Local residents all seem to have been told about new waste collection arrangements by Rother Council, either by email or letter, or both – but the devil may be in the detail, writes Charles Harkness. Councils are being expected to recycle more by government, which may explain the changes, but initially the council will not be collecting recycling this first week of June. Any scheduled recycling collection will be replaced by a refuse collection which “may mean that you will receive two refuse collections in a row” says Rother. What they do not then point out, however, is that this may mean a three week gap or more between recycling collections.
For example, in Valley Park on the edge of Rye, the last green bin collection under the old system was May 27 and the first green bin collection under the new is June 18, a gap of just over three weeks. As councils are encouraging residents to recycle more and more, these green bins, often very full after a two week gap, may be overflowing after three weeks. However, what cannot be recycled ends up in the black bin and is used to generate power – a process which initially raised concerns about pollution from the smoke stacks. Anthony Kimber has been investigating how our rubbish is burnt and how pollution is avoided.