Public fury expected over failure to recycle most plastics

3.47.38pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 31st May 2007

The news that the proposed new waste contract will not after all include kerbside recycling of most plastic waste is expected to be greeted with fury by the West Berkshire public.

This information was deliberately obscured in a council press release published on Wednesday. It demolishes the public expectation that ALL plastics would be collected for recycling from the kerbside, and makes clear that only plastic BOTTLES will be collected.

Jeff Brooks, the Leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition group on the Council, commented, "In their manifesto for the elections just a few weeks ago the Conservatives promised to 'introduce the kerbside recycling of plastics'.

"We promised that also. But unlike us they were deliberately misleading the public. They must have known that they were negotiating only to recycle plastic bottles. Bottles are a very small part of the total plastic waste, particularly when measured by weight. What about packaging, bags, yoghurt pots, cartons and cups - the list is endless!"

Councillor Brooks' Liberal Democrat Council colleague, David Rendel, added "I challenged the Conservative Leader of the Council to release the proposed terms of the new waste contract when he insisted on discussing them in secret at a meeting last week. Instead of agreeing to make the terms public at that meeting, he claimed that they were a matter of commercial confidentiality.

"Only a few days later the terms apparently no longer need to be kept secret. But he does his best to ensure nobody notices that the Conservatives' manifesto promise has been overturned by announcing the change as a single word hidden in the middle of a press release.

"This just shows how deeply ashamed the Conservatives are of their broken promise to negotiate the recycling of ALL plastics."