New carton recycling banks are now available

I’m really pleased to be able to announce that you can now recycle tetrapak’s – those paper and plastic cartons that fruit juices often come in at 5 recycling centres in the borough.

I have been trying to find a way to recycle this kind of packaging for more than three years. Until now, the cost of recycling these packs has been very high because of the difficulty of separating out the different materials that make up the packaging but thanks to a partnership with tetrapak, we now have a trial recycling scheme running.

You can recycle tetrapak’s at:

• Carshalton High Street car park
• Wallington Public Hall car park
• Kingsway Road car park, Cheam
• Stone Place / Windsor Road car park, Worcester Park, and the
• Re-use and Recycling Centre, Kimpton Park Way

Sutton waste site saves you money

I took Paul Burstow and Tom Brake, our local Lib Dem MP’s round Sutton’s state of the art waste and composting facility at Beddington Lane yesterday. It was a great opportunity to show them how our innovative solutions to dealing with waste are diverting a lot of materials from landfill. With Gordon Brown’s new tax on landfill increasing by £8 per tonne tax per year, this investment will really save local residents money.

The £4 million ‘Mechanical and Biological Treatment’ plant (MBT for short) was made possible through a successful partnership bid to the London Recycling Fund which I led on behalf of Sutton, Croydon and Merton.

The MBT plant separates organic waste in the brown bin from inorganic waste, such as metals and glass. Once the inorganic items have been separated the metals are recovered for recycling. The organic material is then turned into compost. In a separate process green garden waste from all three boroughs is composted in enclosed tunnels to produce a high quality material for use on land.

This use of new technology will help the council to meet its recycling target of 50% by 2010. It will also help Sutton keep down the cost of land filling waste, which is set to increase by £8 tonne per year by reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfill.


AWARD WINNING

Investment in the plant helped secure a national award for Sutton’s waste and recycling services.

The award recognised the council’s effective communications with residents and its work with partners to develop innovative solutions to the challenge of waste – such as the MBT plant for residual brown bin waste and the borough’s Reuse and Recycling Centre.

Review for Iraqi Translators - about time

The plight of the 91 Iraqi translators who have worked for the British seems to be closer to an end now that the Government had decided to review their cases but it needs to be dealt with more urgently.

These people have given great service to UK forces in Iraq but the sad fact is that their lives will be at great risk when the British concentrate all their resources at Basra air base and then, eventually, leave the country altogether.

If you agree with me that Britain has a moral responsibility towards them and that it would be a betrayal of that duty of care if they were not better looked after and where appropriate given asylum in this country please sign up to the campaign at http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/interpreters


Ming Campbell has called for an immediate inquiry into their situation and that of all the hundreds of other workers who may also have put their own lives and those of their families in danger by working for the British.

Numerous interpreters have been kidnapped, tortured and killed by Iraqi militiamen who accuse them of collaboration with their country’s enemies and there is no doubt that once the troops have been withdrawn there is every chance they will be further victimised.

Unlike the British, the Danish government did not turn its back on its responsibilities and when it withdraw its contingent from Iraq it flew all sixty of its translators out of the country at the same time.

Their difficulties highlight yet again the lack of foresight exercised by the British and American governments before embarking on the illegal invasion of Iraq. It has destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of people it was supposed to enhance. It has left millions in greater fear and danger than even under the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein.

Though we will continue to condemn the war, we also recognise as Liberal Democrats that those who have risked their lives in their work for the British government deserve a fair hearing and they deserve it now. You can help bring that about by backing our campaign at: http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/interpreters