Last updated 10:35, Monday, 20 October 2008

COUNCILLORS have backed a bid to improve recycling in Barrow.

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Under Barrow Borough Council’s proposed scheme, residents would have their 240-litre wheelie bins replaced with ones half the size.

But householders would also have containers for plastic and cardboard.

These would be in addition to existing boxes and bags for glass, cans and paper.

The council’s executive committee threw its weight behind the scheme yesterday.

It followed a presentation from its regeneration director, Phil Huck.

Mr Huck said Barrow’s recycling rate of 20 per cent was by far and away the lowest of all Cumbrian districts and that ‘there is a need, clearly, to address that problem’.

But Mr Huck said ways the council could do that were “somewhat limited” and referred to the fact it had already ruled out fortnightly collections of regular rubbish.

However, as Mr Huck pointed out, there was evidence to show another successful measure was cutting bin sizes.

Allerdale has reportedly improved recycling and reduced waste by replacing 240-litre wheelie bins with 120-litre ones.

Mr Huck said extra revenue costs to the council of £350,000-a-year could be covered by recycling credits.

But that would mean achieving a 34 per cent recycling rate.

“I think it’s fair to say that the movement from the 20 per cent to a 34 per cent recycling rate, to make this a budget neutral proposal, is challenging,” he said. “But the evidence from other areas suggests it’s do-able.”

The council’s chief executive Tom Campbell said: “We cannot rely on the good-will of people to join in recycling. There are people who simply don’t recycle anything – the vast majority of people in Barrow do not recycle.”

Mr Campbell added that Cumbria Strategic Waste Partnership would not be “volunteering” to give Barrow £500,000 of capital funding if it did not think it was absolutely necessary to make a fundamental change in the way domestic waste was dealt with.

Committee chairman, Councillor Ray Guselli, said: “I think it’s essential – we do have to go down this route.

“It’s sad we’re lagging behind the other councils at the moment. But I’m quite sure it’s something we can pick up again.”

Councillor Ken Williams said: “It’s a very good initiative, there’s no doubt about it.“It’s something we’ve all got to do.“There are tremendous penalties if we don’t achieve these kind of levels.”

Councillor John Millar said he agreed the council needed to take action to improve recycling. But he questioned what would happen to the current bins and suggested reusing them.

Councillor Jim Hamezeian said recycling definitely needed to be improved because Barrow was behind everyone else.

But he said the recycling regime should be simpler for “residents who have busy lives and other, more pressing issues”.

He also suggested an incentive such as a “small” reduction in council tax.

Mr Campbell explained how improving the recycling rate, particularly above the break-even point of 34 per cent, could benefit council taxpayers.

“So it’s in everyone’s interest to do this,” he said.

The council accepts larger households couldn’t manage with the smaller bins and would need to be catered for.

Councillor Jean Waiting said she was glad bigger families were ‘going to be okay’ and said getting the extra recycling boxes out before changing the bins was ‘a good idea’.

The plans were not due to be considered by the full council until its next scheduled meeting on January 20. But councillors agreed to organise a special meeting to get the proposals through earlier.

On Cllr Millar’s point, the council’s chief environmental health officer Gary Ormondroyd told the Evening Mail before the meeting: “We will recycle/sell the larger bins through our waste industry contacts to ensure that the residual value of the containers is used to subsidise the costs of refuse collection services generally.”