Owen Temple

The Labour Executive of Derwentside Council is to reconsider whether to extend the collection of garden waste (“Green Waste”) which has been trialled within the district.

This story shows the nonsense of Central Government trying to micro-manage local decisions by the way it sets targets for everything.

Garden waste put into the “ordinary” bins is bad for the environment. It goes into landfill sites where it creates a lot of methane – 23 times more damaging than carbon dioxide – so collecting this waste separately and composting it has real benefits.

In the council’s voluntary pilot programme 2,000 houses had their garden waste collected. People liked the scheme so they separated more and more garden waste for collection and a waiting list formed to go onto the scheme. The trouble was, it meant the council was actually collecting more rubbish than before. Since the government requires it to collect less waste this meant the council got it in the neck for missing the target. In turn that meant that they didn’t extend the service even though local people obviously wanted it.

Now the government has been told by Europe that we must stop putting so much biodegradable waste into landfill sites, to protect the environment. As a result they’ve created new targets which result in the council being fined £150 per tonne if too much biodegradable waste goes into landfill.

It’s a Classic Catch 22. If you collect the garden waste you can help the environment, keep local people happy – and get slammed by government as an inefficient Council. If you don’t collect the waste you get praised as an efficient council, and fined for putting too much bio-degradable waste into landfill!

Liberal Democrats believe:

• We all have a duty to protect the environment and should “do our bit”
• Local people are the best people to decide how that is achieved, and can be trusted to make responsible decisions if they are given the right information.

In Derwentside we hope the Executive will extend the “Green Waste” collection on a voluntary basis for waste that cannot be composted at home, whilst encouraging everyone to compost what they can themselves. That’s the real “Green Waste” because the only energy it uses is your own, and it can be used to improve your own garden and tubs.

For information on how to get a cheap composter through the County Durham Recycling scheme click this link http://www.durham.gov.uk/durhamcc/usp.nsf/pws/Waste+Management+-+Countywide+Composting+Promotion