Does the Green Party support kerbside recycling?
Yes. The highest recycling rates in the UK are where there are frequent kerbside collections of all waste streams. Unfortunately, Sheffield City Council failed to recognise this when it signed a contract with a private waste company (Onyx, now Veolia) in 2001. Instead, we got a giant new incinerator, a monthly collection for paper and card and green bins for garden waste in selected areas.

Why didn't the Green Party support the Lib Dem proposal for kerbside collection of glass and tins?
There were three reasons:
1. It would cost £1.4m a year on top of the existing contract (worth £25m pa). The Lib Dems specifically linked this budget proposal to an additional 1% "vacancy management" across all council departments - i.e. not replacing staff when they are on maternity leave or long-term sick to augment the contract.
2. It would mean a third or fourth wheelie bin - we already receive frequent complaints about cluttered pavements on bin collection day and beyond.
3. Glass is the least carbon-saving waste stream to recycle. Mixed glass is used for aggregate, which is what happens to it after incineration anyway.
We only saw the Lib Dem proposal a matter of hours before it went to the Budget meeting so were not able to put these questions to them - we still don't have answers.

Has the Green Party softened its opposition to incineration?
No. Incineration is dangerous, wasteful and environmentally unfriendly and should not be part of any new waste management plan. However, despite our objections in 2001/2002, Sheffield sank £68m into a new incinerator and signed a 35 year contract so it would take massive capital investment and long term cuts in other services to start again. We have to make the best of where we are now.

However, we accept that incineration, particularly with energy reclamation (i.e. the district heating system/electricity generation), is better than landfill. It would therefore be logical to divert waste from landfill, thus releasing some of the existing feedstock for recycling. At a regional level this would move us up the waste hierarchy. It might even be self-funding for Sheffield, i.e. wouldn't need cash from mainstream council funds.

We also accept that the new incinerator is much less polluting than the old one, though the effects of low level pollution by dioxins and heavy metals are very uncertain, and we would like to see continuous monitoring of dioxins and more spot checks by the Environment Agency. Goods which contain poisons such as batteries, light bulbs and electrical goods should be removed from the waste stream before incineration.

Our main focus, however, is on the carbon cost of burning so-called waste, which has far more embodied energy than the calories retrieved by energy reclamation. We also think it is crazy to burn scarce resources which can't be extracted after incineration.

What is Green Party policy on waste management?
We recognise a waste hierarchy, which has the 4 Rs, Reduction, Re-use, Repair and Recycling at the top. Within recycling, some waste streams are more carbon-saving than others. Thus, for instance, plastics and textiles are energy intensive to produce and made largely from fossil fuels and so most valuable in terms of saving green house gases. Our fullWaste Management Strategy is published on the Sheffield Green Party website.

Would the Green Party support fortnightly bin collections?
Yes, if this actually means what it does elsewhere in the country - i.e. weekly collections, but alternating recyclables and residual waste. If we had comprehensive kerbside recycling the contents of most people's black bins would shrink by more than a half. But it is not going to happen in Sheffield due to the long term contract with Veolia for incineration and just enough recycling to hit government targets.

What have Green Party councillors done to improve the situation in Sheffield?
We have worked within the constraints of the long term contract with Veolia:
1. We have explored and pushed as far as we were able the idea of a regional waste strategy. Veolia is now looking into varying the terms of the planning permission for the incinerator to be able to import more waste.
2. Within Central ward, we have worked with local people, community groups and Sheffield Homes to push for more bring banks on streets and in the basement of city centre apartments. The latter are now required by Planning in new developments.
3. One of our 2008 budget proposals was for a pilot project for even more bring banks in Central ward (going into place as I write). Bring banks are cheaper than kerbside recycling and do not require an extra wheelie bin on crowded streets. They are also flexible in that households can recycle as much as they want, when they want, instead of having a set volume collected per month. They are the norm in many cities and villages on the continent.

Cllr Jillian Creasy
May 2008