A FEW remarks in reply to your article “Lowest recycling rates – but change on the way” in the SNJ.
You report that the Shire Hall Conservatives say SDC’s figures are “embarrassing” but they fail to point out that the Veolia waste contract that SDC have been locked into was originated when the Conservatives ran SDC.
So the Shire Hall Tories should blame their friends, not the Labour/Green/Lib Dem administration at SDC who can only bring in new and better arrangements once the Tories’ contract ends.
Can I also comment that the recycling rate is a ratio – if one council is generating a large amount of waste with a given recycling rate, and another council is generating less waste but with a lower recycling rate, then, for the second council, the amount chucked in the black bags may actually be less despite the lower recycling rate.
I understand that SDC are among the best councils in Gloucestershire when it comes to the residual waste per person sent to landfill or incineration which, in my view, is a better measure than the recycling rate.
In Europe, most municipalities quote both rates – the recycling rate, and the residual waste generated per person per year.
Chris Harmer
Green Party member
Nailsworth
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