Environmental campaigner backs council's snub of weekly bin collections cash (From Haringey Independent)

Tottenham and Wood Green Friends of the Earth backs Haringey Council's snub of weekly bin collections cash

4:37pm Monday 6th February 2012 in Top Stories By David Hardiman

An environmental campaigner has backed Haringey Council’s decision to turn down Government funding and press ahead with fortnightly rubbish collections.

Tottenham and Wood Green Friends of the Earth campaigner Quentin Given said Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles’ offer of cash for councils who guaranteed weekly collections was an attempt to “bribe” local authorities.

Haringey Council, which is set to roll out fortnightly rubbish collections in the west of the borough next month – as well as bigger wheelie bins and compostable food waste bags for recycling – said earlier that the money was not a long-term fix.

Mr Given said: “We are pleased that Eric Pickles has finally seen the sense of supporting more collections of food waste, but he still seems to be trying to bribe councils to do weekly collections of unrecycled waste.

“The evidence is clear – fortnightly collections of residual waste will help increase recycling and reduce the waste we burn or send to landfill.”

All recycling collections will remain weekly under the council's scheme.

Mr Pickles said last week that waste services had become too complex and “barmy bin rules” had made bin collections “more complicated than solving a Rubik's cube”.