Recycling Roundup 4th June

Recycling Roundup 4^th June

A recycling survey carried out by Aberdeenshire Council back in February has found that even though most people use food and other recycling collection services, they still need their general waste bins. The Big Recycling Challenge Survey received almost 4000 responses from residents and its aim was to gather information about how many people used recycling services.

75% of respondents said that they put their food waste bin out each week and 19% said they don’t use their food bin at all.

The survey also found that 88% of people put their blue recycling bin out for collection every time and 90% put their general waste bin out.

The council say they are happy with the response to the survey and it will help them to increase recycling rates and send less waste to landfill.

They have an ambitious target of 70% recycling, which they say could be achieved if people recycled all of their waste correctly. This would equate to a considerable saving for the council, which they say would mean extra money for public services. The current recycling rate across Aberdeenshire is around 43.5%. Around 30,000 tonnes of waste are currently being sent to landfill which costs the council £3.5 million per year. The council are currently developing a new recycling and waste strategy which will include banning landfilling of biodegradable waste by 2021 and achieving 70% recycling by 2025.

A recycling centre in Sunningdale in Berkshire has been removed due to repeated incidents of fly-tipping.

The site in the London Road car park became a rubbish dump rather than a recycling site as intended. The Parish Council has been working with the local authority to try and find a solution to the issue.

Council contractors and waste firms were drafted in to clear the site but the fly-tipping is still ongoing, so the Parish Council has withdrawn the facilities.

Now residents can leave their recycling on the kerbside and they can participate in the ‘Green Redeem’ scheme, which rewards people for recycling. Recycling bins are weighed and the more waste that is recycled, the more points people can get which can be spent in local shops and businesses, donated to good causes or added to a larger monthly prize draw.

Mobile phone batteries are believed to have cause a major fire at an industrial estate in Perth. Fire crews were called to the Viridor recycling plant where they arrived to the sight of huge pile of recyclables on fire. Around 35 firefighters had to tackle the huge blaze.

Viridor’s site in Perth is one of the most advanced electronic recycling plants in the UK. It’s the only plant that recycles fridges in Scotland, and it’s used by councils across the country. Viridor say no one was injured in the blaze and that it did not pose any risk to public health. They say that the fire was contained and they believe that lithium ion batteries, used in mobile phones, cameras, laptops and more, were responsible. The company has urged people to dispose of the batteries properly at designated recycling centres.