Jane Beasley of Beasley Associates looks back at the past year, commending local authorities for providing the best service they can in the face of negative media and… [dum dum dum!] Eric Pickles. CIWM Journal Online Exclusive
Eric Pickles, the man who loves bins, has spent the last 12 months continuing to pick at the scab that is weekly residual collection.
Having seemingly made it his raison d’etre he has maintained a sustained campaign aimed at local decision makers to universally force a return to weekly residual collection. During the Christmas period Pickles launched the “Bin Bible”, which succeeded in raising the shackles of anyone with even a modicum of knowledge in waste and resource issues but didn’t stop national press and tv from supporting this obsession in weekly residual collections
As someone who featured more heavily than any other response in CIWM’s Great Waste and Resource survey as the biggest negative impact in the waste industry in the last 12 months, you may wonder why Eric Pickles is the opener in an article celebrating success and achievement.
Well actually this is not about him, it’s about local government standing firm in the face of an ongoing relentless campaign to discredit and undermine their actions and decision making. It’s about good sense and sound judgement prevailing in a tide of negative press. It’s about local authorities providing the best service they can in what continues to be financially challenging times.
With waste collection as one of the most high profile aspects of local government service, changing or introducing new collection services has always been a challenge and required a high degree of public consultation.
“The shame is that Pickles obsession has meant that he has simply missed the point; its not about waste collection simply as a public service anymore, its about appropriate collection of resources to fit into a circular economy”
Misinformation and biased reporting has not made this role any easier. In addition reducing budgets coupled with a desire to maintain, and even extend in some cases, high performing services in terms of recycling have put even more pressure on local government.
And yet none of these issues have distracted local authorities from the task in hand in trying to ensure that they are providing the best value approach for their householders. Far from seeing a rush of authorities changing their collection practices to meet the demands of Pickles and the popular press, decisions continue to be made in response to a broad range of factors including local circumstances, budgets, priorities, contracts, socio demographics, performance, targets and participation rates.
They refer to evidence of what has worked elsewhere depending on what they are trying to achieve and how the material is to be managed. In fact most recently the possibility of a four weekly collection for residual waste has been mooted, and Gwynedd has been the first to adopt a three weekly collection in an effort to ensure that full use is made of the more frequent food and recycling collection service and to meet welsh targets. Falkirk is set to follow suit later in the year, primarily as a cost avoidance initiative.
This will not have been an easy decision for either authority and certainly flies in the face of the Pickles campaign but demonstrates the ongoing resilience of local government to make the most appropriate decisions within the constraints that they are operating in.
The shame is that Pickles obsession has meant that he has simply missed the point; its not about waste collection simply as a public service anymore, its about appropriate collection of resources to fit into a circular economy.
Local government needs to continue looking forward and demonstrate the resilience we have seen to date. Its interesting times we are heading into and I am sure there will be many more distractions along the way, but for today at least we need to celebrate the resolve and positivity shown by those working in local government to stay focused on the task in hand.
