Edinburgh council puts a positive spin on refuse collection dispute
Despite the fact that Edinburgh Council is currently at loggerheads with refuse collection workers regarding payment and working conditions, the council has attempted to put a positive spin on this particular dispute. It has claimed that since the dispute, which is still ongoing and has impacted upon refuse collection, there has been a significant rise in the amount of waste recycled. It seems that more and more people have taken an interest in recycling as refuse continues to build up and the potential problems this can bring.
Whether or not this is strictly speaking true is debatable, but the fact that less frequent refuse collection would appear to focus the mind on recycling is potentially a dangerous move for the UK consumer. In many ways it does rubberstamp the dozens of local councils up and down the UK who reduced their refuse collection from weekly to biweekly despite the fact that consumers were up in arms.
There is no doubt there has been a significant shift in the opinion of UK consumers over the last five years and recycling is now for many people a part of everyday life. The only problem is the potential for the UK government and local authorities to push this too far and shift the liability on refuse disposal more to the consumer and away from the councils, despite the fact that consumers pay their taxes to fund their public services.