The York Council has launched an online consultation today, apparently aimed at justifying its plans to move to 3 weekly recycling collections.

The muddled questionnaire includes several leading questions (will anyone say that they don’t care about the environment?).

It is naive

Waste collection is one Council service that every taxpayer uses. Everyone will have an opinion. They’ll struggle to express their priorities via this exercise.

It fails to to provide any meaningful background.

The costs and effectiveness of the existing system are not mentioned.

We aren’t told how much “extra” recycling the new arrangement would be targeted to produce. Our guess is very little – indeed if people, for practical reasons, choose not to have the new bins, then residual waste volumes could increase.

The practicalities of using larger bins, as well as boxes for paper storage, are not explored. These are likely to be acute in terraced streets and at some blocks of flats.

Given the move to on-line shopping and home deliveries, paper and cardboard volumes are set to increase. For some households two boxes to collect 3 weeks volume of paper waste will be inadequate

On the other hand, some residents will favour the use of a (mixed) wheeled bin to collect bottles and plastic. This is a a more secure arrangement than boxes in high winds although the same could be said of paper collection.

The stuttering performance of the household recycling sites is not explored. A missed opportunity given the long queues seen at Hazel Court recently (and the increase in fly tipping)

The Council’s initiative has little to do with increasing recycling rates. It is simply about cutting costs.

The plan to collect green garden waste between December and March is execrable. Effectively it would mean empty lorries touring York’s streets unnecessarily. Staff would be better used if they were redeployed onto winter maintenance, verge edging and other tasks during the winter.

There is no “Should we change or should we stick with the status quo?” final option

A council confident about its policies would include that question.

Ironically on the same day that this consultation was issued the Council wound up its SJB recycling company.

It expects to receive a £300,000 dividend from winding up the company which it jointly owns with the North Yorkshire County Council.