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Shop NowRecycling Roundup 18th December
Recycling Roundup 18th December
North Yorkshire County Council will open some of its household waste recycling centres for an extra day during the festive period to help people recycle the extra waste that accumulates over Christmas. The centres are usually closed on Wednesdays, but they’ll be open on Wednesday 27th December, so people can drop off their extra waste. This is a big help to residents, as many bin collections are postponed or delayed over the Christmas holidays.
The council have requested that people sort their rubbish before taking it to the centre as it is expected that it will be very busy, and if waste is already sorted, it will help to keep things moving. Christmas trees, cards, and much more can be recycled at the centres.
To learn more, visit www.northyorks.gov.uk/hwrc.
During the first 6 months of this year, 6 districts in Kent saw an increase in the amount of food waste they recycled. The councils are part of the Kent Resource Partnership (KRP), and they delivered a food recycling campaign to residents from January until March this year, which encouraged them to use their kerbside food recycling collection service.
As part of the campaign, 291,000 households receive a ‘no food waste please’ sticker to put on their general waste bins, social media messaging, and food recycling roadshows.
Residents were encouraged to tell the council about barriers they might have to recycling food waste, and council staff gave them tips on how to recycle food within the home. People also received free food recycling caddies and bags, and information on how food recycling can benefit the environment.
After the campaign, analysis of the data showed that 10,509.90 tonnes of food waste were recycled, compared with 9.897.96 for the same period last year.
The aim of the campaign was tackling the problem of food waste which had been identified back in 2015, when it was found that between 23 and 37% of food waste was being thrown away in general waste. The council used resources provided from the recycling charity WRAP to deliver the ‘no food waste’ bin stickers.
2 further areas in Kent delivered an ‘avoidable waste’ campaign to residents. Dartford and Tonbridge and Malling councils sent a ‘fresher for longer’ wheel to almost 89,000 households, which provided residents with hints and tips on how to store products like bread, fruit, vegetables, and cheese, so they’ll stay fresh for longer.
The results of the campaign showed that 25,655.72 tonnes of general waste were discarded compared to the 25,740.11 tonnes that were collected in the same period last year. Admittedly, this is a small reduction, but they achieved it just by encouraging people to be a little more aware of what they throw away and how to store food better.
And it’s not just food waste where Kent is performing well, composting increased by 2.2% compared with last year.
Residents in South Northamptonshire are being praised by the council after the local authority was ranked 8th in the country for recycling.
In the year 2016-17, the district recycled 61.4% of its waste, which is an increase of 2.4% on the previous year.
The council thanked residents and said that while they provide people with bins and collection services, they can’t make people recycle. They added that a high recycling rate meant that they could run a more cost-effective service, and it’s far better for the environment.
The best local authority for recycling in the UK is the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, with a recycling rate that is only 4% better than South Northamptonshire’s, and they hope to equal or surpass Yorkshire’s rate in the near future.
The secret behind South Northamptonshire’s success is a food waste campaign that resulted in a 15% increase in recycling, and an overall waste reduction campaign which saw recycling and garden waste recycling increase by 1.4 and 10% respectively. General waste also fell by 3% as a result.