Thanks to the willingness of residents to make use of their
recycling services, the overall average of household waste that is
being recycled rather than going into landfill is 59%, the seventh
highest in the country for 2010/11.
Your rubbish is costing you the earth
We still need to divert more of the remaining hundreds of tonnes
of rubbish going into landfill as it is literally costing the earth
not to recycle more. Making it easier to recycle, and encouraging
more people to do it, is not just about protecting the
environment.
The Government levies a landfill tax on every tonne of rubbish
that goes into the local tips - on 1 April 2011 this rose to £56 a
tonne and is set to rise by £8 each year until 2014. This tax is
paid by residents through their Council Tax.
The rising costs of landfill taxes and other charges mean that
we could be faced with an increasing bill for disposing of the
household waste we are collecting, so if we can all recycle more
that potential bill will be reduced.
Why we should recycle more and minimise our waste
Not only would there be a massive financial saving for us all if
we increased our recycling, there would also be a major benefit to
the environment. If we can recycle more, it will reduce the
consumption of raw materials and energy.
By cutting down the amount of waste we produce in the first
place and recycling and composting more of the waste we can't avoid
producing, we can reduce the amount that has to be disposed of by
burying it in landfill sites, thus reducing the amount of valuable
resource that has to be wasted in this way.
However, because our landfill sites are also filling up quickly
and only have a finite lifespan before they are full, we must
further reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill in order to
avoid incurring Government fines.
Suffolk County Council has therefore had to
investigate alternative methods (new window) of
dealing with the remaining residual waste that cannot be composted
or recycled, and whether there are options, such as energy from
waste schemes, which are more environmentally acceptable in
comparison to burying the waste in landfill.
Whichever method is finally put into place, it will still be far
more preferable for us to all
minimise the waste we produce in the first
place, with recycling and composting being the next most
sustainable option, before energy from waste, with final disposal
to landfill being the least environmentally sustainable option.
Partners in waste management
Suffolk Coastal is working in partnership with other councils in
the county through the Suffolk Waste Partnership and the Joint
Municipal Waste Management Strategy to minimise levels of waste
generated and to manage waste in ways that are environmentally,
economically and socially sustainable.