Letters to the press: Recycling in Wirral
 
Collection-for-recycling points in public buildings
Read more...
Jim McGinley, Submitted to 'Wirral Globe' 19th October 2009

Composting at home is the best option
Read more...
Bekki Koncienczy, Wirral News, 19 September 2007

Councillor should back recycling improvements
Councillor Gerry Ellis support for a restoration of weekly bin collections is both ill considered and ill conceived. Read more...
Bekki Koncienczy, Wirral Globe, 4th July 2007

New recycling scheme has been poorly handled
It is not surprising that some residents are not enthusiastic about the new waste and recycling collection scheme in Wirral. The advantages have not been properly communicated and people are viewing it as a cut in public services. Read more....
Anne and Matt Rosseinsky, May 2007

Taxpayers will pay for Councils woeful recycling record
Your piece on recycling (waste not, want not May 31st) did not do justice to the depth of the waste crisis facing council taxpayers in Wirral. Read more...
Patrick Cleary, June 2006


 
Collection-for-recycling points in public buildings

The UK currently re-cycles less than 3% of portable batteries (Belgium manages 50%). Batteries contain various hazardous materials such as lead, mercury, cadmium, zinc, manganese and lithium. Regulation will require 25% to be re-cycled by 2012, and 50% by 2016, to reduce the harmful effects of battery disposal on the environment and to conserve valuable resources. Wirral Council should follow Lewisham's example and establish collection-for-recycling points in libraries and other public buildings, thus giving responsible leadership on the environment, staying ahead of regulation and assisting Wirral businesses and people in doing the right thing.

Jim McGinley
Wirral Green Party
Submitted to 'Wirral Globe' 19th October 2009

 
Composting at home is the best option

It's great that councils on Merseyside are encouraging people to compost more as this an important way of reducing waste while at the same time yielding a useful product that will improve soil fertility.

However, on the face of it, the free compost offer seems to reflect a lack of joined up thinking. Encouraging people to make three separate trips by car to a local collection facility has obvious implications in terms of increasing car use and adding to local pollution and congestion. It seems especially strange given that door-to-door collection of garden waste has recently been introduced. Although some people with very large volumes of garden waste may benefit from this scheme, the vast majority of households would be better advised to make full use of the door-to-door service before making unnecessary trips to a local collection facility.

In particular, the Councils priorities should be to encourage people to compost at home as this is the most environmentally sound option and is a great way of reconnecting people with natural cycles. Beyond that residents should be encouraged to make full use of their fortnightly door-to-door collection and only then should they take any additional waste to local collection facilities. Furthermore, the council could encourage more local food production by offering compost at cost price to all residents. Growing our own food is a fantastic way of reducing food mils and making our community more resilient in the face of soaring food costs. These are deeply impacted by soaring energy prices and the negative impacts of climate change on global food production.

Bekki Koncienczy
Wirral Green Party
Wirral News, 19 September 2007


 
Councillor should back recycling improvements

Councillor Gerry Ellis support for a restoration of weekly bin collections is both ill considered and ill conceived. For instance he has failed to:
  • Inform residents as to the impact on council tax should a weekly bin collection be restored
  • Consider the safety, traffic and environmental implications of all the extra vehicles required to provide a weekly bin service on top of the collection of garden waste and household recyclables?
  • Survey his constituents to see how many support the new collection scheme? He may find it is rather more than he thinks

Local councillors need to get behind this long overdue improvement to Wirrals pathetic recycling service, not get in the way.

Bekki Koncienczy
Wirral Green Party
Wirral Globe, 4 July 2007


 
New recycling scheme has been poorly handled

It is not surprising that some residents are not enthusiastic about the new waste and recycling collection scheme in Wirral. The advantages have not been properly communicated and people are viewing it as a cut in public services.

Every year the UK produces 75 million tonnes of household and business waste. We have more rubbish going into landfill than any other country in Europe and it is predicted by DEFRA that, at these levels, we will run out of landfill space in less than 9 years.

Councils that have transferred to fortnightly collections have 30% higher recycling rates than those that have not. Locally, Ellesmere Port and Neston is the council with the most improved recycling and composting rates for 2005/06. Wirral, however, is 7th from bottom across the whole of the country. We recycled only 12.4% of our household waste in this period.

Landfill taxes are set to rise dramatically over the next five years. This means that if the amount of refuse we landfill in Wirral does not fall significantly, the council will have to pay higher charges, which will of course increase our council taxes. Ultimately, of course, we need to slash the amount of waste that is generated in the first place, something our politicians have conspicuously failed to act on.

It is in all our interests, both financially and environmentally to make the new system work. However, it has to be introduced in a practical and efficient way and the benefits need to be clearly and effectively explained.

Anne and Matt Rosseinsky
Wirral Green Party
May 2007


 
Taxpayers will pay for Councils woeful recycling record
Your piece on recycling (waste not, want not May 31st) did not do justice to the depth of the waste crisis facing council taxpayers in Wirral. For years the pages of the News have been filled with letters from irate residents fed up at the inadequate recycling facilities on offer locally. Clearly this has been insufficient to prompt an adequate response from Wirral Council, which now presides over the fifth worst recycling rate in the entire country.

As if this was not bad enough we now have the inadequate response to the governments landfill tax escalator, which increases the cost of dumping rubbish in landfill by £3 per annum. Despite this well flagged measure, Wirral Council has failed to prepare for the inevitable by investing in proper recycling facilities. The embarrassing result is that we now have the leader of the Council running cap-in-hand to the government pleading for extra funding. One has to ask why the government should reprieve a council that has so manifestly failed to face up to its responsibilities in waste management. Either way, it is taxpayers who will end up footing the bill.

Patrick Cleary
Green Party (Wirral)
June 2006




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