Wokingham 'dragging its feet' on glass recycling
The Simpler Recycling scheme forces English councils to unify kerbside collections and requires soft plastics such as bread bags to be recycled from April 2027.The council received £2.9m to support the transition.At a meeting on 31 July, Katrin Harding, executive member for environment and climate emergency, acknowledged the delay.She said Wokingham was one of 30 local authorities that still had to set up kerbside collections, and the council's financial position meant the Lib Dems could not commit to this next year.Thanks to the "fantastic efforts" of residents, the authority's glass recycling rates were higher than the national average, she said."There may be things we cannot do that we would have liked to do," she told the meeting.She added that the council would review all options, including keeping bottle banks.Speaking after the meeting, Labour's Nagi Nagella said: "The council is dragging its feet over the changes to kerbside collections."Other local authorities, including re3 partners Bracknell Forest and Reading, have announced their Simpler Recycling plans, so why can't Wokingham?"The money is there, the legislation is clear, and residents have waited long enough for a basic service that other councils introduced years ago."
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