Cap on recycling 'totally unacceptable' says Lewes District's Environment Councillor

3.59.35pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 20th May 2008

Chris Bowers, lead member for the Environment, is calling on the County not to set a cap on recycling.

The latest round of negotiations on recycling credits between the county council and the five East Sussex districts and boroughs must not set a 'cap' on the amount that can be recycled.

That's the call from Chris Bowers, acting lead councillor on the environment for the Liberal Democrat-run Lewes District Council. He was speaking as high-level meetings between the five waste collection councils and the waste disposal county council were due to begin what should be the final push to get an agreement on how the county council pays the five districts for recycling.

"We in Lewes district are very proud of what we have achieved on recycling in a short space of time," said Bowers. "We have followed the natural 'waste hierarchy' of trying first to reduce rubbish, then to re-use what we can, before we get into recycling. But we are now close to having 27% of our rubbish recycled, and when we reach that figure, it would be totally unacceptable if we had to stop there and cut back on our good environmental record."

During discussions on the highly controversial Newhaven incinerator - which is being pushed by the Conservative-controlled county council and its waste disposal partner, the Labour-controlled Brighton & Hove City Council - it became clear that the county was not planning to pay the districts any money for recycling beyond the 'targets' they had each been set (Lewes's target is 27%). Without such funding, district councils cannot afford to launch and expand recycling schemes.

The Lib Dems on Lewes district objected vehemently, accusing the county of wanting to slow down recycling rates to guarantee a stream of waste for the incinerator, and saying refusal to pay recycling credits above a certain target might be illegal.

A series of meetings involving waste and finance officers from the various councils is now under way in the hope of resolving the dispute. "We're all for compromise," said Bowers, "but any solution cannot possibly continue the cap on recycling. That would send out all the wrong messages at a time when we should be leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to reduce the amount of waste we have to deal with."