1st September 2010

The reasons why we HAVE to make Torbay's new recycling scheme work

Nick Bye, Torbay’s mayor, explains why the new recycling services being introduced from 6 September are so necessary.

Don’t get me started on the bins (and new trays) being introduced in order to boost Torbay’s recycling performance.

By the time you read this I shall be en-route to Weston-Super-Mare (part of North Somerset Unitary Council) to see this new system in operation.

Hopefully, I shall be accompanied by some of our councillors and community leaders and will be able to report back: everything is running smoothly there and after initial teething problems it should settle down in Torbay too.

I knew we were in some trouble on this issue when I stood in the middle of Fore Street, Brixham, as part of one of the many caravan consultations and the team of ‘waste doctors’ were getting even more grief than Yours Truly – which is saying something.

Where we have failed is to explain in clear, simple terms why this change is necessary.

We have spent quite a lot of time and effort endeavouring to explain the ‘how’ and ’what’ but we have failed to explain the ‘why’.

In simple terms, Torbay has a poor record at recycling. In recent years we have improved from something like 30% to 35% and we are immensely proud of our Green Apple Awards and the improvements to the Civic Amenity Site at Yalberton, fondly known as ‘the tip’.

But we are a million miles away from the 50%-60% recycling rates achieved by neighbouring authorities and the cost of taking all this waste to landfill is exorbitant.

In any case, we are running out of landfill sites. At present we export waste to Teignbridge, but there are only a few years remaining before the site is exhausted.

I assume there are no takers for the suggestion that we should open up a landfill within Torbay? Suggestions for sites on a postcard please.

We are therefore working with our friends in Plymouth and the south area of Devon to commission a ‘waste to energy’ plant, although there is still a long way to go in agreeing a site and achieving planning permission.

In the meantime we must improve our recycling rates and the previous arrangements are simply not good enough.

The twin bin (green and grey) system only covers a part of Torbay and even then, as I understand it, some of what goes in green bins is poor quality and all sorts of things which could be recycled are not.

At Bye Towers, typically, there is absolutely no recycling facility, and Yours Truly, as a good citizen, takes all his green ‘stuff’ to dear old Mum.

Newspapers and bottles get taken to the recycling centre at Lymington Road on my way to the Town Hall. The number of bottles deposited has been known to raise the eyebrows of the occasional onlooker, especially after I have had a bit of a do. “It must be a stressful job,” is what I guess they must be thinking.

Surely it makes more sense to provide the greatest opportunity for recycling direct from people’s homes, which in any case, reduces the need to travel to recycling centres and burn up more carbon?

Although some folks are unhappy that the new containers are impractical or need lids etc, they are in fact similar to what is provided on request in certain neighbourhoods at present, and the same as used elsewhere.

Indeed, the surprise, with so many angry and upset residents writing letters to the Herald Express and posting comments, is that there has only been a limited response from Teignbridge readers, where I gather similar systems have operated for some years.

At the risk of being even more unpopular, I am tempted to say that Torbay must seem like a strange place to outsiders when things which are just part of life (parking problems are another similar issue) pretty much around the globe seem to be such a hot topic here.

Torbay Council has formed a joint venture company with May Gurney to deliver this service and all the council’s direct/street scene services.

By achieving economies of scale, the contract should save us some £1m a year, which is not to be sneezed at.

However, the big point is: May Gurney is not some Mickey Mouse outfit.

It has a reputation to defend and, just like Torbay Council, must make a success of this new venture. I am impressed by its commitment to make it work.

Some of the comments made have been hostile because the idea of a business making a profit out of a necessary service is not to everybody’s taste.

I could write a separate essay on the need for profit, investment, jobs and enterprise, especially in a place like Torbay where our economy is still one of the weakest in the UK.

However, in this case the profits will be shared: Torbay Council is a partner in this new company, TOR2.

Folks who say they are not going to co-operate on principle are cutting off their (and everybody else’s) noses to spite their faces.

These are the facts:

In 2009/10 we landfilled 37,000 tons of household waste. This was at a cost of £64n per ton, giving a cost of nearly £2.5m. The Landfill Tax part of that was £1.5m.

However, by 2013/14 Landfill Tax will nearly double and our tax bill will be approaching £3m if we do nothing.

Faced with cuts in government grants over the next few years, can we afford not to give this new system a go?

I accept there will be teething problems and that there have been difficulties in getting information from the call centres, but the new system is intended to be flexible.

Flats, for example, will have slightly different arrangements and anybody elderly or infirm will get assistance, in the way they can now.

I understand some people’s concerns over the practicalities of the various trays etc and it will take time for all of us to learn what goes where.

Perhaps it is an opportunity to become good neighbours – and some youngsters, who are environmentally aware and raring to lead the way in this, might like to help some of our more mature citizens.

But, unless we are prepared for further steep increases in council tax and happy to open a new landfill site somewhere in South Devon, it is simply something we have to get on with.