Each year, data is published which shows the total household waste recycling, composting and reuse rate for English local authorities. Local authorities are listed in overall performance order and for Trafford, the data reveals that in 2017/18 under the last Conservative administration, Trafford was 1st in Greater Manchester and the North West for recycling with 58.5% of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting, which secured 16th place overall in the league table. By 2020/21, under the Labour administration, the latest data reveals that Trafford has dropped to second in Greater Manchester for recycling, fourth in the North West and the recycling rate had fallen to 53.3%, which secured 53rd place overall in the league table.
Commenting on the reduced recycling rates in Trafford, Tracey Haworth, Conservative election candidate for Davyhulme West ward and keen recycling advocate said “It’s quite worrying that under Labour, Trafford’s recycling rates and recycling league table positions are falling. To drop 37 places down the table is quite embarrassing for Labour and can only be the fault of mismanagement of the waste collection service.
“Labour will want to blame the poor performance on the Covid-19 pandemic, but the facts show that the recycling rates have dropped each year since Trafford Labour came to power. In addition, each local authority faced the same challenges through Covid-19, through bin wagon driver shortages, but other councils appear to have managed the challenges better as we also know that Trafford dropped from 25th place in the table in 2019/20 when the pandemic began to 53rd place in the latest figures. Many residents will recall that there wasn’t a green bin collection service for a large part of 2020 and many residents have suffered from uncollected bins too – this will have impacted on Trafford's recycling rates.
“Recycling is of huge importance to the council and in 2021/22, Trafford Council allocated £21.65m or 13% of its Revenue Budget on waste management. Achieving increased recycling rates will also save the council money and keep Council Tax lower as the council will have the opportunity to maximise income from material sales off-setting cost of collection.
“Through the council’s Corporate Plan, in seeking to address the Climate Crisis, there are aims to ‘improve percentage of household waste which is collected for recycling’ and ‘reduce household waste not sent for recycling’. Trafford Labour is failing to achieve these aims and is failing Trafford residents by not providing a consistent household waste collection service.”
