Conservative Councillor Peter Craske speaks on Bexley’s recycling programme

For the past 13 years Bexley has achieved the highest recycling rate in London and the changes we made a decade ago helped catapult us to being the first borough to recycle more than 50 per cent of all waste collected.

Not only has that been good for the environment, but it has saved a huge amount in incineration costs, as well as avoiding £11million in landfill and  environmental taxes – money that has been spent on other frontline services for local people.

For the past 13 years Bexley has achieved the highest recycling rate in London and the changes we made a decade ago helped catapult us to being the first borough to recycle more than 50 per cent of all waste collected.

Not only has that been good for the environment, but it has saved a huge amount in incineration costs, as well as avoiding £11million in landfill and  environmental taxes – money that has been spent on other frontline services for local people.

It is because our residents have got behind our work to recycle more that we have been so successful, and that’s why we want you to get involved in shaping the service for the next decade. Further progress is impossible without change.

We currently have a total of 23.5 million collections every year and we know that some of these

collections are not full.  We also know that over 50 per cent of the green bin waste that we currently collect could be recycled and residents have told us that some of the boxes that we use create too much windblown waste which could be prevented.

On top of this our street services contract with Serco, the council’s current waste and recycling contractor, ends soon, making it the ideal time to reassess.  No decisions have been made yet and no one particular option is being advocated at the moment, but we need your help.

What do you think we should do? Why should we do it?

The options which are being discussed are:

Offering residents a choice of wheelie bin sizes, rather than recycling boxes, where people have the space to store them.

Moving to a 1-2-3 collection cycle: weekly collections of food waste, two-weekly collections of garden waste, fortnightly or three-weekly

Introducing additional collections for residents who need to dispose of large quantities of nappies or incontinence pads.

Introducing a longer four-day working week (Tuesday to Friday) to make more efficient use of staff and vehicles and eliminate the disruption caused by bank holidays from 2021/22.

i)   Bringing the collection service and other street services back in-house

ii)  Transferring the service to a company owned by the council

iii) Extending the current Serco contract or re-tendering.

None of the options under consideration affect people living in flats.

If agreed by the council’s cabinet, changes to collection arrangements could take place next summer.

Please #doitforbexley and take this opportunity to have your say on these important services.

Keep an eye out in local press for information on the start of our survey into the future of waste services in Bexley.