Gazette Postbag.

Dear Editor,

Last year our dry recycling (excluding composting) rose 2% to 20.62%. Conservative Cllr Beverly Davies (Postbag 29/8) claimed 'enormous success' for the new one-use plastic sacks giving Colchester's recycling rates 'a huge boost'.

An article on 27th August had said that in the first three months since the plastic sacks were introduced our dry recycling has risen to 21%. Wow! Does this justify the £142,000 spent by the last administration on these plastic sacks for just one year?

All three opposition groups rightly complained that we should have trialled reusable bags or stackable containers for plastics, paper and card. An article on 28th August about high value of recyclates showed Cllr Arnold putting newspapers into a suitable recycling box!

After the debacle with the 'split vehicles', consultants advised us to buy our former suitable vehicles. £142,000 could have been spent on light suitable basketback trucks to collect plastics in reusable sacks instead of those HGVs doing a couple of miles to the gallon.

£142,000 would buy four of the special 'Fame' vehicles for separating the coloured glass at the kerbside instead of smashing it all together as they do now. Colours should be separated to recycle back into bottles and jars, saving huge amounts of energy.

LibDem councillors discovered earlier this year that our recyclables are now taken all the way to Canvey Island and receive extremely low prices. What a mess this new coalition have inherited for Labour councillors Tina Dopson and Tim Young to sort out!

Yours sincerely,

Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator,
Colchester Friends of the Earth,
4 Shears Crescent, West Mersea, Essex.