Changes to Bin Collections

The City Council is changing the bin collection days for the whole city. Those areas shown in Blue in the map above will have their days on Monday and those in Orange on a Tuesday.

The changes will coincide with the introduction of a new doorstep collection of glass. This new service is funded by the government (see link to earlier article about the bid to government) to improve recycling whilst keeping the our weekly residual waste bin collections.

The changes will undoubtedly mean some teething problems and missed collections so please let me know if your bin is missed and you need me to speak to the council. 

However I think the changes are positive. The council has written to households and enclosed a sticker with your bin day on it. It is worth sticking this on your bin. Hopefully going forward when new people move into the area they will immediately know what day their collections are due. With lots of rented properties and student households in Freemantle Ward we do have a problem with new people not always knowing when to put their bins out. My only concern is that that having whole areas done on the same day may lead to bin lorries filling all the local streets causing traffic congestion. However hopefully this won't prove to be an issue. 

Conservatives Oppose Labour Plans to Charge for Green Waste Collections

Local Conservatives are fighting Labour plans to charge up to £55 a year for green waste collections in Southampton, a service which was previously free.

Council officers have warned the Labour Administration that their charges will hit recycling rates in the city; with an estimated 3,000 tonnes of previously recycled garden waste now either going to landfill or incineration. It is thought that 25,000 household which previously used the free garden sack service will not now sign up to the new charges, reducing Southampton recycling rates by 3%.

Labour’s plans come just months after an announcement by the government that the city will receiving funding to introduce a new doorstep glass collection. Labour’s changes to green waste collections will however will more than wipe out the extra recycling this will produce. So despite winning millions of pounds from the government to improve recycling Labour will ensure that recycling in the city goes backwards.

The extra charges come on top of Labour’s increase in council tax, their extra council tax charges for pensioners and their introduction of new residents parking charges. Many residents now face bills of more than £200 a year extra.

The changes will mean residents who want to continue to have their garden waste collected by the council will have to endure a 3rd wheelie bin outside their house as the old green sacks are withdrawn.

Labour’s plans also are a slap in the face for city refuse collections who Labour along with Labour activists in the trade unions encouraged to strike last year. The much reduced service will now mean many workers will lose their jobs.

Weekly Bin Collections Must Stay

Local Conservatives are committed to keeping the weekly bin collections and want to see more recycling in the city. In our manifesto we pledged to keep residual waste bin collections weekly and before the May elections we submitted a multi million pound bid to the government for extra money to fund a new FREE kerbside glass collection service.

By contrast, Labour have refused to rule out axing the weekly bin collections. As recently as September, Labour said publicly that the service might be cut despite their last minute pre election pledge. 

I am lobbying the Secretary of State for Local Government, Eric Pickles, to provide the kerbside glass money to Southampton City Council.

Recycling Boost for Ocean Village

Earlier this week I attended the launch of a new recycling facility outside the Tescos at Ocean Village. The new machine, which takes plastic bottles and tin cans and shreds them into tiny pieces, is one of ten trial units being piloted by Tesco around the country. Southampton was chosen because of its excellent green credentials and the strong commitment that the City Council has to recycling.

If successful more of these machines will be rolled out across the city and elsewhere. As well as helping the environment, Tesco shoppers will be able to pick up points on their Club Cards!

State Of The Art New Sports Facilities At Test Playing Fields

The layout for the new sports facility at Test Playing Fields (click to enlarge)

The Conservative Council is pushing ahead with plans to build state of the art new sports facilities at Test Playing Fields (off Lower Brownhill Road). This will be delivered in partnership with Southampton Solent University and the Football Foundation.

The new community facilities will include a synthetic turf pitch, a Multi User Games Area and associated changing rooms and parking. Holy Family Roman Catholic Primary will benefit from free time tabled use of the Multi User Games Area.

I was pleased to agree the Solent University lease on Monday. The City Council already has a superb sports partnership with Solent, where their students run extra hours of sport for children on the west of the city. The next step is this fantastic new facility which will benefit the local community and nearby schools.

Where Does Our Rubbish Go?

I spent Friday learning all about what happens to our household waste. We started the day with a morning at the Marchwood Incinerator (or Energy Recovery Facility), then visited the Recycling processing centre in Alton (or Materials Recovery Facility), and finally the Little Bushywarren composting site near Basingstoke.

This was a tour organised by the city council and by Veolia who have a long term waste disposal contract (called Project Integra) with all the local authorities in Hampshire. I had been looking forward to it for some time and it was extremely educational.

The first thing I wanted to know was why does the Marchwood incinerator look like the lair of a James Bond villain and what does it look like inside. Here are pictures showing both.

I was told that essentially it looks like it does because the site available was quite large leaving the architect the luxury of building something unique and interesting. Inside it is essentially what you would imagine such a facility to look like.

Marchwood incinerator is one of the sites where our non recyclable waste goes to be burnt. It is then converted into energy and supplied into the national grid, powering about 20,000 homes locally. At the end of the incineration process what's left over (called bottom ash) is separated out into metal, aluminium and glass. Most of the bottom ash is then used as aggregate in road building.

We were shown a huge pit where the dustbin lorries dump all the waste. A giant crane then lifts heaps of the material and drops it into a chute for incineration. What amazed me was the amount of recyclable materials like cardboard that I could see. Clearly we have a lot further to go in sorting our rubbish. I was told that we could probably double the amount we recycle as a city if we all did it properly.

However we are making great strides. In 2002 local councils in Hampshire were sending 700,000 tonnes of waste to landfill. This was down to 123,000 in 2006 and I am sure we can reduce this much more in years to come.

The Integra project in Hampshire is leading the way and other counties are looking at similar models. What I find worrying however is how far the commercial sector is lagging behind. Business in Hampshire is land filling perhaps 5 times more than is coming from households. Changing that has to be the next big challenge. I see no reason why local authorities can't enter into agreements with the commercial sector to recycle and incinerate their waste and avoid it going to landfill.

Southampton's Recycling Highest Ever

The most up to date figures show a huge leap in city recycling over recent months.

In August residents recycled 31% of household waste, the most ever in Southampton and up from 26% in August last year.

This is fantastic news. A lot of hard work has been done by the city council recently and a range of further initiatives are planned by the new Conservative administration which will boost recycling even further.

For more details click HERE.

This news come after Southampton's new Conservative council was endorsed by Greenpeace for its energy efficiency vision for the city.

Further green initiatives being pursued by the council include improving recycling in city council building and action to improve water efficiency in civic buildings.