Manchester Residents Pay Through the Nose for Labour's Recycling Failure

6.10.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 11th Jul 2007

Manchester Liberal Democrats urge improvements in City's recycling

Manchester residents this year saw the amount they pay for waste disposal, through their Council Tax bills, rocket by nearly 10% because the Labour-run Council is not doing enough to improve recycling rates in the city.

Residents in Liberal Democrat-controlled council areas fared much better, with both Stockport and Rochdale amongst the lowest 3 for waste levy increases. Stockport Council's levy increased by just 4% and Lib Dem Rochdale did best of all with an increase of less than 1%.

The government is now taxing local waste disposal authorities heavily for dumping too much waste in landfill sites. The Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority is, in turn, now charging each council depending on the amount of non-recycled waste it produces. This means that the amount that council tax payers have to pay for waste disposal goes up more each year if the Council does not improve recycling rates enough.

Manchester Liberal Democrats are now calling for dramatic improvements in the recycling performance of the council. The Lib Dems want to see the range of materials that the council collects from homes for recycling to be extended to include cardboard, plastics, telephone directories and envelopes. They are also calling for the recycling collections to be extended to blocks of flats and apartments.

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Burnage, John Cameron, who uncovered the figures, said:

"Improving the recycling rates in Manchester is crucially important on a number of levels. Firstly, recycling helps to reduce carbon emissions and so helps to slow the process of global warming. Secondly, the UK is fast running out of landfill sites in which to dump all the non-recycled waste that is collected. Thirdly, by not recycling enough, the Labour council is now costing the council tax payers more money each year."

Councillor Cameron, a member of the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority, continued:

"People are very keen to do their bit for the environment by recycling more, but the council are not doing enough to help them. We have been pressing the council to collect more materials, such as plastics and cardboard, from the kerbside, as part of their existing scheme, and we are calling for them to extend the scheme to include all residents, including those who live in flats and apartments."

The council have recently conceded to introduce a limited scheme for collections from flats in the City Centre, but this does not go far enough:

"I have written today to the Executive Councillor in charge of the environment demanding to know when the council will bring a recycling collection service for flats and apartments outside the city centre and when the council will begin to collect cardboard and other materials from peoples' doorsteps."

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