Warwickshire’s waste success
New figures have revealed that Warwickshire has shown more improvement in the last year than any other local authority area in Britain when it comes to tackling waste.
The government figures are so good that in some areas Warwickshire is hitting targets now that the government had set for 2020 – a decade early.
For example Warwickshire is now recycling and composting 43.2 per cent of waste (compared to just 15 per cent in 2003/2004). This exceeds the 40 per cent target set in the Warwickshire Waste Strategy, and also means the authority is on target to hit the government’s national target in the National Waste Strategy 10 years early.
The DEFRA WasteDataFlow figures reveal Warwickshire’s recycling and composting has gone up 22.8 per cent in the last year compared to 2007/2008, making it the ‘most improved county’ and pushing the authority towards the top of the national league tables.
Cllr Alan Cockburn, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “I’ve only just taken on the Environment portfolio on the council’s Cabinet and what a great time to be doing so. This is wonderful news and reflects the commitment Warwickshire County Council has made to invest in infrastructure to support targeted education campaigns, especially to do with waste minimisation and composting.
“Thanks should also go to our district and borough partners. We have joined them in making investments over several years, and with the very significant contribution they have made through their collection arrangements we are now starting to reap the benefits.
“And of course thanks should go to the people of Warwickshire for supporting their local schemes. To put things into perspective, thanks to people recycling, reusing and composting more, we have seen a dramatic reduction in the amount of waste going to landfill. In 2007/08 we sent 181,100 tonnes of waste to landfill in Warwickshire, last year it dropped to 153,032 – a drop of more than 28,000 tonnes.”