- Media & Campaigns
- Press releases
- 2009
- April 2009
- LGA response to road maintenance survey
- Councils vigilant on swine flu
- Council magazines not a threat to the local media
- Spending squeeze risks cuts in services
- Pledges on employment for young people ‘encouraging'
- Town halls respond to unemployment figures
- Response from council leaders on budget
- Town halls will continue to provide ever better value for money
- Councils respond to Laming review on child protection
- CAA will better involve councillors
- Lion’s share of council cash back from Iceland will be a relief to taxpayers
- Households at risk from flooding if new laws are left to wait, warn councils
- Smart spending needed to create the greatest number of jobs
- Surveillance powers must be used for serious criminals
- Government backs councils' plans to tackle ghost towns
- Town halls cushion impact of care home closures
- Council leaders make formal pay offer for 2009/10
- EU considers proposals which could force more bin collections on householders
- Eco town approach 'bypassing local democracy'`
- Council jobs and services at risk over bus scheme shortfall
- LGA response to Select Committee report on Iceland
EU considers proposals which could force more bin collections on householders
LGA press release - 6 April 2009
The EU is considering proposals which could force thousands of extra bin collections on British householders, council leaders will warn today.
The European Commission recently unveiled a series of ideas for reducing the carbon emissions that are created from people’s left over food and garden waste. These include measures which would force new targets on councils for collecting so called ‘bio-waste’ and result in extra bin collections for thousands of householders.
Town halls say they must not be forced to impose separate bin collections on people. It should be up to councils to decide what rubbish collections people need based on local circumstances.
Chairman of the Local Government Association, Cllr Margaret Eaton, said:-
“It shouldn’t be up to someone in Brussels, or even Whitehall, to decide whether a person in Birmingham needs a separate bin for their garden waste. It should be up to local councils to decide on what bin collections local people need.
“Councils know their area and they operate the bin collections that are best for local people. That might be alternate weekly collections or it might be separate bins for different types of recycling. In some places, people will want a collection of their garden waste but clearly that’s not going to be the case everywhere.
“Compulsory collections of garden waste would be extremely costly for councils. Extra bin collections would have to be laid on and new bins would need to be provided. In the last five years, the amount of waste councils collect that can be composted has more than doubled. Compulsory collections aren’t the answer.
“Local people deserve great credit for boosting this country’s recycling rates in recent years. People’s actions have helped to divert millions of tonnes of waste away from landfill and keep council tax down. It’s councils that are best placed to make decisions on what is most appropriate for local people and their bins, not the EU.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The European Commission green paper on management of bio-waste in the European Union can be viewed via the link below. For the specific proposal on separate collection obligations, see point 5.5.3 on p16.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0811:FIN:EN:PDF - In 2003/04 local authorities collected 1.4m tonnes of compostable waste. In 2006/07 this figure had more than doubled to 2.9m tonnes. See http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/waste/download/xls/wrfg15.xls
- The LGA response to the EU’s green paper is available on request.