Guernsey Press

Last public face-to-face as waste charges are introduced

PEOPLE had their last chance to ask questions about the new method of waste disposal on Saturday as bag charges came into effect from yesterday.

Published
States recycling officer Tina Norman-Ross has been at many of the drop-ins on the pay-as-you-throw waste charges which came into effect yesterday. At Waitrose’s Rohais store on Saturday she answered questions about bag sizes from Jeremy Hollowell, who thought the new system was excellent. (Picture by Ben Fiore, 23793256)

Members of the waste team were at both Waitrose stores to handle queries. This took to 17 the number of drop-in sessions held since 16 January.

Clary Davies, 83, said he had not been sure what he could put in his food waste.

‘I wouldn’t have classed tea bags as food waste as you can’t eat them but I’m told that they can go in too,’ he said.

‘At our age we could do without all this fuss and expense and I do worry that people will be putting things in public bins at night.’

Jeremy Hollowell, 71, said his questions had related to bag sizes.

‘I have a cupboard full of black bags from all over the place and I wanted to know exactly what a 90 litre bag was,’ he said.

He said he was told that the size was about 150cm circumference by 90cm deep.

‘I think the whole system is excellent and what we have for a small island is fantastic. We need to keep Guernsey clean and I think we’re setting a good example to the whole world.

‘Fly-tipping is a concern, but those caught doing it should be heavily, heavily penalised.’

States recycling officer Tina Norman-Ross said the team were there to answer any questions about the pay-as-you-throw scheme and anything else about waste and recycling in general.

‘Generally, people have been positive and I think they understand now why we are doing it,’ she said.

‘Most of the questions have been about the operational side and the most frequently asked questions have been about bag sizes.’

Stickers for the 90 litre bags cost £2.50, while the 50 litre equivalent are £1.40. They are available from a wide range of stores.

A printing error led to a mistake on the back of some stickers, but States’ Trading Assets deputy managing director Richard Evans said contractors would only being going by what was printed on the front.