The month of April has highlighted the issues with 4 weekly bin collections. Many people are away for extended school, university and Easter holidays and will miss collections, creating a 4 or 8 week collection gap. University of Sheffield student houses will miss one or both of their April blue and brown bin collections. The occupants may have gone home by the time some of the June collections are made. It all creates overflowing bins and street mess before we then have to deal with the annual house clearance issues as student housing contracts end on June 30th.
In early 2017 the Labour Cabinet said they would look at terminating the 35-year Veolia contract but then renegotiated it later that year. The brown bin changeover costs are £6.6 million so it will be 9 years before annual savings of £750,000 actually kick in. This gives a clear indication that this is the bins system we will be stuck with until the contract ends in 2036.
David Attenborough has inspired people to act on plastic recycling. He has just told us we have a decade to take urgent action to address the climate emergency. The Labour-run council voted against being carbon neutral by 2030, which many other councils have committed to. We have no recycling for plastics other than bottles and rely on the polluting incinerator for most other waste disposal. The Veolia contract is a clear hindrance to urgent climate emergency action in Sheffield.
Ruth Mersereau
Sheffield Green Party
Comments
The Sheffield Green Party welcomes all comments but we will not be held responsible for any user comments. We do reserve the right not to publish comments that may cause offence.
One thought on “Sheffield’s Veolia contract is a hindrance to urgent climate emergency action”