- Media & Campaigns
- Press releases
- 2008
- February 2008
- Councils support "localising potential" of new welfare plan
- Taxpayers' Alliance to condemn council staff to a meagre retirement
- Average council tax set to be real terms freeze in 2008
- Drug strategy must not create two tier treatment system
- ‘Casino mirage’ has cost councils dear
- Seaside resorts may have to cut services to pay for free bus travel
- Standard school year cuts cost and confusion
- Response to housing strategy
- Councils key to unlocking creative economy - LGA
- Power to reward families who recycle should be introduced
- Response to Home Office Green Paper on citizenship
- More supermarket competition not necessarily good for local people
- New figures show households correctly recycling vast majority of items
- New LGA website shows how much cash is locally raised and spent
- Councils weigh in over innaccurate hospital scales
- 'Manilow method' could be a substitute for Mosquito to deter gangs
- This time it's personal - LGA launches fair care campaign
- Independent results show most councils performing better than ever
- Police chiefs should be accountable to local people through their council
- Getting council tenants back into work is 'a debate that needs to be had'
- Civil partnerships fall by 55%
- Throw-away society blamed for sharp rise in stray dogs
- Councils geared up for snow
New figures show households correctly recycling vast majority of items
LGA press release - 14 February 2008
Less than two per cent of household items sent for recycling and collected by local councils are rejected, new figures have revealed.
Quarterly returns made to WasteDataFlow for 2006/07 reveal out of almost 13 million tonnes of items sent for recycling, just 240,403 were rejected – 1.6 per cent.
Commenting on the figures, Chairman of the Local Government Association Environment Board, Cllr Paul Bettison, said:
“Councils strive to ensure that as much can be recycled as possible after hard working families spend their time doing their bit to help the environment. With, on average, around one in one hundred items being rejected for recycling, it is a testament to the hard work of homeowners and just how much pride they take in ensuring the right materials go in the right bins for recycling.
“Since 1997, local people, businesses and councils have worked tirelessly to boost recycling rates from seven per cent to 30 per cent. However, there is still far more that needs to be done if the taxpayer is going to be able to avoid the landfill fines that the EU and central government will impose in the coming years.
“Britain is the dustbin of Europe with more rubbish being thrown into landfill than any other country on the continent. For decades people have been used to being able to throw their rubbish away without worrying about the consequences. Those days are now over.”
NOTES:
The figures, broken down by local authority area, can be found here:
http://www.parliament.uk/deposits/depositedpapers/2008/DEP2008-0043.xls
ends
Author: LGA media office
Contact: Matt Nicholls, Tel: 0207 664 3333
See also
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Waste and recycling Waste services is no longer just about collection and disposal of materials, but is about waste reduction (minimisation), reuse, recycling, and looking for alternatives to landfill for those materials left over.