in london and just pick it all up mixed and separate it out later. simples.
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I may burn ours like I burn the paper that can’t be recycled.
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Hi people I am suprised and saddened to read about this, when I used to live in Shrewsbury in 2006-7 it was always a very good service for us then. I now live in by the seaside in Eastbourne where we still put all our cardboard in our green bin for collecting with garden waste for composting http://www.eastbourne.gov.uk/environment/waste/garden-waste/kerbside/cardboard-in-your-garden-waste/
Maybe you could ask your council to talk to Eastbourne Council? The service here is really good and I am sure they would take your cardboard if you ask them.
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yet again shropshire council delivers top rate taxes but second rate services
happy christmas hope you dont get through much cardboard at this time of year hey!!
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This is piling up in my house already its caused one row with the wife wanting to chuck it out and im insisting it must be saved for recycling. if david camerons big society requires happy marriage he better come and get this bloody pile of rubbish soon or her indoors will chop my head off and im toast!
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LOL
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Please get it sorted, I can’t bare to put it in the green bin.
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I’m delighted you can’t bare, Sir – it’s a bit cold for that at this time of year.
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Stopping the collection of cardboard has made having that particular bin pretty much pointless for our household. We have a small garden which only creates any waste a few times a year, during the summer when the grass needs cutting – the only thing we put in it in winter is cardboard. We now have a large, ugly and almost useless bin cluttering up the garden. Our normal waste bin is filling up far faster than it used to, and I daresay that if collection day arrives and I can’t get the lid closed properly, they’ll refuse to empty it.
I urge all residents to sign the petition and make their voices heard.
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Let’s face an inconvenient (for Veolia and the Council) fact: if this was indeed national or European legislation, then councils up and down the land would be doing the same thing at the same time. Have you seen any other councils turning their backs on card this week? Has the national press been reporting live from cardboard mountains on street corners? Of course not.
If card has to be separated from the rest by some deadline then an alternative collection method should have been put in place first. If Veolia can’t be bothered (which they clearly can’t) then SC should tear up their contract, put it in the green bin and sign with a vaguely competent contractor.
How hard can it be?
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I’ve complained about this directly to the council and actually ended up speaking with the leader of the council earlier this week. According to him they had only recieved around 40 complaints about the removal of the service and they are working very hard to come up with a solution. I did put my point across very strongly that if they think we are going to take our cardboard to recycling centers then that is not going to happen. All that is going to happen is that we’ll put it in black bins and it’ll go to landfill and increase the cost burden on the council’s landfill tax bill which i’m sure we’ll all end up paying for in next years tax rises!!!
Some of the reason for not changing immediately according to the counicl leadeer is that it would apparently cost 1.3 million to convert trucks to collect cardboard seperatly; to be honest i can’t see that as the councils problem, surely there is a contract in place with viola for them to collect and recycle certain things, how they do should be up to them, therefore it should be thier responsibility to come up with and pay for the solution, i’m sure they are making a good profit from the service we’re paying them to do.
The petition should be useful to increase the number of complaints and give us (the tax payers) a voice.
The point about the change in service due to the standard of the compost as far as i can see has nothing to do with legislation moreover an improved standard that the compost producers can sign up to (PAS100:2011)which viola’s contractors have obviously signed up to, so my point is find another compost producer that is not signing up to the PAS100 standard?
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Its a flipping disgrace that they couldnt hold off on this ’til after Christmas. Just started Christmas shopping online and it all comes in cardboard boxes. Have about a dozen piled up in the blue bin already. Bet the jobsworths wont pick it up if the lids up!
Surely they could have coped for a few more months and then allowed time to sort out cardboard pick-ups instead?
They have already cut our textile pick-up and batteries too now this. That is 3 more things in the black bin now which sabc used to recycle.
Yet they still expect us to cope on fortnightly pick-ups of the blue bin. Its not right. WE NEED WEEKLY PICK-UPS!
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its just not on to stop a service like this. no consultation, no notice, no decent explanation. if they cant compost it anymore then they will have to find an alternative method, i refuse to simply bin it. If we dont fight this then what next? Price of paper crashes so they decide to drop that, plastic bottles too much like hard work so forget them. Glass?
funny they never want to stop collecting the (valuable) tin cans though do they!
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i think the people at the council/veolia have missed the point. where i live in town we dont have big gardens, so the green bin is a cardboard collection service. to say you cant add cardboard means you have just cancelled the entire service atleast until june when i get the odd bit of grass cuttings
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me too! they might as well take the green bin away its a cardboard bin only so no use now
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the joys of privatisation hey? seems a badly drawn up contract if this can happen. No doubt though the contract was written by a consultant so no one anywhere at the council has to actually take responsibility for it. they will have to find another consultant to rewrite it for them now at great expense to the taxpayer
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WHOEVER WROTE IT THE CHEIF EXECUTIVE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR IT. HE’S PAID MORE THAN THE PM, MORE THAN 200K AND HE CAN ORGANISE BIN COLLECTIONS. USELESS
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stupid decision by a stupid council
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this is rotten.pas100 changed in january 2011 so why have they only now started thinking about getting it sorted – they are uselss
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SHROPSHIRE COUNCIL IS GENERALLY USELESS WITH JUST ABOUT EVERY SERVICE, IT GOES TO SHOW THAT THE WHOLE LOT SHOULD BE CONTRACTED OUT GET A PROPER SERVICE PROVIDER IN WHO CAN DO THE BASICS LIKE BINS WITHOUT A COMMITTEE TO DEBATE IT
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er, deano
the service IS Privatised! thats the problem the contractor violia has cut the service to save money/increase their profit margin
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Just a random idea this one, but has any budding entrepreneur in the area with a spare pick-up truck thought about offering a cardboard collection service and working out a deal of selling it all to a big paper company somewhere? Quite sure if you got enough you could easily make more than the cost of the diesel to run it to somewhere like Shotton.
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Darren, spot on – exactly what I was thinking.
I wonder if there is any legislation which prevents anyone else collecting this cardboard and making a profit from it if our council can’t be bothered to do this?
We already have someone who collects metal from our doorstep so why not cardboard?
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Shropshire Council – EPIC FAILURE
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“We realise how inconvenient this is to residents”
Well dont do it then!
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