Fewer rubbish collections boost recycling

Councils that alternate weekly collections of rubbish and recycling have a 30 per cent higher recycling rate, the Local Government Association (LGA) has announced.

A growing number of authorities have axed weekly rubbish collections and critics claim the fortnightly collections encourage rats and lead to bad smells.

However, the up-to-date study found that in areas where councils offer weekly collections, the average rate of recycling is 7 per cent lower, with an average of 23 per cent. All 10 of the councils with the highest recycling rates in the country have adopted alternate weekly collections of non-recyclable waste.

The LGA - a cross-party organisation representing councils in England - said that if this level of recycling was countrywide, taxpayers would save around £22 million every year in taxes on landfill and cut landfill by 1.2 million tonnes.

The LGA chairman, Sandy Bruce Lockhart, said: ‘Britain is the dustbin of Europe with more rubbish being thrown into landfill than any other country on the continent.’ He added: ‘The move by some [councils] to alternate weekly bin collections is aimed at working with residents to reduce waste, increase recycling and slowing rising costs from EU legislation and higher landfill tax.’

I can just about get the logic behind - if your first reaction is to think that two weeks of rubbish doesn’t fit in the bin and you don’t want it piling up, it might make you think more about what actually gets chucked.