The kerbside conundrum

'Yes we can,' shout the kerbside collection supporters.

But it is not a message being heard within Public Services that at the end of last week outlined its preferred way forward.

In promoting its push for the bring banks the department has laid out a case that points to all the problems with kerbside – many of which you could imagine the 'yes we can' brigade would be quick to point out could be overcome with a bit of effort.

The department was keen to state that the £1m. a year it would cost to run kerbside would be better spent elsewhere.

Primarily, it would appear, on improving the current bring bank sites, moving some and adding a few more educational initiatives.

Funnily, every time hitting the 50% recycling target by 2010 is mentioned, the education line gets trotted out. Several years into taking on responsibility you would have thought they would have knocked that on the head by now.

Just how much an incentive cleaning up these sites would be to encourage more people to recycle surely must be a moot point.

Making them more convenient would help, but you already find recycling bins around supermarkets and popular car parks.

Screening them from view and getting rid of the puddles would make recycling a more pleasant experience, but is unlikely to persuade those that simply do not recycle to start.

And that surely must be where the progress in hitting the household target would be.

We have opportunities to recycle glass and plastic bottles, cans, paper, cardboard and drinks cartons now.

But for those not taking part, the convenience of kerbside recycling would probably be more persuasive than any amount of beautification.

Without recycling food waste, experts said that the kerbside scheme could not hit the 50% target – more like 40% plus.

An up to 10% increase on the 2007 current rate, but at a cost of £1m. a year.

The department lays out a myriad of convincing reasons not to include food waste, and argues that daytime collections would be impractical because of issues such as traffic.

But what its report fails to achieve is a persuasive argument that concentrating on the bring banks would achieve the target – perhaps because it does not believe it will.

It acknowledges that it would be unacceptable to reject kerbside without proving 'guidance' to other options to work towards the target in a more financially acceptable manner.

But it does not set out firm proposals in the report.

Instead it was more along the lines of 'we are thinking about this, that and the other'.

It makes quite a play of introducing underground receptacles, known as 'iceberg' banks, but how that will meet the 50% target is less clear.

There are no guarantees in the report that its plan will hit the target – more and more you get a feeling that aspiration is dying on the vine.

While this is an argument concentrating on the public's waste, progress on tackling the commercial sector does not appear to be great.

Indeed, what percentage of commercial waste is being recycled?

Islanders are correct to ask whether business is playing its part in this battle.

In arguing against kerbside for households, Public Services said it must take a more balanced approach to targeting its efforts and finances – ploughing £1m. a year into kerbside which business cannot use would not achieve this.

While it makes that case, it really should set out where its resources would therefore be targeted on the commercial sector – it does not, beyond stating it would build on existing 'interaction'.

A case of it's good to talk, but some are getting frustrated that there is a lot of talk and not enough tangible action.

With tight finances the States has to be very careful where it spends its money.

Would £1m. a year for a kerbside scheme be value for money? That will be the question 47 deputies will try to answer when they vote at the end of the month.

You just have to ask whether they have enough information in this report to make a rounded decision and whether that 50% target – remember that is a figure used when deciding how big the waste plant should be – really is on the cards.

Before the States makes its decision we might just have a sense of where one parish lies on kerbside.

St Sampson's ratepayers are being asked whether they want to support a parish-run kerbside collection scheme funded from their pockets. This could just be the way forward given the reluctance elsewhere and a nice profile boost for the douzaines to boot.