HOUSEHOLDS in Waverley have reduced the amount of waste they produce by more than anywhere else in the country, thanks to the controversial move to alternate weekly refuse collections. Despite initial protests, petitions, complaints of maggots and overflowing bins when the change was brought in by Waverley's now deposed Lib Dem administration, it seems residents have learned to live with the system. In the last financial year when the scheme was being phased in, they cut their total waste by an average 11 per cent. In a full year of the new system the reductions would have been even greater. Defra, the government department responsible for waste, has issued its top 10 in various categories and Waverley, the only council in Surrey to be mentioned and one of few in the South East, is named no fewer than three times. As well as achieving a higher percentage reduction in total household waste than any other council, Waverley was eighth best nationally for the collection of "dry recyclables" (ie excluding green garden waste). And the success in both recycling and reducing total waste led to 25 per cent less "residual waste" going to landfill, earning Waverley 10th spot in that category. John Sandy, Waverley's portfolio holder for environment said: "This is just truly wonderful. On behalf of all of our residents, who are the ones who have achieved these figures, I feel immensely proud. "I know recycling and household waste management has represented a personal challenge to our community, but just look at how well we have risen to that challenge. I would also like to congratulate the waste management team for this achievement." Mr Sandy said that although the figures are for the last financial year, Waverley's recycling is up again this year, "so when the department puts together the figures for the current year, we may be even better". It has been a dramatic turnaround for the borough, which two years ago was lagging behind badly in the recycling stakes, with only half of all residents making any effort at all. The alternate weekly collection system was phased in last year by Waverley's then Liberal Democrat administration, in a bid to force residents to recycle more - for both environmental reasons and to avoid impending government landfill penalties. But it proved very unpopular in some quarters and was regarded as partly responsible for the Lib Dems' swingeing election defeat. "It's a strange irony that waste management seemed to be unpopular with electors in the local elections last May, when the Lib Dems lost to the Conservatives in Waverley," said John Savage, one of only three Lib Dem councillors who kept their seat. Deposed former council leader Gillian Ferguson said waste collection had certainly been a factor in their defeat, especially with some voters believing - wrongly as it turned out - that the Conservatives would return to the old system. Speaking of the council's top spot, she said: "We Liberal Democrats do deserve credit for that." The forward-looking change, she suggested, had saved residents from big council tax increases that government penalties would have brought and hopefully from draconian measures like 'pay-as- you-throw'. "We hope that the Conservative administration at Waverley will build upon this achievement with even more recycling and more ways of dealing with waste," said current Lib Dem group leader Ken Reed. "In particular I believe that they need urgently to tackle the problems associated with food waste within the next year." Waverley's Conservative council leader, Richard Gates, said that weekly food waste collections and collection of more types of plastics were the main initiatives the council would like to introduce. Discussions were going on with Surrey County Council and results of a food waste trial elsewhere in the county are awaited, but for neither food waste or plastics are recycling facilities currently available locally. Mr Gates said that all the collection authorities that had done well, according to Defra's figures, were those that had opted for alternate weekly collections. And he stressed that Waverley's Conservatives had backed the Lib Dems in the move. "We supported it, but we didn't think much of the way it was implemented." He added that he was very proud at what had been achieved by residents, who he believed had mostly now accepted the change. "We have not had a single complaint in the past month about the alternate weekly collection," he observed. South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt added his congratulations to residents: "There have been some difficulties with alternate weekly collections, which I know the council has worked hard to resolve, and there are still many more things we could recycle. "But for now I hope the government appreciates the efforts we have been making and gives credit where credit is due."
