£11 million down the drain - Barnet's Blue Bin Failure

Back in 2013, Barnet convinced everyone that a shift to blue bins for recycling was the answer to driving up recycling rates. Previously we had a presorted curb side collection which generated high value waste that could be easily and effectively recycled. Convinced that co-mingled waste was the way to drive up recycling from the then level of 35.99% as reported in council documents, see below, the council spent £11 million buying new blue and brown bins, a huge advertising campaign, people to visit every household telling them about the change and a new fleet of bin lorries to accommodate the new bins.

Roll forward two years and what do we find? After the initial honey moon period, recycling rates are now slightly lower than before the blue bins were introduced see below.

I wonder if Councillor Cohen will be trying to explain why after such a huge £11 million investment we are back to where we started?

Recycling Promoters will be knocking on your door.

First of all, thanks to a keen eyed New Barnet resident who tipped me off to this one. She pointed out that Barnet are using a company called Enventure to recruit 24 "enthusiastic individuals" to help promote recycling. Staff will be paid between £8.55 and £9.55 per hour plus a possible bonus and will be employed 35 hours a week for 9 weeks. You can read the job description here.This coincides with the introduction of the new blue recycling bins.

Now I am going to shock some readers - I think this is a good idea. I am sure that people respond much more when someone explains to them why they should do something and how it will benefit the entire community. I have long held the view, and expressed it repeatedly, that local community advocates can add real value, helping to engage with the community and to provide a cheery face to often dull or complex issues. What is such a shame is that the council have waited until they have spent £3.7 million on new bins to implement what they should have done three years ago when they brought in the blue box scheme. Perhaps if they have used this direct engagement model then, they wouldn't have needed to spend the £3.7 million.

Anyway, I hope Barnet monitor this project carefully and, if it is successful, use community advocates more widely.

Lots of new recycling bins but nowhere to recycle the waste

Just published on the Council's website is  an urgent decision that will be taken at the Cabinet Meeting on 24 September. This decision is exempt from call in meaning that no one can challenge it.

Description: The council requires a reprocessing outlet for the recyclable materials to be collected from households and recycling banks from 7 October 2013, in readiness for the launch of new in-house waste and recycling collection services from 14 October 2013. A recent procurement exercise has not delivered the expected cost-effective options, and the report seeks agreement for the council to work with the North London Waste Authority to put in place arrangements for the reprocessing of recyclable materials.

So the Council have spent £3.7 million on new recycling bins yet the contract to process all the recycled waste they will generate is not in place because it doesn't save enough money. I did question the savings at the Chipping Residents Forum back in June but on that occasion mine and other residents's concerns were simply swept aside.

What a mess!

New Recycling Bins a £3.7million mess

A few years ago Barnet introduced new blue boxes for recycled cardboard and plastic bottles. These were the really effective boxes that did not have a lid just a net which let the rain in and made the cardboard go soggy.  Well Barnet are moving to a new system in October called co mingled waste. The rationale behind this is that people will be more inclined to recycle waste if they can chuck it all into one bin and someone else does the sorting. The jury is out on this and I have read a number of studies which suggest that contaminated waste from just one bin can ruin the contents of an entire recycling lorry meaning it all has to go off to landfill.

Anyway, in order for us all to carry out this recycling Barnet Council are going to have to buy new blue recycling bins, not like the old boxes but the same size as a standard wheely bin. This was explained to those brave souls who went to the Chipping Barnet residents forum back in January. The cost of buying these 125,000 blue bins is £3,251,840 and is detailed in a delegated powers report which you can read here. This is in addition to the £440,510 that Barnet is spending on new food bins and food caddies (I don't know why we can keep putting the food waste peeling etc into the green bins as we do now?) which you can read about here.

Now when it comes to the blue bins, the winning bid was actually £399,784 MORE expensive than the lowest bid but the formula they use (and which I think is a pile of unrecycled rubbish) means that the difference in cost scores between the two bids is only 3.74. However, on the "technical features" of the bin, whatever they may be, count for a difference of 10 points between the highest and lowest bids. Now just to be clear the technical features do not affect the guarantee on the bin, both score the full marks. By using this bonkers scoring system it means that a bin which will cost rate payers another £400,000 wins because it has superior "technical features". It a bin for goodness sake!

Yet again we see a waste of money by someone following a bonkers procurement system that guarantees we end up always paying over the odds. Come on Richard Cornelius. You keep saying what a problem procurement is. Tell me why you are wasting an extra £400k on bins with superior technical features instead of saving money.