Bid to cut school recycling charges

Bid to cut school recycling charges

30 September 2015

NEWRY, Mourne and Down Council is to consider reducing a controversial charge imposed on schools for the collection of their blue recycling bins.

Prior to the council’s creation last April, schools across the district were not charged for this fortnightly service, but their counterparts in Newry and Mourne were.

The decision to charge schools in Down District for the bin collection service was taken in a bid to standardise services across the new council area, but the move has been criticised by a number of politicians and is concerning school principals.

Schools have various numbers of blue bins which range in size, with a standard 240 litre bin costing £3.25 to empty. The cost of emptying 360, 660 and 1,100 litre bins is £4.35, £8.50 and £13 respectively.

Councillor Gareth Sharvin said there is increasing concern about the charges. He initially wanted the blue bin levy axed but proposed at last week’s meeting of local authority’s Regulatory and Technical Services Committee that the charges should be slashed 

in half with the same reductions applying to charities who use council blue bins.

The Downpatrick councillor explained he amended his proposal as he knew his proposal to have the charge axed completely would not have been agreed by the committee. Council officers have now agreed to examine the implications of reducing the charge by 50 per cent and prepare a report looking at various options for the committee’s next meeting.

“I have been contacted by a number of school principals who have aired concern about the blue bin charge. The cost may be low as far as the local authority is concerned, but it can be a large amount for small schools across our district. This is a tax on recycling,” he continued.

Councillor Sharvin argued the blue bin charge “flies in the face” of some of the council’s main priorities, including protecting the local environment, managing the district’s waste and closing its landfill sites by 2019.

“These are all priorities in the corporate plan but how can we achieve these when we are taxing one of the most important ways to educate our young people to recycle correctly?” he asked. Councillor Sharvin said reducing the cost of emptying the blue bins would represent a “huge benefit” to schools and continue the link the local authority has with them delivering educational sessions around recycling.

He said 36 schools in Down District have blue bins, with 69 schools in Newry and Mourne using them. He revealed 30 schools across 

the new council area do not use blue bins.

“When this issue comes before the next committee meeting I will again be proposing the blue bin levy is slashed in half. I will be speaking with officers to see what we can do to get the 30 schools which have not yet signed up for the service to do so and plan to meet with local school principals to get their views. I will also research the number of charities who are using the blue bin service.”