Ministers forced to dump pledge over weekly bin collections

Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles had promised to reverse the “unpopular and unhygienic” fortnightly collections but as Ministers announced a range of measures on waste, the expected pot of money to help local authorities switch to weekly collections did not materialise.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman admitted yesterday that while the Tories had in Opposition backed a return to weekly collections, the financial situation had been worse than expected.

Mrs Spelman did announce the end for the deeply unpopular “bin taxes” – stating she wanted to help people do the right thing, by making sure communities were not penalised for “minor mistakes” on waste.

But Mary Creagh, Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary, said the policy was in chaos, leaving England with the weakest recycling targets in the UK.

More than half of English councils pick up domestic waste fortnightly – although some have weekly food waste collections – saying it is cheaper, boosts recycling rates and is widely accepted by residents.

Local authorities have warned attempts to change back from fortnightly to weekly waste collections would dramatically increase costs and would reverse efforts to increase recycling rates.

Mrs Spelman said: “People want to do the right thing by reducing waste and recycling at home or out and about and we want to help them.

“This means making sure communities are getting the collection services they want and not penalising hard-working households who make minor mistakes by putting bins out on the wrong day or leaving a plastic tub in the wrong recycling box. For too long, we’ve lagged behind the rest of Europe, although we are catching up fast. Communities and businesses can help us become a first class zero-waste economy and unlock the real value in the goods people no longer want.”

Other measures laid out in the review include incentives for householders who recycle, recycling-on-the-go schemes, better services for businesses and voluntary deals focusing on the hospitality industry, plastic bags, paper, junk mail, textiles and construction waste.

The Government will also consult on introducing landfill restrictions on wood waste and review the case for bringing in landfill bans on other materials including metals, textiles and biodegradable waste.

And an action plan on anaerobic digestion, a process which can turn food and farm waste into energy, aims to help the industry to grow in the next few years to deliver green jobs and green energy.

But officials said neither the action plan nor the waste review dictated to local authorities the best method of collecting organic waste and it was up to councils to decide if they ran separate collection schemes for materials such as food scraps.

The power to impose criminal convictions and a £1,000 fine when a householder failed to put out their rubbish correctly will be removed, although the review acknowledged it was used very rarely.

The Government had already said it would scrap councils’ ability to introduce “pay as you throw” schemes to penalise householders who produce more waste, labelling the measures brought in by Labour as “bin taxes”.

It will only be possible to hand out fixed-penalty notices if the actions of residents are causing “harm to local amenity”.

Mr Pickles said: “It’s time to consign the failed policies of unfair bin taxes, bin fines and bin cuts to the dustbin of history.

“Families pay £120 a month in council tax. Both Whitehall and the town hall need to raise their game to deliver more frequent and better rubbish and recycling collections in return.”

However Wakefield MP Ms Creagh warned the policies risked “turning back the clock” on a decade of recycling progress.

“The Government’s policies for getting rid of rubbish are in chaos,” she said. “They have broken their promise on bin collections and recycling. We need strong leadership to create green jobs through recycling and a greater focus on food waste, which costs families on average £50 a month.

“The policy review says more about the infighting going in Government than it does about tackling waste.”