Landfill Loving Labour!

Posted By: William Hobhouse
Date Posted: 18/09/2007

I’ve had the pleasure of going to the Heywood Township and the Middleton Township this September, where Councillors have been able to have their say on the household waste collection system for the next few years.

Half the Borough is now on Alternate Weekly Collections – where landfill is collected one week and all recyclates the next. The other half of the Borough is still on a weekly landfill collection with recyclates collected every second week.

The Lib Dem Council has now brought together all the facts and decided to roll out Alternate Weekly Collections across the remaining Tuesday and Thursday collection days.

As far as I am concerned, the argument is overwhelming. But the case is based on one assumption: Recycling is good, landfill is not so good. This is not, alas, an assumption shared by any of the 20 Labour Councillors spread across the Borough. To a person, they all voted for a Boroughwide return to a weekly landfill collection - with the proven result that landfill tonnages would rocket and recycling tonnages would plummet.

The figures are extraordinary. Wednesday collection (old) 9% recycling. Wednesday collection (with new Alternate Weekly collection) 36% recycling, AND a greater reduction in landfill tonnage than expected as residents think more about waste.

This week, the Liberal Democrats have set out their vision for a carbon zero Britain by 2050. Reducing landfill (to a very low level) is part of this agenda, as landfill gases are a contributory factor in global warming.

This Liberal Democrat Council in Rochdale Borough shares that vision for the environment. We will not cave in to a backwards looking landfill loving Labour agenda!