Each week the UK produces enough rubbish to fill Wembley Stadium - and at least half of that could be recycled.
In just one year residents in Hastings have managed to recycle the equivalent weight of 350 elephants through the doorstep waste paper recycling scheme alone! Now the Council is working with schools and residents to try and increase the amount recycled, as well as to raise the awareness of recycling and its importance.
Teaching you about recycling
We are currently working with 10 schools to increase awareness of the importance of recycling. It is hoped that raising the issue of recycling with children will result in them persuading their parents to take part in the doorstep scheme if they don't already.
Bring your own
There are currently eight 'bring' sites sited at various supermarkets and car parks around the town which have paper, bottle and can recycling facilities.
After working with residents in the Old Town, who are not covered by the doorstep scheme, ten bring containers have been ordered and will be installed at various places in the area.
It is hoped that a trial of on-street containers in Central St Leonards will begin this year, and mean that all areas in the town have recycling facilities in some form or another.
Flats with suitable storage facilities are also being targeted for inclusion in the scheme and will be given a suitable 'wheelie bin'.
How are we doing?
As well as the 1750 tonnes of paper (or equivalent of 350 elephants!) collected through the doorstep scheme over the last 12 months, 25.38 tonnes of cans; 76 tonnes of plastics; 550 tonnes of paper; 17 tonnes of textiles and 634 tonnes of glass have been collected from the bring sites.
At the moment our recycling rate is 11%, and should reach the target of 12% which has been set for the town by the Government by 2004. By 2015 we are expected to be recycling or composting almost triple that amount - 33%.
Our waste paper is quality!
Once the paper is collected by our contractors Onyx, it is taken up to Frenchs at Ponswood for transporting to Aylesford paper mill near Maidstone in Kent. The mill owners are delighted with our doorstep scheme and say that waste paper collected in Hastings & St Leonards is consistently of a high quality.
Green fingers
For those of you who are keen gardeners you may be interested to know that the Council is looking at ways that it could fund the collection of garden waste for composting at Pebsham landfill site.
In addition, it is hoped that composting schemes can be set up at local schools to encourage the home composting of kitchen waste.
Both of these schemes are still at an early stage but could lead to the 18% recycling target (2006) being met. In the meantime residents are being encouraged to take their green garden waste to the Civic Amenity site at Pebsham for composting.
Councillor Trevor Webb, Cabinet Member responsible for Amenities, said:
"At the moment our take up rate on the doorstep recycling scheme is 50% which makes our scheme one of the best in the country. However, we would like to have a rate of around 70% - there is still quite a lot of paper being collected through the normal refuse collection scheme which ends up at Pebsham tip.
"I am really delighted that everyone has put such an effort in to make this scheme a success and I look forward to even more people taking part and increasing those recycling rates even more."
For more information about recycling and how you can help, please contact Contracts Manager Peter Hooper on 781382 or email phooper@hastings.gov.uk
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This page last updated: 25/06/2002