Shropshire Star

Campaigner forces cardboard recycling axe debate

A Shirehall debate has been forced on a controversial decision to end kerbside cardboard collections in the county thanks to an e-petition set up by a Shropshire campaigner.

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A Shirehall debate has been forced on a controversial decision to end kerbside cardboard collections in the county thanks to an e-petition set up by a Shropshire campaigner.

Patrick Cosgrove's petition on Shropshire Council's website passed the 1,000-signature mark yesterday afternoon.

Under council rules, when 1,000 signatures are collected in a petition a debate on the issue is triggered.

So far a total of 1,021 names have been added to the petition.

From the start of next week, more than 130,000 homes in the county will be banned from putting cardboard in garden waste bins following a decision by waste firm Veolia Environmental Services, which is responsible for disposing of rubbish for Shropshire Council.

Householders wanting to recycle cardboard will now have to take it to one of the county's five recycling centres or recycling banks.

The online petition, set up this month, calls for kerbside collections of cardboard to be reinstated.

"Many local authorities, including Telford, continue to collect cardboard and dispose of it in a sustainable fashion," it says.

"Some local authorities in the UK are actually beginning to collect waste cardboard. Shropshire Council must work harder and faster to find a way of disposing of waste cardboad without sending it to landfill."

Shropshire councillor Jon Tandy said: "I think it shows the strength of feeling and I'm having e-mails all the time. The general public are trying to get something started up.

"Officers and councillors have got to look at it again and come up with a solution that will please the general public. It is not the general public's fault.

"People have got used to recycling everything – now we are being told it doesn't make a difference."

A spokesman for Veolia said: "We are currently working with Shropshire Council to assess different ways of collecting card at the kerbside."

A Shropshire Council spokesman said no date had yet been set for the debate.

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