A QUARTER of homes in Kirklees are now on the fortnightly bin collection scheme.
And council officials say the switchover has been a great success.
More than 45,000 households – there are 175,000 across the district – have switched to the alternate week ‘grey bin-green bin’ waste collection scheme and boosted recycling by 13%.
A further 24,000 households will transfer to the new arrangements in March as part of a programme to have all households on the new system by 2010.
Kirklees Cabinet’s member responsible for environmental issues, Clr Martyn Bolt, said: “There has been a lot of publicity, locally and nationally, on this topic.
“In Kirklees it is a success and is supported by the vast majority of households on the scheme.
“I would like to nail once and for all the irresponsible scaremongering that the alternate week collection has increased the rat population.
“That is just blatantly not true and there is no evidence to support it.
“For people to frighten residents into believing it is true is something for them and their consciences.”
Clr Bolt added: “A recent poll in the Examiner saw 75% of people saying that the scheme worked.
“That is very heartening and shows that the vast majority of householders on the new arrangements appreciate and support the benefits of having their green recycling bin emptied once a fortnight instead of once a month.
“It is clear from the huge increase in recyclable waste that they are giving it their full support.
“People who do not support the scheme do not support recycling. “It is as simple as that.
“We are well in front of Government targets on recycling and we want to stay there.
“In addition to the green bin scheme we have 70,000 households on the glass collection scheme.
Also, there are 24,000 more in the pipeline.
“The number of free garden waste collections has risen from 19,000 to 60,000 and home composting continues to increase.
“This is a huge achievement by the residents of Kirklees.
“I would like to thank them for their support in helping us lead the field on recycling.
“The success of our scheme has been winning over the support of householders by talking to them in advance of it being introduced in their local area, giving them help, information and advice and acting quickly on the few problems that there have been.
That has involved going out and seeing people individually and sorting out their concerns with them.”
Clr Bolt added: “We also have arrangements to help large families who may well produce more waste than the average household.
“Again, we can deal with those householders and help them to help us in the recycling drive.”
