We are but three days away from the budget here in Southend and one thing that I haven’t seen mentioned is that the 35 locations across the borough like the one pictured below at the top of The Broadway in Thorpe Bay that will be removed from use.
Thorpe Bay Recycling
Yes in the budget the bottle banks and recycling bins are to go in an attempt to save money. I haven’t seen it anywhere but I was talking to a councillor about waste and he then opened up his file and read out that the budget contains the plan to abolish these locations. We will be encouraged to use the pink recycling sacks instead. This seems like a proposal that on paper seems feasible but there are a lot of people who certainly don’t like the idea of leaving glass out on the street to be collected. Also there are people in this town who don’t get pink sacks (or black sacks for that matter) and so what would I do with my recycling if these bins were to disappear? I don’t get pink sacks (and nor do my neighbours) and don’t drive so even if the bins at the tips were kept then I wouldn’t be able to get there.
I live opposite a bottle bank and other recycling bins and I can tell you that they are used a lot. I often see people putting things in them and if as the council are suggesting that under 1% of all recycling in the whole borough comes through these recycling bins. I don’t know how much use the other 34 get but if they are anything like the bins at the top of The Broadway in Thorpe Bay then the people of Southend must be recycling heaps through their pink sacks and this should be applauded.
I have no idea as to the take up of these recycling bins but they seem to be used a fair deal and removing them will lead to the town’s waste going up as people throw recyclable materials away instead of recycling them if they are unable to get to a recycle bin easily. This would not be a good thing as being as green as possible is the way forward and since these bins first started appearing they have always been used well. Without them I fear for Southend’s green credentials.
