BEST EVER RECYCLING RATE SAVES OVER
£2.5million
Ealing residents are now recycling more than 40% of all waste – the best rate ever achieved in the borough.
In 2010/11 Ealing’s recycling rate was 40.04% – meaning the borough hit its 40% target. These figures are released to coincide with national recycling week which takes place between 20 June and 26 June.
In the year 2010/11 Ealing Council collected 29,172 tonnes of recycling (this includes everything from houses, neighbourhood recycling sites and reuse and recycling centres). This has saved £2.58 million in landfill taxes.
Included in the total amount of recycling collected is 4,936 tonnes of food waste, which includes 160 tonnes of food waste collected from schools alone. The council collected 6,161 tonnes of garden waste from households, and an additional 2,505 tonnes of garden waste from reuse and recycling centres. Diverting organic waste, such as food waste and garden waste from landfill is very important because when it decomposes it releases damaging gases into the atmosphere.
The theme of this year’s national recycling week is to recycle everywhere you go – at home, at work or out and about. In the coming weeks recycling bins are to be installed in Lammas Park, which will allow people to recycle cans, plastic and paper on the go.
Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for Transport and Environment, said: “I’m delighted that we have met our recycling target and now more than 40% of our waste is being recycled, but there is still plenty of room for improvement and we must continue to drive rates up. Every tonne that we divert from landfill not only has an environmental benefit but also saves us money, which we can then spend on valuable services. The majority of residents can recycle a wide range of materials from their homes, including plastic, batteries, clothes and shoes, so there is no excuse not to recycle and 2.5 million reasons why everyone should.
“I would also encourage everyone to try and recycle when they are going about their day to day business. If everyone recycled two drink bottles and two drink cans each year for a week, we will have saved the equivalent of almost 500,000 tonnes of C02. This is the same impact as avoiding the greenhouse gas emissions of over 80,000 round the world flights.”
Fore more information on recycling, visit www.ealing.gov.uk/recycling