Cornwall’s Future Waste Contract & Recycling Banks
Cornwall’s future Waste Contract & public access recycling banks is in the news and whilst not popular with some of my fellow Councillors, I have put local views and needs above party Politics because it is the people of St Just and Pendeen that elect me not the Councillors.
How Cornwall Council currently spends your money
At the moment (or when last calculated) for every £100 the Council receives, £7 is spend on collecting residents recycling and other waste, cleaning the streets and beaches, looking after public parks. Every resident in Cornwall benefits from this Service and one of the few Services where that can be said. People will know that the current waste collection contract comes to an end April next year but in getting companies to tender, those companies interested say they cannot do it within the budget Cabinet has allocated. So, the specification has been changed so that recycling will stay as fortnightly collections, as today (was proposed as weekly) and residual/ black bag waste will also be collected fortnightly as per the original proposal. Food waste will still be part of the new contract and it is still proposed to collect it weekly.
Cornwall Recycling Rates – Graphic supplied by Cornwall Council
The other new money saving idea is to remove the recycling points in Council car parks (this does not affect those in supermarkets) earlier so starting in October 2020 rather than from October 2021. The current waste contract has been extended for 6 months so their removal will be at the start of the waste contract.
When I was in the Cabinet and responsible for this area, I had reluctantly agreed to the removal of the public recycling points linked to weekly recycling being in place. So, with that proposal ditched, to save money, the plan is to remove them faster. There is no webcast available of the meeting where I put the challenges for people without storage to recycle without these banks in places like St Just and Pendeen but the reporter there has reported my words more or less verbatim.
The Town Council are going to discuss this issue on Monday, so if you have views, email all Town Councillors before Monday – their contact details can be found on the St Just Town Council website
If you want to read what I said on your behalf and let me know whether I have got this right or wrong, then read here.