By No waste sent to landfill in September
In the month of September no waste ended up in landfills, according to North East Lincolnshire Council, as waste ended up being recycled or recovered to generate energy.
Nearly all North East Lincolnshire’s household waste that can’t be recycled is used to generate electricity at the Energy from Waste Plant near Stallingborough, only a small amount (less than five per cent) goes to landfill.
Mattresses are one example of an item that until last year were sent to landfill, but now they are taken to be recycled by a company in York.
It comes as North East Lincolnshire Council (NELC) gives its backing to Recycle Week 2022 and says a big thank you to households in the area who are recycling more than ever.
This year’s current recycling rate stands at 39.37 per cent, up from 39.14 per cent in 2021 and 35.08 per cent in 2020.
Recycling rates have increased greatly since 2017/18 when they were 31.8 per cent. The target for 2025 is 55 per cent.
Households are recycling much more since the Council introduced new wheelie bins in 2020. To make it easy, each bin lid is clearly labelled with symbols showing what to put in them. Paper and card go in the blue wheelie bin. Washed plastic bottles, tubs and trays, food tins and drink cans and glass bottles and jars go in the grey wheelie bin.
NELC also expanded its food waste recycling pilot this year to include more homes. The pilot started in April 2020 and included 4,680 households. Now, more than 5,500 households have bins to recycle food waste every week. The Council is expecting an update from central government with a date for when food waste recycling will be rolled out nationally.
Cllr Stewart Swinburn, the Council’s portfolio holder for Environment and Transport, said: “It’s fantastic to see more and more people in North East Lincolnshire are recycling.
“Recycling is an easy way to help the environment and prolong the lives of materials such as aluminium, plastics and paper.
“By sorting recycling at home, households are creating a much better-quality product for reprocessing.
“People tell us that recycling is very important to them and I’m grateful to everyone who makes the effort to sort their recycling at home.”
