Prepare the way for new waste system

Parishes had raised serious concerns about the timescales given how it would impact how they set the rates and how they billed people, but those behind the strategy were not for moving.

Until now.

Airbrushing their earlier stance, the States Trading Supervisory Board has decided that there is no longer any rush, and so that we can all get used to fortnightly black bag collections, stickers, food caddies and kerbside, paying for it can wait until sometime in the new year.

So the statement in the joint report with Environment & Infrastructure that ‘the changes in relation to the collection elements and the new charges will need to be introduced simultaneously’ because of what was written in the incoming law becomes just another example of the shifting sands and expectations of the waste strategy.

We still do not know how much households will be paying for their collections come the new year.

A signature still needs to be out on the export contract, expected next month, and the States needs to decide how the infrastructure that is creating a new vista on Longue Hougue will be paid for.

But some of the reaction to the latest announcement is a stark reminder that the public is not completely aware or sold on what is coming.

There has been an awakening to the reality of a fortnightly collection if you have a baby, for example, and more concerns about where exactly some households are going to be able to store everything needed to make the system work.

STSB is confident is has the answers, but it needs to be careful how it manages the public with such a fundamental change – telling people it is their problem will not sit well with those who feel this is all being unwillingly imposed on them.

The theory behind the strategy is understandable: separate out all your food waste, which is collected weekly, and there should be half the amount of black bag waste – separate out the recyclables and it goes down again.

There will always be some that resent both paying more and doing more with their rubbish, but that change is coming.

It is fast becoming time to get the message clear.