News & Media > Environmental Services
09:06:2010
May Gurney says recycling incentive schemes are "unnecessary"
Nicola Peake points to examples of food waste recycling, which have seen households reduce waste without need for incentives, saying: “When weekly food recycling services are introduced, the levels of food waste thrown out drops by up to 25% as residents see how much food they are throwing away and look for new ways to cut waste or recycle at home.”
Her comments follow communities secretary Eric Pickles and environment secretary Caroline Spelman’s informal support for the RecycleBank scheme, which uses the promise of discounts in shops and restaurants in order to encourage people to recycle their waste.
Instead of incentive schemes, Ms Peake called for a more comprehensive recyclables collection scheme that included food recycling, fortnightly waste collection and weekly dry recyclable collection.
She added: “In our experience this approach will result in recycling rates between 65% and 70%, low residual waste volumes, partly due to reduced food waste, high capture rates for food and dry recyclables, with the best carbon dioxide profile and a lower overall system cost including kerbside collection, treatments and disposal.”
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