BRONLLYS HOSPITAL PUBLIC MEETING TO GO AHEAD
Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Bronllys Ward Learn more
by superadmin on 16 July, 2009
During today’s meeting of the County Council I proposed a question to the Waste and Sustainability and Schools and Inclusion portfolio holders regarding financial support to assist eco-schools with recycling. I was alarmed to hear that although the council encourage all our schools to recycle their waste, schools have to pay for the recycling bags from what are already tight budgets. I feel that we should do what we can to encourage recycling and by reducing the amount of waste that is put into landfill not only are we helping the environment but the also assisting the council in avoiding the fines for excessive landfill.
Question to Council:
Would the Council agree that greening our schools is positive and brings benefits to our environment as well as raises awareness amongst school children of the sustainability agenda? Would it be possible to give all schools that become eco-schools free recycling bags, which would act as an incentive to encourage schools to adopt more environmental practices?
Answer:
The Council is supportive of the Eco Schools system and has done a lot of work in the past to both promote the scheme and assist schools in putting the required systems in place to achieve the award.
Given the current well publicised environmental challenges that face us all the schools can help to set an example by recycling as much of their waste as possible, regardless of cost. This fits with the role that schools play in producing responsible citizens of the future alongside assisting with the raising of awareness generally around waste issues and the need for all of us to take actions to reduce and recycle waste.
One element of this support to schools is to offer short term financial incentives & we currently offer recycling bags to schools at half the price of normal trade sacks.(£26.92 +VAT per roll of 26 against £53.84 +VAT for normal trade waste sacks). In this way schools can make significant savings in their waste disposal budgets by recycling ,as well as sending the right message to the children & community at large. As more recycling is undertaken schools could also review the frequency of their residual waste collections and potentially make some savings on those costs by reducing the number of collections they have. However ,by providing schools with free recycling ,the ‘moral’ element of voluntary recycling could be lost & the whole issue becomes a financial deal where institutions that ,arguably, should be taking the moral high ground ,are being ‘incentivised’ to do what they should be doing anyway.
If all schools were to achieve Eco Schools awards and free recycling were offered to them as a result then there would be a net cost to the authority of approximately £55,000, that would be borne currently by the waste management budgets. This is not currently provided for within the revenue budgets.
Officers from waste management and schools departments could explore in more detail the issues around this subject if this was felt worthwhile.
My final thoughts:
Well I certainly feel this issue is worth pursuing and I have asked for a meeting with the portfolio holders to discuss this issue further. I will keep you posted of any progress that is made.
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