southtyneside.info
Waste - The Issues
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The issues
In the UK we currently produce around 27 million tonnes
of domestic waste each year and this amount is rising. In
South Tyneside, we have seen the amount of domestic waste
increase by over 17,000 tonnes between 1991/92 and 2001/02;
an increase of around 3% each year. Most of this rubbish ends
up in landfill sites; this means it is buried in the ground
and this can create a number of problems.
Decaying waste can pollute watercourses and produce harmful greenhouse gases such as methane, which contributes to climate change. It's also becoming increasingly expensive to dispose of waste. To dispose of 1 tonne of waste at a landfill site, we now pay £14 and this does not include a "gate fee" or the cost of transporting the waste to the site (which can be a considerable distance). It's become vitally important to reduce the amount of waste we produce in the first place, then reuse or recover as much as possible.
Not
everything we throw away or dispose of is rubbish, it could be
reused or recycled.
Recycling reduces our dependency on raw materials and helps us manage natural resources better. It also cuts the amount of waste that needs to be disposed of.
Often recycling post consumer materials such as aluminium cans and glass bottles significantly reduces the energy needed in comparison to producing a marketable product from diminishing virgin materials. For example, at least 1.5 million tonnes of glass goes into landfill sites each year yet glass does not rot away. Up to 90% of new glass can be made from reclaimed scrap glass saving energy and raw materials.
The
Government has set a number of challenging targets to counter
the UK's poor waste recycling and recovery performance, which
will result in a significant increase in the amount of waste being
recovered. We are continually developing schemes to improve our
recovery rate of around 8% and achieve our targets to reduce waste
being landfilled.
We have recently produced a Waste
Management Strategy and Minimisation Plan to address these
issues and tackle the ever-growing mountain of waste being produced.
We are confident that South Tyneside's residents will meet the challenges and support the schemes being implemented. For more information on what we are doing and ways to reduce waste at home, have a look at our recycling pages.
The Council is also addressing the impact of the waste it produces through its own day-to-day activities through its Environmental Stewardship Strategy.
For more information contact:
Jay Barrett
Phone: 0191 427 2064
Email: Jay.Barrett@southtyneside.gov.uk
