Bring bank savings are at a cost
IMMEDIATE reaction from many to the decision from the States’ Trading Supervisory Board to finally stop all recycling at the island’s three remaining bring banks demonstrates how difficult it can be for the States to save money.
Nobody will want to stop the States attempting to save £100,000 a year of public money, especially if it’s going into a service that is largely redundant. Except the bring banks are far from redundant.
Many who visit, with a car boot stacked high with bottles or bulky cardboard packaging, appreciate the service and will know how difficult it can be to actually get rid of their recycling and find space in the bins at times, due to the demand.
The States will rightly argue that there is a low-cost, doorstep recycling service available to all – what more could they be asked to do?
Would it not be right to focus on that effort? There are still ambitions to introduce a small bag charge for recycling collections too.
So is this a misjudged cost-saving, or a common-sense approach to build on the future way forward for recycling?
However the sums add up, many generations of islanders have happily adopted the bring banks as part of their own waste management arrangements, many still find them a practical alternative, and will be disappointed to see them go.