In total there are 20 points in which both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have agreed on and several of them will have a direct impact on the West Midlands within the next three years, such as:

• The high speed rail network.
• Introduction of smart grid and smart meters.
• Creation of a green investment bank whose goal will be to fund low-carbon transport and energy schemes.
• Further promotion of energy from waste schemes, which Birmingham and the surrounding areas already make use of.

The specifics of how these measures are going to be implemented have not yet been released, but the indications are that the new government is taking the environment seriously.

For further information on the other environmental measures the government is planning on implementing,  the BBC has provided a summary of the entire agreement which also includes other areas that will effect our daily lives such as electoral reform, education, the tax system and several other important areas which have been at the centre of this years General Election.

Environmental policies though, took a backseat during this election but some candidates did provide additional information during Hustings debates when questioned. Each seat we’re covering at Birmingham Recycled will have its own news article on the outcome of that particular constituency.

Below is an interactive map of  Birmingham’s 2010 General Election results along with the environmental details on each.

View Birmingham Election Results in a larger map

Mr Mahmood received 50.3% of the vote which is a 3.3% swing from what he had in 2005, taking votes away from the Liberal Democrats and other smaller parties.

Despite his comedy acts, William Norton of the Conservatives however did close the gap on the second place Liberal Democrats by improving by 4.6% to end up only .7% behind Karen Hamilton, who along with every other candidate, apart from Mr Mahmood, were new faces in this general election.

Mrs Hamilton did however retain her place as the representative of  the Perry Barr ward.

The UK Independence Party lead by Melvin Ward, did improve on the last election by gaining 4.0% of the vote which is a 2.1% swing from before, the Socialist Labour fronted by John Tyrrell party however fell by 1% compared to last time.

On the issues of the Environmental, Mr Mahmood has been fairly cautious in the past. He was moderately against laws being imposed to combat climate change, but during the recent Hustings Debate he made it quite clear he felt that fast food chains should be taxed due to the litter their customers create.

He also voiced the need for jobs to be created within the “green sector” to help established sustainable living, which he believed would also help the economy.

Despite the rest of the country, nothing much changed for Perry Barr. On the Environmental front the Liberal Democrats would of been the choice vote throughout the UK.

Within Perry Barr though, Khalid Mahmood has suggested a number of fresh ideas to combat the environmental problems the constituency suffers from and the future state of the region remains positive .

At the well attended Hustings debate held at St Augustine’s Primary School in Handsworth, 5 out of the 6  PPC’s were present to answer questions ranging from immigration, to the conflicts in the middle east. Those PPC ’s present were Karen Hamilton of the Liberal Democrats, the incumbent Khalid Mahmood of the Labour party, Willian Norton of the Conservatives, Melvin Ward of the UK Independence party and John Tyrell of the Socialist Labour party, unfortunately Deborah Hey-Smith of the Christian party was unable to attend.

After a heated start where one member of the public showed his anger at the current war in the middle east, the ppc’s started on their opening statements. Mr Tyrell very firmly stated his opinion on the use of coal where he insisted on if we do need to use it, we should use our own rather than importing it, he also stated his wish for more renewable energy resources.

Following on from him Mrs Hamilton stated:

“I got into politics because of litter, infact I’m currently handling  a review on business waste minimisation and recycling”

She then gave an brief statement about what she would look at if she became the MP for Perry Barr. The next three opening statements talked about everything except the environment, including Mr Mahmood who as the incumbent should of made more of an effort to acknowledge the issues. After all the opening the statements were conducted, attention was turned to the original outburst made at the start. After the public heard responses by each of the PPCs the next topic to be discussed was the Environment.

Conservative PPC William Norton, started off with a curious comment, asking:

“What makes things green?

Before then continuing to make fun of recycling by concluding its useless having flower beds in his garden any more he might as well just turn them all into compost heaps.  He did add at last that he believe polluters should be made to pay for what they do, but that was a very rushed comment. He failed to add anything of actual detail on the issue and treated it more like a stand up show than a serious political debate, he would go on to do the same in other areas of the debate.

Mr Ward believes that everyone is responsible for the environment and has no idea why certain protesters believe wheelie bins are unsightly. Mr Mahmood did put a lot more thought and detail into answering the question that he did during his opening statement, he stated that fast food chains should be held responsible for the litter that is dropped on the street that was brought from their stores and that they should pay a tax for it. He continued to comment on the need to segregate rubbish so it can be recycled better and the need for jobs to be created based on the need for sustainable living.

Mrs Hamilton stated she was in fact a member of green peace and again mentioned her role within the waste minimisation review. She added that the simplest of things can help such as the recycling of flower buckets used by flower shops. She called for better green transport and the need to create “green jobs” based again on renewable energy sources.

Finally Mr Tyrell added that the corporations should take more responsibility for the rubbish they create and that if they can create jobs and make things for war, then they can make jobs and create green equipment for the environment.

Out of all the PPCs both the Labour and Liberal Democrat representatives had the most to say on the issue, the conservative representative however turned the green issue into a green joke.

Both agencies have offered suggestions as to how council recycling policies and facilities can be improved and WRAP are offering  further advice on how to streamline services to save tax payers’ money.

This comes in the wake of a campaign started by WRAP to improve public awareness of additional materials that can be recycled.

