Green waste is being ignored by clean up crews to remove backlog
In an attempt to clear up streets of the garbage, Birmingham bins bosses have been under heavy pressure for sending vast quantities of plastic pots, recycled bottles and paper to landfill.
There was a massive clean up action during this week, and over-stuffed bins, as well as piles of black bags, could have been seen throughout the city.
As the strike has been ongoing for four weeks, the city council, on Monday, initiated a part-by-part cleanup, planning to cover the whole city by the beginning of next week.
Latest confirmed information to show that recycling is being thrown together with the general waste and going to landfill and the taxes for it are paid by Labour-run council.
Cllr Deirdre Alden, opposition Conservative spokeswoman, regarding the bin dispute said: “Birmingham residents will rightly be outraged when they see the recycling which they have thoroughly separated being thrown into the truck with the general household trash. To discover it is all going to end up as the landfill is a true kick in the teeth.”
“Many people may feel so disillusioned and annoyed; they won’t bother grouping their recycling in the future. It will take a long time to recover people’s confidence and get our recycling levels up to what they were pre-strike. In the meantime, while the strike continues, the recycling figures will fail completely – costing the council money it can’t afford and damaging the environment.”
“The streets are packed with stinking waste, and our recycling is being sent to landfill – this Labour Council has failed its citizens in the matter of waste collection.”
Rob Grant, a Birmingham Green Party chairman replied, adding: “I am appalled that Birmingham City Council thinks it’s OK to do this. Families go to a lot of bothering to correctly sort cardboard, plastic bottles and glass from the rest of the litter, ready for collection.”
“It’s completely unacceptable for the Council just to decide to burn the lot without telling anybody. It’s just irresponsible – I’m quite shocked.”
“Everybody in the town will know how poorly the Council are handling rubbish collections and this is just another example.”
For a lot of people, this was the first time in four weeks that recycling has been emptied as the priority was on black bags and household waste.
Information that recycling was merging into the main waste was confirmed by the city council. A spokeswoman said: “Regrettably, due to these extraordinary events, we have to combine rubbish streams, but this is very much a temporary measure.”
Birmingham City Council’s goal is to recycle 36{4fdb5acd4891bace33ada2338e55dfcfb4968d3d0c3ddd4319d06b6e16894e20} of all waste, but in the past few years, the percentage of recycled waste was under 30{4fdb5acd4891bace33ada2338e55dfcfb4968d3d0c3ddd4319d06b6e16894e20}. City council is at the moment planning a new waste strategy which shall take place in 2019 after the Tyseley Incinerator contract ends.
