North Somerset Rubbish Targets
One of my examples to explain "the tragedy
of targets" used to be councils meeting
recycling
collection
targets by
collecting the recyclable waste,
then putting it in
landfill because that was cheaper
than actually recycling it.
That's bad because it makes a lot of extra
work for everyone, but only meets the
collection
target in fact, not in spirit.
I stopped using that example because I
thought it was too incredible and I didn't
have a good reference to support it.
So imagine my surprise to see
a report in the Weston Mercury
saying:
"If Veolia does not have enough manpower it will send out a green waste lorry, or a domestic refuse lorry which usually picks up black bag rubbish, to pick up both at the same time.
[...] The staff will just take it for granted that green waste is in the green lorries and domestic waste is in the blue lorries."
This is bad on many levels, even worse than my
old example where recycling-ready waste was
knowingly tipped into landfill.
There's green waste contamination and
false collection statistics, for starters.
The article continues to report that
Cllr Carl Francis-Pester, North Somerset Council's executive member for environment, said:
"We are carrying out an immediate investigation into these allegations which we take very seriously indeed. This investigation will include urgent discussions with the contractor to ensure they are fulfilling the contract we have with them in the correct manner."
There doesn't seem to be any information
about this investigation on
North Somerset Council's web site.
And if Veolia have spotted a loop-hole in the
contract, then what?
Even if they haven't, the council has to
watch solely-profit-led contractors like hawks
because if you give them a chance to cut
costs (and therefore increase profits),
they will try it.
That is the hidden cost of outsourcing,
not covered by the Best Value Indicators
and other privatised council jargon.
Incredibly, the councillor continues
with:
"Thanks to the residents of North Somerset we have increased our recycling rate from 20.5 per cent to 30.8 per cent in the last 12 months."
If the allegations are true, then no, we
haven't, because the statistics are as full
of toxic rubbish as the green waste lorries.
Have private rubbish collectors been doing
this elsewhere?
Syndicated 2007-07-11 10:13:00 from MJR slef-reflection Recent Changes