Clean up your act

SWINDON mayor Stan Pajak today called on residents to clean up their act and stop turning their town into a rubbish tip.

That is because every day, Swindon Services contends with abandoned cars, refrigerators, furniture and household waste dumped on our streets.

He said: "Swindon is a mess. We need to start taking responsibility for our waste and recycle it wherever possible."

Far from reforming our throwaway ways and embracing environmentally friendly ways of disposing our waste, it appears we are getting worse when it comes to disposing of unwanted cars or household items.

Cliff Dixon, Swindon Services abandoned vehicle officer, tickets up to 50 cars a day. Yet it can take weeks for vehicles to be removed because enquiries have to be made over ownership. Some 50 to 70 cars a month are consigned to the crusher.

He said: "Lawfully disposing of vehicles is a paperwork minefield and considerable drain on our resources. But ticketing is an effective method of prompting people to take action themselves."

The 'jettison and run' problem is escalating because of EU legislation which dictates that batteries, oil, tyres, anti-freeze and bumpers all need to be removed, ready for recycling.

Gone are the days of taking a clapped-out car to the scrap heap and walking away with £30 in your pocket.

"Owners now have to pay to get rid of a car," he said. "Greater recycling demands could push the cost up to £200, so owners are tempted to irresponsibly discard them."

Fridges are another environmental menace. Some 4,000 fridges sit in the civic amenities site in Barnfield Road. Although people are allowed to dispose of them for free, they are still fly-tipped in streets or the countryside.

Geoff Davies, waste management team leader for Swindon Services, said: "The majority suffer because of a small minority who treat their surroundings with reckless abandon."

And fridges are just the tip of a fly-tipping iceberg. Some 3,300 incidents are reported every year, with around 1,500 tonnes of debris (excluding rubble) recovered.

Only this week mounds of house clearance and building waste was found by dog walkers on the Ridgeway.

But the four-strong fly-tipping response team rely on the public to call in with sightings of the latest eyesore.

Mr Davies said: "Out of sight, out of mind is the prevailing mentality. As long as it is not in their backyard, some people do not care."

"Jobbers are the most likely culprits. They are paid to clear a property then promptly dump it down the road free of charge."

A kidney home dialysis kit, along with the entire contents of a flat, was recently discovered in Highworth.

From bottles of mercury to a 26ft boat, Swindon Services have seen it all.

Only last week, the team removed an articulated trailer carrying part of a stolen dustcart.

And when the team came across a nearly new Skoda, they discovered the owner had emigrated to Australia, so it was sold for £500.

Straying into the obscene, 20 tonnes of raw offal has also been encountered festering on the Ridgeway.

With a maximum £20,000 fine for unlawful disposal, fly-tipping may not be the cheaper option.

But proving ownership is invariably time-consuming and often unsuccessful. Even local cases resulting in prosecution produced fines of only £50.

"We are pushing for harsher penalties," said Mr Davies. "People must not be able to dump their undesirables with impunity."

'Swindon will pay the price later'

Geoff Davies, waste management team leader for Swindon Services, believes we are sitting on a rubbish time bomb.

He said: "This stockpiling of debris must stop. We cannot continue treating our environment with contempt. If we do not act now, Swindon will pay the price later."

His warning comes in light of the need to meet the Government target of recycling 30 per cent of all our waste by 2004. Yet Swindon's recycling figures stand at 17.7 per cent just a 2.7 per cent rise from two years ago.

Swindon must ring some considerable changes if it is to hit the target. Mr Davies said: "It's a tall order and will mean trans-forming the way we treat our rubbish."

This proposed lifestyle overhaul is outlined in the public consultation Waste Management Strategy for Swindon, published this week.

The document highlights the repercussions of today's throwaway society and asks people to recommend future recycling initiatives.

Mr Davies said: "Without public input and co-operation, improvements are largely impossible. We need to convince people recycling is the only way forward."

But there are no quick fixes and the corrective measures will prove costly.

The total waste management budget is £4m. But a recycling scheme to meet targets would demand an extra £2m.

An average household produces a tonne of rubbish every year, growing at an annual rate of nearly three per cent. With our infinite capacity to create rubbish, Swindon Services faces a tough battle.

And the bid for government funding to build a £3m recycling plant has just failed not the perfect start to becoming eco-friendly warriors. Mr Davies said: "We need to enhance our facilities at Barnfield and want to set up a second recycle centre in East Swindon."

Besides swallowing money, such schemes require effort and commitment. And recycling is not a lucrative business. A trial of collecting paper and cans from 7,000 homes across Swindon started last July. Recycling the materials has cost £77,000, nearly double the price of the landfill option. Then there is the added expenditure of running a separate collection.

But the good news is that more than 60 per cent of homes are participating.