Recycling banks could be binned by Shropshire Council

Shropshire Council has just opened a public consultation on whether it can remove its 120 ‘bring banks’ from sites across the authority – generating an annual saving of £230,000.

The sites are provided across Shropshire by the council and Veolia, and allow people to recycle household waste including cans, paper, glass, clothing and drinks cartons.

The council proposes to remove the bring bank sites to help reduce fly-tipping and littering, to increase recycling rates and to save money.

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In its consultation paper the council says that the proposed removal of the service is down to ‘Government funding reductions’ and the need to ‘significantly’ reduce the budget and ‘make unprecedented changes’ to its services.

It claims that the removal of the bring sites would save about £230,000 a year which could then be put towards other ‘vital’ services.

The savings would be created as the bins would no longer need to be emptied, managed or maintained.

Consultation

The consultation opened on December 14 and will run for six weeks.

According to the council, the amount of waste taken to bring banks has declined steadily since kerbside collections were introduced, while there has also been an increase in the amount of waste taken to Shropshire's five household recycling centres.

Telford & Wrekin Council has already withdrawn its bring banks service and the proposals do not affect bring banks located on private land or operated by private organisations.

A council spokesman said: “Putting the wrong material in a bank causes the waste in the bank to become contaminated.

“By removing the banks and encouraging people to recycle from the kerbside or at a household recycling centre, it is anticipated that the amount of household waste sent for recycling will rise.”

But Councillor Andy Boddington, who represents Ludlow, is not convinced.

He said that the removal of the banks would lead to more fly-tipping and less recycling as a whole.

He added: “Without a recycling bank in Ludlow, people will have to travel up the A49 to the nearest one at Craven Arms.

"This seems ridiculous to me. I think we need to see some statistics on this before we can make any sort of a decision.”