Monday 29 December 2008

Mid Xmas Break

29th December and the first of the runs to the Household Waste recycling centre at Wellbeck done. Just amazing how much wrapping paper we as a family have gone through this year and not a sign of any recycled wrapping paper anywhere? Why is that? Is there anyone out there actually doing recycled wrapping paper?

We didnt send anywhere near the amount of cards this year and those that we did were on recycled card and those that we have received we will take to one of the many recycling centres throughout Wakefield.

Still washing out all the food cans and containers but still unsure with some of the plastics that can or cannot be recycled but we are getting better at it. Still New Years Eve to come so no doubt another visit to Wellbeck for us later in the week with the bottles and cans given the box is already pretty full and I do not want to use plastic bags for the excess.

Reduction of household plastics is still ongoing but it does not get any easier and this xmas seems to have generated more not less so there is a real need to get manufacturers to change their packaging systems if any progress is to be made.

Monday 15 December 2008

Being 'Green' at Christamas


Eating, giving presents and having fun are all part of this time of year so I am urging everyone to think about the environment and make recycling part of their new year’s resolution list.

In the UK this xmas we are expecting to see an extra three million tonnes of waste from food and drink packaging, Christmas trees, Christmas cards and maybe even a few unwanted presents. All this waste has to go somewhere and if it is not recycled most of this district’s rubbish will end up in the Welbeck landfill site near Normanton.

Statistics from the national "Recycle Now" campaign show that one billion Christmas cards could end up in bins, most Christmas trees will be thrown away generating over 160,000 tonnes of additional rubbish - 21 times the weight of the Eiffel tower. Nationally an extra 750 million bottles and 500 million drink cans will also be used and most of these will just be thrown away.

To help reduce this and make the district a better place to live in, I am asking you to think about our 4 'R's, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair and also to compost your garden waste.

Do your bit by: Recycling cans, plastic bottles, paper, cardboard and glass bottles as part of your bin collections or at one of Wakefields 62 mini recycling centres or one of your local Household Waste Recycling Centres.

Make a New Year’s resolution to recycle more waste, more often or better still, try to reduce, reuse or compost your waste.

Marry Xmas and A Happy and Greener New Year

Monday 8 December 2008

One Year On

October 2008 saw the last of the district’s 140,000 households added to the new collection scheme which encourages everyone to recycle more and do their bit for the environment.

The new collections however started with a pilot area in November 2007 when there was a 95% take-up of the new services and recycling targets were easily exceeded for phase one. The Council then used its experiences in phase one to start rolling-out the scheme across the rest of the district in three more phases and is now seeing an increase in recycling across the district.

The new weekly bin collections are proving a huge success with less rubbish going to landfill and more people thinking about what they do with their waste. The teams have reported an excellent take up on the new service and everyone concerned are absolutely delighted that so many households have got on board with the scheme so quickly and I would personally like to thank everyone for their support.

We are working very hard to make the district a more attractive place to live, work and visit and this scheme means everyone has a role to play in making their environment cleaner and greener.

My house was in the last phase of the roll-out and it has gone fairly smoothly thanks to lessons-learnt in the pilot and stages two and three. It has certainly made my family and I look more closely at the packaging around what we buy and try to cut down on non-recyclables such as plastic and I hope it will encourage others to do the same.”

The district is on track to meet or exceed the government’s 40% target by 2010 and every household on the normal collection rounds now receives a household waste and garden waste collection one week, and a collection of paper, cardboard, glass bottles, cans and plastic bottles for recycling the next.

Monday 1 December 2008

New Beginnings

At the Planning Committee held on the 27th November 2008 plans were passed for the new Municipal Waste Re-cycling Facility which will be built on the old South Kirkby colliery site and marks the beginning of what will be ground breaking achievements for Wakefield District Council and its re-cycling rates in the future.

With modern high tech. plant and methods we can look forward to achieving re-cycling rates far in excess of the government targets that are currently being set and therefore reduce the amount of waste we, the public of Wakefield will be sending to landfill.

We are also looking to bring in to the district manufacturers who will use the re-cycled material at source so that we can further reduce our overall carbon footprint.

Today is the day when the Hudson household starts the 'reducing plastic' trial. We aim to reduce as much plastic coming into the house as is possible at this time and any ideas that people have or tried would be most welcome. Email me chudson@wakefield.gov.uk