Are new bin collection plans a waste of time?

Councils will not be forced to bring back weekly bin collections under a review of refuse arrangements in England.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said the Government wanted to help people do the right thing, by making sure communities got the collection services they want and were not penalised for “minor mistakes” on waste.

But Friends of the Earth described the plans as “extremely disappointing” and said there was “nothing substantive”. It is calling for the focus of the debate to be shifted towards increased recycling rates.

Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said the Government was ditching bin fines, and called on Whitehall and town halls to deliver more frequent and better rubbish and recycling collections.

Another U-turn?

Mr Pickles had previously also pledged to reverse the move to “unpopular and unhygienic” fortnightly rubbish collections by councils and bring back weekly bin rounds.

But an expected pot of money to help councils switch to weekly collections of rubbish or food waste did not materialise in the review.

Read more: Government abandons plans for weekly rubbish collections

Though some have weekly food waste collections, more than half of English councils pick up domestic waste fortnightly, saying it is cheaper, boosts recycling rates and is widely accepted by residents.

Local authorities have warned attempts to change back from fortnightly to weekly waste collections would dramatically increase costs and would reverse efforts to increase recycling rates.

The costs of reverting to weekly bin collections across England are believed to be upwards of £100m and potentially as much as £500m.

A waste of time?

Dr Michael Warhurst from Friends of the Earth has criticised the latest review: “The Coalition came in and said they were going to work towards a zero waste economy. But what you see here is almost nothing.

“There’s a repetition of a lot of Labour policies and there’s nothing substantive.”

Dr Warhurst argued the previous Government had carried out two consultations on recycling and there was no need for another one.

“This Government seems to be opposed to the idea of regulation. Without regulation we’re not going to get to the zero-waste economy that the Coalition says it wants.”

Campaigners say the focus of the debate needs to move onto reducing the waste that goes into our bins.

Friends of the Earth is calling for the amount of rubbish we throw away to be halved by 2020 and it wants to see policies introduced to encourage people to cut down on waste.