What’s in your rubbish?
Investigators are at work at sites across Warwickshire to try and discover just how much of the waste we’re throwing away could actually have been recycled.
Warwickshire Waste Partnership is carrying out the inquiry to see just how much of our everyday garbage could in fact have been recycled.
The waste composition analysis has been fully funded by DEFRA to enable the Partnership to establish baseline information that will help Warwickshire County Council, district and borough councils to come up with effective ways to get more recyclable material out of the rubbish bin.
Random sampling is being carried out in different areas across Warwickshire, the results of which will then be used to estimate the quantities of different types of rubbish produced in each area.
Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment and Chairman of Warwickshire Waste Partnership, said: “It will be interesting to see what the investigation uncovers about our waste habits in Warwickshire, and even from different parts of the county.
“From this information we are looking to determine the types and quantities of waste arising for a number of years. This will help the authorities to plan ahead and put facilities in place to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
“This waste analysis is in no way connected to the chipping of wheelie bins or charging for the disposal of waste. We are not trying to find out who isn’t recycling and the samples taken are not linked to any property in any way. We just need to know what is happening with the current recycling services so that we can target improvements to make it easier to recycle.”