Wheelie bins will not cost the taxpayer money - SDC defends new recycling scheme (From Stroud News and Journal)

Wheelie bins will not cost the taxpayer money - SDC defends new recycling scheme

5:17pm Thursday 19th July 2012 in Letters

MADAM - In response to the three recent letters in the SNJ expressing concerns over the costs of the wheelie-bins for new recycling scheme, I hope your readers will forgive me for repeating a message, that your newspaper has already covered on previous occasions: there is NO extra cost of introducing the new scheme, once again ZERO , NOTHING.

The increase in recycling generates an income which offsets the costs of the service including new collection vehicles and the wheelie-bins.

In fact if everyone takes up the system and recycles everything they now can there will actually be extra income to the district council through recycling credits which mean savings for the taxpayer. We are asking everyone who can possibly have a bin to try it for few months. (Reusable bags can be supplied if it is really completely impossible to accommodate or empty a bin.) Most of the recyclable material that should go in these bins is relatively light - unless like our family we recycle lots of glass bottles - so most bins will be relatively easy to wheel. The bins will last 10-15 years and are emptied into the back of the recycling lorries rather than emptied by hand like the old vehicles, making them much more practical and safer for the workforce. While world leaders were just talking about the environment in Rio recently, Stroud residents can actually DO something to help the environment, using a cheaper, long lasting and more effective system. I trust that this allays concerns.

Cllr Simon Pickering

Executive member for environment

Stroud District Council