Recycling ends as pubs won't pay for service'
by John Harrington
Hundreds of pubs throughout the Midlands and north west England could be left with stacks of discarded drinks bottles after a recycling firm stopped visiting pubs.
Glass recycling company Berrymans has stopped collecting bottles from pubs on the grounds that licensees were refusing to pay £50 a month for the service. Berrymans took over the service from another company, Valpak, which offered the collections for free.
Bolton licensee Kevin Banks expressed annoyance at Berry-mans' move, which he said has left him with six wheelie bins full of bottles from his two pubs, Punch's Sweet Green Tavern and Hydes' Horseshoe Inn.
Banks said he had actually paid Berrymans but they pulled the service because most licen-sees were unwilling to give money for a service that was previously free.
"I didn't want to pay but I set up a direct debit in both pubs and paid the fees they asked me to pay. Three to four days after I paid the direct debit for the next quarter I was sent a letter saying it is no longer viable to do the collection.
"They've never been here and I've not had a refund. It seems like I'm being penalised for paying sums of money that others won't."
The Morning Advertiser contacted Berrymans about the scale of the problem and to discuss Bank's claim that he had not received a refund. The MA received no response but Banks said he believed the firm operates throughout northwest England and the Midlands, so a great number of licensees could be affected.
Berrymans national collections manager Steve Hope told the Bolton Evening News: "We have had to halt the service provided by our own vehicles nationally because a lot of pubs simply did not pay us.
"Of the 300 or more pubs in the Bolton area, only between 75 and 100 actually paid us any money. Collections in some areas of the country are still being carried out by our sub-contractors, but those provided by our own vehicles have had to stop."
