MY ORANGE LIDDED RECYCLING BIN HAS ARRIVED

Our orange lidded recycling wheelie bins have at last arrived in Elstow! The first bins were delivered to Bedford homes in early November but as ever the 40 villages had to wait their turn. All bins should have been delivered by the end of the year.

Bedfordshire County Council offered £1m to Bedford Borough Council in 2007 to pay for the new recycling bins. The Borough accepted this offer early this year but there was a 6 month wait for the new bins due to a huge bin order from Germany - the German people are very enthusiastic about recycling, as I discovered when I stayed with my German friend Irmgard in Bamberg in October 2007.

The Labour Government is now forcing local councils to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill dumps by imposing huge Landfill Taxes (called LATS). If Council Taxpayers do not want to pay much higher taxes in future, we must all recyle, reuse and reduce our waste in future.

There are two sizes of orange-lidded recycling bins, but some people
do not have enough space for these bins and have opted to retain the
orange recycling sacks. If you have not yet decided whether to have an orange lidded bin, I urge you to consider ordering one by calling Tel. 0900 121 888.

In Bedfordshire we have successfuly increased our recycling rate from 24% to 40% in two years, and we are now aiming to increase recycling rate to 50%.

ENERGY FROM WASTE PLANT IN BEDFORDSHIRE

GOOD NEWS FOR TAXPAYERS!
Bedford Borough Council's Implementation Executive has finally agreed to back the Bedfordshire Enery and Recycling Project (BEAR) to build an Energy from Waste Plant to cut the waste going into landfill and generate electricity.

The Consortium was set up by Bedfordshire County Council to deal with strict Government and EU legislation requireing the amount of the UK's waste sent to landfill to be reduced by 65% of 1995 levels by 2020. Bedfordshire's target is to reduce landfilled waste from 131,428 tonnes in 2007/8 to 44,816. Failure to do this will result in huge Landfill Taxes (LATS) which the Council Taxpayer would have to pay. Bedfordshire has successfully increased its recycling levels to 40% but recycling is only part of the solution.

Initially Bedford Borough Council was against the EfW proposal and Liberal Democrats preferred biological recycling but this option alone would not recycle enough waste.
Central Bedfordshire and Luton Borough Council decided to back the BEAR Project and after visiting EfW Plants in London and Portsmouth I was convinced that the EfW is the solution. However I could not persuade the Mayor and other Borough colleagues.

After receiving further expert advice, Bedford Borough Council has now decided to support the project so hopefully we can avoid the dreaded LATS taxes in future.

In terms of recycling Mid and South Bedfordshire recycles much more than Bedford Borough, but with the imminent arrival of our new orange lidded bins Bedford should increase its recycling rate and meet the new Government targets.

RECYCLING WASTE

Much of a Councillor's daily work is mundane and we rarely receive compliments, but last week a resident thanked me for my help over a recycling issue. She had tried without success to get a green bin from Bedford Borough Council to recycle her garden waste, so she wrote to me last Sunday evening.

I followed up the problem immediately and on Tuesday a new green bin was delivered to the resident who then emailed me:

"I had a pleasant surprise this evening when I returned home - to find a green bin waiting outside my house. This must be some sort of record for dealing with a resident's concern! I am beyond impressed! Thank you very much indeed for your help"

Councils are keen to increase their recycling rates because the Government is discouraging the use of landfill sites and is introducing punitive Landfill Taxes which council taxpayers will have to pay if recycling rates do not rise rapidly.

Bedfordshire has a Waste Management Strategy to increase recycling eg the Barkers Lane Household Waste Recycling Site in Bedford was refurbished and achieved 80% recycling for the first time in June. The County recycling figure for June was 45%,
5.4% more than 2007. Bedford households will soon have orange lidded bins to increase their dry recycling, as well as green lidded bins for garden waste, reducing dramatically the amount of waste from black bins going to landfill.

Remember that the more waste you recycle, the less landfill tax you will pay in future years.