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Why recycle?

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Why recycle?

SpeakerListen to the text on this page

Landfill siteThanks to the willingness of residents to make use of their local recycling services, the current amount of household waste that is being recycled rather than going into landfill rubbish tips is 48.5%, which is well above the English average of 37.6%.

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 - in April 2009 this rose to £40 a tonne. 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 extra £9 million 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 is therefore having 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

Recycle for Suffolk Coastal logoSuffolk 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."

Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy for SuffolkIn January 2008 the results of a review of the strategy were adopted. Several policies were revised in light of the review including the policy relating to waste recycling and composting which now reads:

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