CHARGING for a brown bin service in Derby has saved the city council just over £1 million, a report has revealed.
But the city council originally said it planned to save £1.2 million from the scheme, in the face of multi-million-pound cuts to its grants from the Government.
The council now charges £40 per household for the first brown bin to be collected and £20 for each additional bin, instead of offering the service for free.
Councillor Asaf Afzal, cabinet member for neighbourhoods and Streetpride, said the original £1.2 million saving figure was "an estimate" and the scheme itself was something the authority did not want to do, but it had been forced to make "difficult choices".
He said residents did not have to pay for the scheme if they did not want to and conceded that not as many residents had signed up as the council had hoped.
He said: "Despite that, there has been a significant take-up of the scheme."
Waste and anti-incineration campaigner Simon Bacon said he was against the idea of charging for the service in the first place.
He said: "My views are that the £40 charge has devastated the council's recycling rate which had already been in decline for a number of years.
"This latest proposal has speeded up the decline and upset many residents of Derby who had been successfully recycling but, having been faced with a charge, have been unable to justify continuing.
"This is a backwards step for the city which leads to waste being disposed of in a less sustainable way at a time when 2020 targets of 50% are seen as a specific minimum recycling rate set out by government."
The council report says: "The city's household waste recycling rate has fallen and is likely to be around 32% for 2014-15. However, measures are in place to continue campaigning and raising awareness which will enable the city to make incremental improvements in the years to come."
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