Recycling: Much still to be done

Given the size of the undertaking - 40,000 homes over 200 square miles ranging from that town centre cul-de-sac to the remotest farmstead - it was inevitable that Rother's kerbside recycling programme would have teething troubles and anomalies.

We said when the countdown to this week's change-over was announced in March that, in principle, Rother already had the public on its side. That remains the case today.

We also said that the authority risked damaging public support for recycling by not ensuring that existing recycling banks were emptied properly.

Sadly, if anything the "bring bank" overflow is worse today than it was then. This week both Little Common and Ravenside bring banks have been awash with material which the public has dutifully brought for recycling.

Recyclable material not contained in the banks goes to landfill - so defeating the whole object of the exercise.

Though we are told there are good reasons why it has to be so, it is also self-defeating for glass and cardboard to be excluded from the Rother scheme.

Householders who have long been in the habit of taking their recyclables to the bring banks had been looking forward to the dawn of the kerbside collection age in Rother ridding them of the need to increase their carbon footprint by driving to the banks. But one look at the size of the box issued for fortnightly collection has demonstrated to most that - even without glass - it will be woefully inadequate.

We do not underestimate the scale of the undertaking which faced Rother and its contractors in introducing kerbside recycling. The logistics of this operation were additionally hampered by the loss of thousands of plastic bins and boxes in the Wainwright Road fire.

However, in launch week there remain key issues which need to be resolved, and resolved swiftly if public goodwill and support for the vital cause of safeguarding the environment is not to be harmed.

We look forward to the day when the promised but as yet unseen green wheelie bins will send garden trimmings to good use as compost and so reduce the need for gardeners to pollute the atmosphere with bonfires.

We hope to see those homes which could accommodate wheelie bins issued with them and those which manifestly cannot be accommodated out of sight removed from the streets where they can only be a hazard.