The Conservative led Wokingham Borough Council plan to implement waterproof hessian bags because:
- they will save us £600,000 a year.
- they will help increase our borough wide recycling rates, thus helping towards our Climate emergency ambition of Carbon Neutral by 2030.
- it will put an additional refuse vehicle and team on our roads, keeping our borough tidier and
- because it will stop recycling blowing out of our boxes and across our streets on windy days
Combating wet waste has become a top priority for WBC as it can cost up us to £600k per year. This is money down the drain and is a cost that has to be met by council tax payers. We would sooner not pass this cost on. Instead we would use this money to fund much needed services like Children’s Services and Adult Social Care services.
We could save this money by introducing waterproof hessian bags to keep the waste dry.
The proposal would increase cycling by 5% thereby fully supporting our Climate Emergency initiative to be carbon neutral by 2030.
Residents will benefit too – their recyclables will not blow away with wind, no animals will get at the recyclables.
If approved by the Executive this proposal will go live before the wet season starts in Sept/October.
It is a shame that details of this fantastic Conservative and WBC initiative have been posted without any of the context behind why this action is being taken. I can only assume this was a deliberate attempt to stir up unfounded conflict and uncertainty, which is a shame as this initiative will benefit residents in so many ways. I can only assume that the Liberal and Labour councillors behind the original posts are against saving money, increasing recycling and reducing litter.
Parry Baath - Executive member for the Environment - Wokingham Borough Council
