Delving into rubbish reveals waste secrets
Rubbish experts have been delving into Warwickshire’s waste to try and discover what we are throwing away that could be recycled revealing just how green we are.
The ‘Waste Composition Analysis’ was carried out between October of last year and February of this year and samples of rubbish were collected from the kerbside and household waste recycling centres.
These samples were analysed so that Warwickshire County Council and the district and borough councils could see where their waste services were being effective and where to target any new services in order to increase recycling rates.
When it comes to rubbish going into the bin, the folk of Nuneaton are not letting food go to waste in comparison to those living in Warwick. In Warwick nearly 40 per cent of all waste in the bin is food, often thrown away as out of date, or simply where too much is prepared. This could mean that nearly 12,000 tonnes of food is thrown away each year in Warwick District alone. In Nuneaton this dropped to 28 per cent or 12,300 tonnes a year, and in the rural former mining communities of North Warwickshire only 25 per cent or 5,000 tonnes a year of the waste was food.
Countywide, there are still a lot of recyclable materials being thrown away 20 per cent of waste was paper, six per cent was glass, and three per cent was metal tins and cans, all of which could go into kerbside boxes. In total this is over 78,000 tonnes a year that could have been recycled but instead was thrown away.
General analysis showed that:
61 per cent of the waste brought to the household waste recycling centres is recyclable and that with our average recycling rate of 53 per cent across the sites analysed, we are recovering 85 per cent of this waste.
31 per cent of the residual waste stream collected at the kerbside is food waste and 20 per cent is paper
Improvements in the collection methods used, such as collecting food waste, would enable Warwickshire to reach a recycling rate of 42 per cent.
Portfolio Holder for the Environment, Cllr Martin Heatley, said: "This analysis clearly shows that the recycling rate targets we have set of 60 per cent at the recycling centres and 40 to 45 per cent across the county are stretching but achievable. - Warwickshire managed to reach a recycling rate of 30 per cent last year which was a great success, but we can, and need to, do more."