Labour caught in bin spin scaremongering (Islington Liberal Democrats)

Islington Liberal Democrats <Islington_ld@cix.co.uk>

Labour caught in bin spin scaremongering

August 21, 2008 3:28 PM

Labour SHAME graphic Islington Labour have been caught lying - about a claim that the council is "snooping" in peoples' bins. The Lib Dems rubbished claims that the council has been examining the dustbins of residents, and slammed Labour for trying to sabotage recycling efforts in Islington.

Leading local Labour politicians attempted to portray a routine compositional waste analysis as "bin snooping". In fact, the council did an anonymous analysis of a pile of unsorted rubbish, counting bottles, plastics, and cans - not surveys of individual bins.

Compositional analysis is something done by most councils and is part of the routine business of dealing with waste collection.

As a result of the survey, the council knew how much plastic, glass, and metal were being thrown away, and tailored recycling services to match residents' needs and get value for money from rubbish collection. After the last survey was conducted in Islington four years ago, plastic bottle and food waste recycling were introduced.

Recycling rates have risen from 3.5% under Labour in 1999 to nearly 30% today.

Islington's Deputy Leader, Liberal Democrat councillor Lucy Watt

Councillor Lucy Watt, Islington's Lib Dem deputy leader, slammed local Labour politicians for misleading residents.

"It is both dishonest and hypocritical for Labour to scaremonger about the anonymous analysis of a pile of rubbish," she said.

"Councils up and down the country, including Labour and Conservative ones, are carrying out these surveys - which are really just about counting plastic bottles and cans. The rubbish is all mixed up, so no-one can tell where it came from. We would never look through people's individual bins. The only point of these surveys is to find out how much waste that could be recycled is ending up in landfill. Landfill costs are increasing so the more waste we recycle the more money we save the taxpayer!

"This criticism particularly hypocritical coming from the Labour party - who have put 3.5 million people's DNA onto a vast Government database, will force us to carry ID cards, and who regularly put thousands of people's personal information on discs and then loses them in the post."

Labour-run Hackney carried out a number of compositional analysis surveys last year, and have just completed a survey for the Ridley Road area.
A 2004 GLA Report on compositional surveys in London lists 20 of 33 London boroughs which have done a household waste composition survey since 1997: http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/waste/docs/waste_composition_scoping_study.rtf
Ken Livingstone's Waste Strategy refers to compositional analyses, and need for such information: http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/waste/docs/wastestrat_all.pdf
DEFRA's municipal waste strategy guides councils to undertake these surveys: http://www.defra.gov.uk/Environment/waste/localauth/practice-guidance/