Weekly bin collections dropped by government - good!

It's a subject that provokes strong feeling - how often should your waste be collected?  In Reading it's been fortnightly for some time - household waste one week, recycling the next.  Recycling rates have gone up and despite fears of a plague of rats, the Pied Piper hasn't had to visit.

In our house we recycle a lot of our waste and it's the recycling bin that is often the most full.  We sort waste as we go along with two swing bins in the kitchen and two small bins in the living room.  It makes it so much easier (although it does give the baby two targets for attack). Using cloth nappies also helps as we don't fill the bin with disposables.

The government had planned to force councils to collect waste weekly (a vote winner?) - this plan has been dropped (see here.)  I am glad.  Why?  Because there are better things to spend your money on.  Weekly collections would likely halt the increase in recycling rates, maybe even reverse them as people would'nt need to be as careful with their waste sorting.  It costs money to dump household waste and, when the government were told they would have to find £100 million centrally, as councils couldn't afford the costs, the idea was dumped - good!