Now what – l ask you – is a waste doctor? Well, if you live in B&NES and pile black rubbish bags – in addition to your wheelie bin – on the kerbside outside your door – you may get a visit from one!
It’s a softly, softly approach that will be used for a while to try and stop people trying to sneak extra rubbish for collection.
Cllr Bob Goodman – B&NES Cabinet member for Development – thinks that means people are not recycling properly and – if the waste doctor’s educational service doesn’t work – the Council’s determined they will start issuing £60 fines.
Having said that, it seems – since the new collection and recycling service has been introduced – recycling rates have improved dramatically.
There’s every likelihood B&NES will be moving from a 54% recycling rate to a 65% one. That would move the authority from 42-second place – 
nationally – to being in the top ten.
However – as we have heard – a lot of plastic waste has until recently been shipped off to China for reprocessing. Now the Chinese government has changed its mind and doesn’t want our waste anymore.
Bath Newseum met Cllr Goodman and asked whether it was now worth recycling at all?
