Plea to support Community Recycling Campaign

A community pride campaign will be launched to support people as Blackburn with Darwen Council changes its household bin collection service.

Council leader Mohammed Khan is calling on people to get involved and work with the Council to give a massive boost to the area’s current recycling rates of 36%.

There is a lot of misleading information being circulated about these changes which really concerns me,” said Councillor Khan. “Every local authority in Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cumbria except Ribble Valley Borough Council operate this system, some councils only collect rubbish every three weeks. Our scheme is designed to make changes as easy as possible. We are listening to the things people tell us are worrying them and we will be making sure they have helpful information.

Household bins collections – The facts:

• We need to increase recycling rates in the borough to at least 50%, the Government’s target, by 2020. If we fail to meet recycling targets we face hefty Government fines
• On average, only 51% of grey recycling bins are put out for collection each fortnight
• On average, only 53% of burgundy (rubbish) bins are put out for collection each week
• The burgundy (rubbish) bins contain on average 17.3% of materials that could be recycled via the grey recycling bin, which if recycled could save the Council Tax payers £117,000 per year.
• People will still have a collection every week. One week it will be their burgundy (rubbish) bin. Then the next week it will be the grey recycling bin being emptied.
• We use wheeled bins which is the most hygienic and safe way to store waste. By disposing of the rubbish in the right way, we can avoid any problems with vermin. To minimise any odour problems, items like nappies and food can be put in bags and tied shut.
• Residents will be able to access a new online system and directly request other services such as a bulky waste collection
• Fly tipping is an offence and carries a £400 on the spot fine and court fines can be over £50k and imprisonment in extreme cases.

The changes are set to take place from Monday, October 3 this year.

Before that, every household will receive detailed information and all the current help for vulnerable people will remain in place.

Councillor Khan added:

If we can get our recycling rates up we have more chance of protecting frontline services. I really hope people will see the benefits of getting on board and doing their bit. We have seen such a lot of community spirit on display in Blackburn and Darwen with people working with the Council to help ease the pain of these cuts and also do something positive for the environment.

This change is designed to improve recycling rates and reduce the costs of refuse disposal as well as refuse collection. Provision will be made for larger households with four or more occupants, who are recycling, to be able to change from a 140 litre burgundy bin, to a 240 litre burgundy bin on request.

Blackburn with Darwen Council cuts – the facts:

The Council has been dealing with unprecedented cuts for the past seven years. Important services have been affected throughout the process. Northern authorities like Blackburn with Darwen have been harder hit

The Council did not increase Council Tax for 5 years then were told by Government that we had to this year.

Government rules say that we can’t spend money for building things like a bus station on delivering services like bins.

The Council Tax that we pay is only a relatively small part of how the Council is funded

Councillor Khan added:

Our residents are suffering as a result of the Government cuts to our funding.

The Council provides hundreds of services and Government funding continues to be drastically cut.  Also Government tells us that we can’t spend money for building new things like a bus station on delivering services like bins.

All the things we can be doing to deal with the loss of income are happening. Every Council service is being reviewed to balance the budget.