Council cracks down on out of town recyclers

• Jul. 4 by Rebekah Douglas (0)

July 2009 has seen the introduction of the ‘Proof of Residency Scheme’ by Birmingham City Council in order to stop members of other councils from using Household recycling facilities specifically for Birmingham residents and encourage them to use their own!

The councils plan is to have residents verbally announce their postcode when arriving at a recycle facility and their details will be taken for future reference and identification for their next visit.

However the council don’t want the scheme to prevent people from recycling full stop, so they are allowing out of Birmingham residents to use the Household Recycling Centres once. Details will be taken so that they will not be able return to site, however they will be given information on where to find recycling centres that are closer to them.

The council have suggested that visitors outside Birmingham have been from neighbouring local authorities such as Sandwell, Solihull, Worcestershire and Walsall.

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/recycling.bcc

The council said: “We have targets set by the Government and the Council to reduce the amount of waste that the City produces and has to dispose of. We are only responsible for waste that comes from within the Birmingham Local Authority area and it is unfair for Birmingham’s Council Tax payers to pay for waste being produced from outside the City.

“A recent survey showed that about 15% of people using the sites are non-Birmingham residents. This equals about 13,000 tonnes of rubbish a year from outside the Local Authority that Birmingham has to pay to dispose of.”

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/GenerateContent?CONTENT_ITEM_ID=159005&CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE=0&MENU_ID=1461

For more information www.birmingham.gov.uk