Disappointing recycling rates shame council (From Bournemouth Echo)

Disappointing recycling rates shame council

4:00pm Wednesday 17th December 2008 in

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NORTH Dorset’s recycling chiefs have been slammed after new figures revealed that nearly three quarters of the district’s waste ends up in landfill sites.

North Dorset District Council (NDDC) is ranked 202nd out of 394 councils across the county, with just under 26 per cent of waste recycled.

Less than eight p er cent of the bio-degradable waste in the district is turned to compost, while neighbouring Somerset County Council composts nearly a quarter.

Emily Gasson, the prospective parliamentary candidate for North Dorset, said: “We need a consistent approach to recycling instead of the piecemeal approach we have at the moment.

“In Shaftesbury there are roads that can recycle glass and the next-door road can’t,” said Ms Gasson.

She singled out Gillingham for leading the way in green practices, which she said had yielded recycling rates of more than 60 per cent.

A weekly food waste collection runs in tandem with fortnightly wheelie bin pick-ups and kerb-side collections of “dry” waste.

But NDDC’s leader, Cllr Peter Webb, told the Daily Echo that investment in expanding the Gillingham scheme would be irresponsible.

“The government has introduced legislation requiring county and district authorities to come together to examine waste policies.

“To expand the Gillingham scheme we would need to invest in more lorries and crews. If months later we found we had to change, we would be accused, quite rightly, of wasting tax payer’s money,” said Cllr Webb.

The district chief said NDDC had been a “leading light” in consultations between Dorset County Council and the county’s seven district authorities to draw up a waste strategy for the next 25 years, which will be published in January.