Action Briefing Aug 2005 - Sept 2005
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

The Ups and Downs of Recycling in Birmingham

Since it was established in 1991 by Friends of the Earth and Community Service Volunteers (CSV), Brumcan, a local recycling charity, has been working alongside Birmingham City Council and local residents to maximise household recycling in the City.

Back in 2002, Brumcan teamed up with the City Council to provide a unique door step collection service establishing a new network of neighbourhood-based recycling schemes in the southeast of the City. Doorstep collections of paper, glass bottles and jars, food and drinks cans, foil, textiles and shoes, mobile phones and laser/ink-jet printer cartridges were made from 20,000 households every week, covering Moseley, Small Heath, Bordesley Green, South Yardley, Nechells and Sparkbrook.

Dismay in Sparkbrook and Nechells . . .
However, an unexpected funding drought in June forced Brumcan to discontinue its weekly door-to-door recycling services in Sparkbrook and Nechells, resulting in 8,000 households losing their doorstep recycling collection service over night. The Nechells collection had been funded through the City Council's Small Heath Ward Neighbourhood Renewal Funding (NRF) but recent boundary changes meant that 2,000 households were no longer entitled to the funds. The Sparkbrook collection service was partly financed through the European Regional Development Fund; when this ran out Brumcan put in a bid for NRF, but their appeal was turned down by the Sparkbrook Ward councillors.

Mary Street (B12) resident Lisa Blackburn told us, "We received notice though a leaflet drop that Brumcan's service was being withdrawn as of 7th July. I'm really disappointed. The scheme was really convenient and the weekly collection has meant I don't have to save up rubbish until I visit the recycling centre on the way to do my monthly bulk shop. I only put out a small bin bag every two weeks now, everything else is composted or recycled, including plastic, which we take on family visits to Penrith where they do recycle it."

Although participation in Brumcan's scheme varied from road to road, from a high of 80 per cent to a low of 5 per cent, it was clear that the service was popular with local residents. At a public meeting on 12th July at Clifton Junior School, Balsall Heath, called by the Seven Streets Residents Association, many of those present commented on the reliability and convenience of Brumcan's service, especially when compared with the Council's own paper collection scheme. Councillor Talib Hussain (Liberal Democrat, Sparkbrook, and cabinet member for local services and community safety) praised Brumcan's scheme and expressed his regret at being unable to afford to continue it but said his instructions from central Government were to allocate NRF money only to deprived wards and only for the purpose of bringing them out of deprivation. Cllr Hussain promised to "support recycling in the area" but argued that as Brumcan's service was not previously funded from Sparkbrook NRF and didn't meet NRF floor targets (not true, as a matter of fact), the money would be better spent on projects dealing with crime, education, health and "the environment".

While they wait for a long-overdue feedback meeting with Sparkbrook Ward officers, Brumcan are exploring ways to fund the service. NRF money to the value of £33,000 has yet to be allocated and more may become available in future should other bids fall through. Ideally, mainstream funding would be provided directly by the Council or Government. One option is the 'invest-to-save' scheme, a government initiative using Treasury funds to support voluntary or statutory sector projects which create a saving in other government departments. The Council could pass on the savings in collection and disposal costs to third parties such as Brumcan in the form of discretionary recycling credits.

. . . but positive action in Balsall Heath . . .
Balsall Heath is a rich seam of community organisations (Balsall Heath Forum, St. Paul's Community Development Trust, Balsall Heath Jungle to name but three) all struggling against the odds to offer environmental services to the area. At July's public meeting, Dick Atkins of Balsall Heath Forum proposed a steering group of local organisations and supportive councillors to look not just at how to resurrect the Brumcan's household recycling service but also at the role of community organisations in providing environmental services, how well the services compliment each other, and how each organisation can continue to provide the service that they do, often with little or no funding.

Birmingham FoE has pledged to support the fledgling group and we attended its first two meetings on 19th July and 16th August. It's an exciting initiative, with great potential to grow into a supportive network providing a comprehensive, comprehensible and reliable concert of services to bring about a cleaner, greener neighbourhood.

James Botham

. . . and high-rise success in Edgbaston
Brumcan has been operating mini-recycling centres for Optima residents since January 2003. As a resident living in a high-rise block on the Benmore Estate in Edgbaston, I feel really enthusiastic about Brumcan's scheme.

When the scheme began, individual hard-wearing green plastic recycling bins were given to the residents of the high-rise blocks by volunteers from a local residents' association. I spent a day with a Community Development Worker distributing the green recycling bins to residents and explaining to them how the scheme operated.
I find the scheme very convenient. The recycling bin is small and easily fits into space in my kitchen next to my normal kitchen waste bin. I put all recyclable waste (cardboard, paper, magazines, newspapers, glass, and food cans) into the green bin and when the bin is full I take it down to the recycling centre on the ground floor and empty it. Emptying the bin probably takes about seven minutes. I have built recycling into my weekly routine and lifestyle and it's now something I do automatically.

Brumcan publishes monthly statistics for the local residents association showing the amount in kilograms of waste recycled per estate. Some of the income Brumcan makes from recycling materials it gives back to the community through local residents' associations.

A recent edition of a local newsletter we receive informed us that Benmore residents have recycled over 8 tonnes of waste since 2003, so I feel that Brumcan has been pretty successful on my estate.

William Hopkins

Lies, damned lies and recycling
July 2005 saw the launch of 'National Big Recycle Week' and a Government call to increase household recycling levels. Just 14.5 per cent of domestic waste was recycled in 2002/3. Birmingham recycled 58,540 tonnes of waste in 2003/4, 28,922 tonnes of which was paper (City Council figures).

Recycling figures (%) for UK Core Cities (DEFRA recycling target for 2003/04 in brackets). Source: Audit Commission Core City Group. See www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/localauth/pdf/sps2003-4.pdf.

Leeds 15 (14)
Bristol 13 (18)
Birmingham 13 (10)
Sheffield 12 (10)
Newcastle-upon-Tyne 10 (10)
Manchester 8 (7)
Liverpool 4 (8)

As you can see, Birmingham compares well with other core cities, trouncing its arch-rival Manchester. However, when all 474 UK local authorities are taken into account, Brum slipped further down the recycling league last year, coming in at 303rd place in 2003/4, down from 286th place in 2002/3. Source: Resource magazine Issue 16 (May-June 2004) p27 and Issue 10 (May-June 2003) p27.