Two years ago Erdington Conservatives launched a campaign and petition for people who recycled to be rewarded. The campaign called for part of Erdington to used as a trial for a scheme to show how popular such a scheme could be and how it could play a key role in increasing recycling across the area.
Cllr Robert Alden (Erdington Ward, Conservative) said "we fully believed that to increase recycling rates the carrot rather than the stick approach was the best way. That is why we campaigned for residents to be rewarded when they recycled, not punished when they don't. Despite some people saying the Council would never listen, we managed to get a trial agreed that was run in Erdington and Bournville Wards".
Supported by the then Cabinet Member Cllr Huxtable (Bournville Ward, Conservative) the scheme provide to be very popular and helped increase recycling rates in the trial area.
Following the success of the scheme, the expansion of the scheme was agreed as a key part of a bid to Government which is described as :-
Implementing a recycling reward scheme for all households, introducing weekly recycling collections to over 100,000 households that currently have a fortnightly recycling service, and supporting weekly residual waste collections.
Now the City bid has proved successful and Birmingham has been awarded £29.7 Million more than twice what any other Council in the Country has been awarded.
Cllr Robert Alden added "this money is very welcome and it shows the commitment of the Conservative Government to Birmingham that twice as much money is awarded to Birmingham as was awarded anywhere else in the Country. We are also very proud that our campaign in Erdington for people who recycle to be rewarded has ended up being able to play a part in a successfully bid that the whole city will now benefit from".
Cllr Robert Alden warned however "The important thing moving forward is that the Council must keep to its commitment to collect waste weekly from residents homes and not to introduce Wheelie Bins without the agreement of local residents. I hope they will announce the details of a full and open consultation on this aspect sooner rather than later and not try to introduce them secretly behind closed doors".
More information on the schemes can be found:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/weekly-collection-saved-as-government-scheme-delivers-for-6-million-families