Plastic recycling in Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton City Council collects glass, paper, metal and garden waste in its kerbside recycling collection.
Note: not plastic or cardboard.
A few weeks back, I asked one of Wolverhampton’s Conservative councillors why there was no kerbside collection for plastic and cardboard. Apparently, he told me, the ruling Labour group were planning to introduce it in the next few weeks.
According to The Stirrer, though, we might have a longer wait, citing an additional cost of £500,000 (presumably annually) to fund the service. The reason? Well, The Stirrer makes the suggestion that the cost is linked to Wolverhampton’s municipal incinerator. Plastic burns well and generates lots of electricity, so says the article. Recycle that plastic, rather than send it into the already sweet air of the city, and the council loses money from electricity generation.
£500,000 is roughly 1.25% of the council’s annual budget. In a city where – as I understand it – only 10% of households actually pay council tax and the council has long had a reputation for financial incompetence, that’s a lot of money.
I’ll have a dig around to see if I can find out anything more concrete.
Update 27.07.2007: See the comments for Political Penguin’s stats on council tax in Wolverhampton. I’ve been unable to get corroboration for the 10% figure and so please disregard it. I still think it’s an interesting question: should we recycle plastic or burn it for energy?
You’ve got to be kidding about only 10% of households paying council tax, right?
Bromsgrove recycles plastics, paper, tins, cans etc. It’s quite amazing how much stuff can be recycled – we often find our bin only has plastic wrappers in it.
Can you please tell me where I can find the figure of 10%?
Thanks
I’m awaiting confirmation of the 10% figure. If I’m wrong, I’ll post the correct figure when I get it.
Incineration is unpopular but sensible, but not necessarily for plastics. There’s so much latent energy in post-consumer waste that it makes sense to use it.
Oh, hang on, which year are we in? Sorry, I thought we were still in last year’s crisis (energy) not this year’s (carbon)
Matt, I know you’re a Tory but I thought better of you than quote stats that are hearsay. I know you’ve got an obvious reason for wanted to make a Labour controlled authority look bad but you know that’s not on. So here you go, and if you were wondering, all are sourced from the ONS so I think we can trust them.
Wolverhampton has a population of 236,582 people. They live in 126,881 properties. Actually it will be a bit less because that includes un-occupied properties and those not fit for habitation but lets stick with it.
According to the ONS and assuming that things haven’t changed that much since the most recently available figures which are for 2005. It states that there were 31,420 claims for Council Tax benefit. Of these, 23,635 were single claimants and 7,785 were claims by couples.
So a quick sum to get the percentage of households claiming Council Tax benefit reveals that 24.8% of households are claiming Council Tax benefit. What you have to note here is that 75.2% of households in Wolverhampton do not receive Council Tax benefit so unless you are claiming that 65.2% of households in Wolverhampton despite being obligated to pay council tax are simply not paying then the 10% figure looks a bit wayward. If you want me to dig out rates of non-payment for you just ask.
What you also have to take into account is that of those 31,420 claims for Council Tax, they do not necessarily equal a high-rate of the economically inactive because Council Tax is an incremental tax. This means that someone on a low wage who doesn’t earn enough to be eligible to pay full council tax will be caught up in these statistics. They may work but simply are on a low wage meaning that they can claim a percentage of their Council Tax.
Equally, the biggest group that you have to consider are pensioners who of the 31,420 claimants for Council Tax benefit in Wolverhampton constitute 15,965 which I work out to be just over half of all claimants. Hope that helps. Need any help with statistics in the future, feel free to drop me a line.
Hi PP,
Thanks for your clarification of the relevant statistics etc. The information you provide sounds much more realistic.
I have been trying to get back-up for the figure I quoted and acknowledged as unconfirmed. It came from what appeared to be a reliable source but I’ve since been unable to get that confirmation and am still waiting to hear back from someone, which is why I haven’t updated the post.
As for me being a Tory: I see no point in lying to get one over on Labour. If Labour are doing a good job, I’ll acknowledge that. The truth, as I see it, is that sometimes Labour do a good job, sometimes the Lib Dems do a good job, sometimes the Conservatives do a good job. At times each of them does a bad job. I made a mistake in posting the uncorroborated figure and I’m sorry for that.
Hey, don’t worry about it, no need to say sorry to me. I actually forgot to mention that within that figure for claimants you would also have to allow for those such as the disabled as well and I’m not sure what rate there would be for those who are exempt from council tax altogether such as students which Wolverhampton has a fair few of. Sadly there doesn’t seem to be any specific breakdown for these figures but I think it illustrates that statistics are always very tricky things to use especially if all the potential variables aren’t considered but hey, don’t worry.
Hey PP, go easy on Matthew. These Tories have spent so long out of government, they’re bound to be a little bit rusty on the old statistics.
Stat-man, you!