Thank you, Usha, for raising some important questions.
75% of all councils still manage to collect general waste on a weekly basis. Many have some form of kerbside recycling in addition to the regular weekly collection.
As far as I know those that have introduced alternate week collections do not have a noticeably lower rate of council tax than those who collect weekly. I'm sure someone will correct me if this not the case! Income is also generated from the recycling materials, of course.
The main aim of only collecting general waste once a fortnight is to force people into reycling some of their waste. They are, in effect halving the capacity of your rubbish bin in the belief that up to 50% of the material can be recycled - this is rather optimistic and in practice almost impossible.
Many councils will not collect side waste in black bags so householders are forced to dispose of excess waste by either taking it to the tip themselves, getting their children to jump up and down on the bin contents to compress the waste (!) or burning it in their gardens - you may agree that these methods are not environmentally-friendly and may cause health problems but councils are aware that they are being used. It is up to them to judge whether they consider them acceptable or up to us to tell them it is not!
I sincerely hope your local authority does not follow this growing trend. If this website helps to assure the general public that they are not alone in their concerns it has served its purpose - even if they are told that these schemes are successful in other parts of the country.