Fortnightly Bin Collections

I see Brian Coleman is denouncing fortnightly bin collections as a potential fire risk, but I don't see why. Our proposal is to replace the green box with a much bigger recycling bin, keep the grey bin and the organic bin (introducing a new food waste bin for those household currently without. Why would vandals be more likely to set fire to a larger bin than a green box?

Incidentally, the reports on Brian Coleman's comments make the common mistake of assuming that savings from the scheme are driven by fewer bin men and vehicles. In fact, the savings come from diverting waste from landfill disposal (the most expensive way of getting rid of it) to recycling (much cheaper). I don't think the total number of vehicles and bin men will be much different.

What will be different is that the proportion of waste that is recycled will go up enormously. If you look at the most successful recycling authorities in the UK, they almost all use some version of a fortnightly collection. Thus, Tories like Eric Pickles and Brian Coleman are denouncing the only policy that has been shown to be really successful in increasing recycling. At the same time, the Tory government has kept the landfill tax in place, forcing local authorities to recycle more. Of course this may just the Tories being muddled, not understanding that their policies are going in opposite directions, or it may be more Machiavellian. They may will the end of greater recycling, but want to put any political flak on to local authorities.