It has also come after criticism of Birmingham City Council’s current recycling policies and facilities.  The council made  it clear that they would not be implementing several additional methods, which could cut down on waste or prevent other recyclable materials being ruined.

One of the main methods suggested is pre-sorting during collection, but a representative of Birmingham City Council claimed it would be too expensive, even if we were not experiencing a recession.

These calls for further changes are aimed at saving local councils’ money by making their schemes more efficient.

It is unknown whether Birmingham City Council will be approaching these agencies. Since their main reason for not adopting these money-saving methods is because they are unwilling to provide more funding for recycling schemes, it is unlikely that the advice will be actioned.

Further information on WRAP’s advice can be seen here and  information on local authority guidance can be seen here.

The threat of strike is due to the implementation of the Single Status deal to equalise pay and conditions  across the country.

According to representatives of both GMB and Unite the Union – two of the three union organisations representing workers - people who do the recycling are most likely to be part of the strike.

Of the proposed strike action, they said:

‘We would hope they would support their brothers.’

In response, Councillor Mahboob Hussain, Sandwell Council’s deputy leader and cabinet member of neighbourhoods and housing said:

‘I can assure residents we will endeavour to provide a waste and recycling service should there be any industrial action.”

I am very surprised by the threat of industrial action because the unions have played a full part in the single status procedure over a long period of time.

If the unions wish to ballot their members that is a matter entirely for them.

We will not speculate on what may or may not happen.’

Other councils have already implemented this scheme without problems, but the unions served notice on February 26.

Members of Unite the Union have until March 10 to return their ballots and members of other unions have similar deadlines.

The group believe that Birmingham City Council are missing opportunities to recycle more materials because of the use of the “Energy from Waste” plant.

A spokesman for Birmingham Friends of the Earth said:

‘Burning waste isn’t the best way, it should not count towards recycling targets as it’s neither recycling or landfill. It’s a dirty way of doing things.’

The Energy from Waste plant, in Tyseley, processes waste from across Birmingham through incineration, which produces energy to drive power turbines.

In a recent statement, Cabinet Member for Transportation and Street Services, Cllr Len Gregory said:

‘It’s very encouraging to see that nearly everyone is recycling at least one material, but if everyone recycled the full range of materials collected such as plastic bottles, metals or textiles, we could really improve upon these figures.’

Although acknowledging the additional materials that can be recycled, it appears that Birmingham City Council could do more to help people recycle these materials through kerbside collection schemes.

WRAP’s new campaign raises questions about Birmingham City Council’s recycling scheme compared to others in the West Midlands

WRAP is starting a PR scheme on the 1st of March to make the public aware of other materials that can be recycled.

This scheme is going nationwide, yet is being organised on a local scale by WRAP and local councils.

Apart from a recycled sculpture that is being made for the advertising campaign, nothing else is of yet being  released or even planned.

Phil Brook, who is the waste minimisation officer for Birmingham City Council, stated there was a number of reasons. Foremost was that the current sorting facility they use in Wolverhampton does not have the capabilities for sorting a lot of the additional materials that are part of the campaign.

Birmingham’s door step recycling scheme has no current plans to upgrade the plant so that it can accept the wider range of recyclable items.

Mr Brook did however provide additional information on where certain items could be taken by hand  such as Norris Way Recycling Centre in Sutton Coldfield.

It’s been made clear that Birmingham’s waste is part of the “Energy from Waste” scheme that incinerates public waste and uses it to drive power turbines that on average produce 25 megawatts which is enough to run a town the size of Sutton Coldfield.

What about other Councils?

When comparing Sandwell’s and Solihull’s recycling policies and facilities, there are noted differences, the main being the sorting of materials during collection instead of simply taking them direct to the sorting plant.

Apart from the normal doorstep collection, Sandwell also collects additional materials and is currently handing out wheelie bins where it will also accept Tetra Paks, which even in the most advanced recycling schemes are sometimes not accepted.

Birmingham City Council refuses to invest in the sorting of materials before they are taken to the sorting plant, the reason being that in this current economic climate they can not afford it and if they could it would cost to much.

This raises the question, why can Sandwell and Solihull afford to do this while Birmingham, which has a considerably larger budget, can not?

Sandwell Council is also in talks to upgrade more local facilities to contend with the additional materials, at this present time they send all the materials they receive to Southampton, which again raises questions about Birmingham’s efforts in regards to recycling.

Solihul’s scheme is just as advanced and sophisticated. Steve Hawkins, senior recycling officer stated:

“Its better and more efficient to do so, otherwise some of the items that may be left in can potentially taint the recyclable material when its sent off to processing.

Not only is the council oblidged to do the best they can do, but to not pre-sort would be letting the residents of Solihull down.”

Both Sandwell and Solihull councils work closely with WRAP and are still taking part in their “Love food, Hate waste” campaign.

Solihull has adopted WRAPs iconography so that when its residence see the TV advertisements done by them, they are able to relate them to their council’s work on recycling and take it on board.

Mr Hawkins believes by doing this it gives them free advertising, something which Birmingham could use as it’s not willing to invest in recycling.

Are Birmingham City Council’s policies and facilities sufficent enough considering how much effort surrounding councils take?