West Leigh Residents Association
Dear Councillor,
My Association has fully supported past initiatives made by the Council to improve and extend recycling facilities in the Borough. Indeed, the Council’s Waste Management Officer, Imran Kazalbash, was invited to our last September Open Meeting and gave a well-received talk to our members.
However I feel I now have to write to you to express concerns about the latest changes to the household waste recycling collection that, I understand, are soon to be implemented.
1) Glass
containers
Of particular concern is the intention that residents will be asked to put glass containers in their pink sacks. We find this proposal particularly ill judged as the glass containers will inevitably break - they will break when the pink sacks are being handled in the home, they will break when the sacks are kicked or otherwise damaged whilst awaiting collection and they will break when the sacks are loaded onto the collection lorries. This broken glass will be a danger to householders, to road users and pedestrians and to those handling and sorting the collected items. The pink sacks themselves will get split open and the contents strewn about the streets.
We ask therefore, particularly in the interests of health and safety, that you have this change rescinded. Other local authorities provide separate containers for glass recycling and I would urge that you explore this approach for Southend.
2) Clothes
etc
Whilst I do not fully appreciate the reasons for having a separate clear sack for clothes, shoes, linen etc, the one observation I would make about this change is that commercial second-hand clothes dealers will probably be going around helping themselves to these sacks before the collectors arrive. This would still be recycling of a kind but any revenue would not accrue to the town.
Yours sincerely,
E. G. Cornish (Eddie)
Chairman, West Leigh Residents Association
Copied to: West Leigh Ward Councillors and Andrew Lewis