Murkeyside's recycling is, er, rubbish

Taken from the Liverpool edition of the Daily Post
Green rage at recycling fiasco
Oct 17 2006

By Liam Murphy, Daily Post Staff

THOUSANDS of tonnes of waste, painstakingly separated out by householders who thought it would be recycled as compost, is being dumped in landfill sites.

Wirral Council and Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority have admitted that the rubbish is going to landfill because it cannot be used as compost until it is confirmed as safe to use.

They warned last night that the situation may not change for up to a year.

The waste is part of the food and garden waste recycling scheme which so far includes 18,500 homes in West Kirby, Heswall, Oxton, Prenton and Bebington.

Other homes which have received their garden bins in a second distribution wave have not been given a caddy for their food waste, and are being instructed not to add food waste. Because of this their garden waste can be recycled.

Patrick Cleary of Wirral's Green Party said it showed that recycling in Merseyside and Wirral was "a shambles".

He said: "The recycling in Wirral has been abysmal and I'm very disappointed by this. It has been done successfully in other parts of the country.

"There are so many simple things that could have been done long ago. It would be so simple to give people a way to recycle metal and glass. I had that when I lived down south 10 years ago, and they've had it on the Continent for decades."

He said food recycling was more complex and required a greater change in culture, but added: "It comes across as being totally disorganised and last minute, and is costing people money through landfill taxes which they pay in their council tax.

"People wanting to recycle will be gutted to hear about this. The whole thing is a shambles and a disgrace."

According to a report to be presented to Wirral's cabinet this week food and garden waste at the recycling centre at Bidston has not yet reached the standards required by the State Veterinary Service and cannot be sold as compost.

The report by director of technical services David Green said: "Currently the end product is being land-filled, so there is no recycling benefit to Wirral."

The report says this is "usual practice" for a new plant.

The authority says from April to July, 2,175 tonnes of food and garden waste was collected from 18,500 households. This is almost as much as the amount of garden waste (2,573 tonnes) collected from the remaining 75,000 households which just have the garden waste only sacks.

Carl Beer, Director of Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority, said they are now in the testing and assessment stage of the compost materials produced by the in-vessel composter at Bidston with the State Veterinary Service (SVS).

He said: "As part of guidelines that were brought in following the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, any food waste that is composted into materials for use on land must now be fully assessed by the SVS before it is certified for use.

"This assessment and approval process is standard and is happening across the UK on all food and combined green and food waste collections."

He said the tests could take "up to a year but sometimes longer" to ensure the compost is safe to use.

David Green, director of technical services for Wirral Council appealed to people not to be disheartened and to continue recycling.

"The mixed food and garden waste residents have given us to recycle is absolutely vital and highly valued and I would not want anyone to feel their efforts are being disregarded - this is just not the case.

liammurphy@dailypost.co.uk