Recycling waste
Recycling Education
Why Should I Recycle?
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Each year households produce more than 28 million tonnes of rubbish in England and Wales and 83% of this waste is taken to landfill. In Bedfordshire alone we produce around 210 000 tonnes of rubbish and this is increasing at around 3% each year. There are a number of reasons for this increase including:
- Lifestyle changes, for example a greater reliance on fast food.
- Increasing affluence
- More leisure time
- New packaging materials are being used. Although these reduce the potential for damage to the product in transit, there is an increase in the amount of waste that is subsequently disposed of.
In many areas sites suitable for landfilling are in short supply, and the current landfill sites in Bedfordshire are fast running out of capacity.
Clearly this is an unsustainable situation, and in the future this will no longer be acceptable. Increasing environmental awareness and the pressure to conserve resources are driving Government policy and legislation.
In May 2000 the Government launched the Waste Strategy 2000 for England and Wales. This national strategy uses the waste hierarchy concept to provide a blueprint of how waste will be managed to meet government objectives over the next 20 years.
Bedford Borough Council's Role in Achieving the Targets
The national waste strategy targets have been made binding to local authorities via the best value regime. Under Best Value, the Waste Strategy 2000 targets are broken down into individual targets for each local authority. When aggregated, the sum of these individual targets meets the overall national targets.
The targets for municipal waste recycling in Bedfordshire and Luton are shown in the table below:
| Local Authority | Recycling Rate 1998-99 (%) | Recycling Target for 2003-04 (%) | Recycling Target for 2005-06 (%) |
|---|
| Bedford Borough | 4 | 10 | 18 |
| Mid Beds | 5 | 10 | 18 |
| South Beds | 7 | 14 | 21 |
| Bedfordshire (Whole County) | 6 | 12 | 18 |
| Luton | 8 | 16 | 24 |
From the table it can be seen that Bedford Borough Council must achieve a recycling rate of 18% by 2005/06. This represents a considerable improvement from the 1998/99 figure of 4%. In 2001, Bedford Borough Council in conjunction with Mid Beds District Council, South Beds District Council, Bedfordshire County Council and Luton Borough Council, produced the "Waste Strategy for Bedfordshire and Luton". This document outlines the strategy for dealing with waste in Bedfordshire and Luton up to the year 2020, and will play a key part in the way in which Bedford Borough Council strives to meet its recycling targets. The strategy recognises that in order to meet its recycling targets, there needs to be a radical overhaul of the current landfill-orientated waste management system in order to establish an efficient and integrated waste recovery and treatment system.
The key action points in which Bedford Borough Council will seek to improve the level of recycling are as follows:
We will initiate research and development of suitable systems of kerbside collection of segregated waste streams direct from households.
We will develop and enhance the network of Civic Amenity Sites ('Tidy-Tips') and other bring-sites in order to maximise recycling performance.
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