Brent Council to consider compulsory recycling

Published by Jane Clee for Brent Council in Communities and also in Environment, Local Government

Brent Council is to decide later this month whether to introduce compulsory recycling for homes with access to its green box scheme.

The council's Executive will consider the policy on 11 February after an extensive consultation found that 78 per cent of local people were in favour.

Brent's scheme would emphasise educating and encouraging local people, with prosecution only as a last resort for persistent non-recyclers.

The main reason for introducing it would be to help Brent protect the environment.

Recycling produces less greenhouse gases than sending waste to landfill, saves energy and cuts down on the use of resources.

Cutting ten per cent from the amount sent to landfill would also save Brent an estimated £615,000 in landfill taxes and fees for disposal in a full year and more in future, says the report.

Recycling is on the up in Brent but the council has pledged to reach a 30 per cent recycling rate by 2010.

To achieve that, officers believe they need to get more people to use the green recycling box service.

The report says that of 770 people who responded to the consultation, 97 per cent said recycling was important and 78 per cent backed compulsory recycling.

The report notes that other London councils have introduced compulsory schemes with marked success.

For example Barnet, where recycling levels increased by over 10 per cent in the months after the introduction of compulsory recycling.

If the Executive backs the proposal, Brent would require anyone with access to the green box service to recycle plastic bottles, glass bottles and jars, paper, cans, the Yellow Pages, textiles and shoes, batteries and foil.

Nothing that could go in the green box could be thrown away in the grey bin.

Participation would be monitored, and recycling officers would visit anyone failing to take part to explain how to do it.

Only people who 'persistently and deliberately' failed to take part would be prosecuted.

The council has been making a huge effort to boost recycling and introduced a new, first-class waste service in April 2007.

Other improvements last year include plastic bottle recycling for homes with green boxes and the start of same-day collections.