County ‘is among the most wasteful’
Thursday 25th March 2010, 9:59AM GMT.
Shropshire people are among the most wasteful in the country with each person producing six times their own body weight in rubbish every year, new figures show.
But next week Shirehall leaders are expected to approve a plan to cut waste levels over the next five years and save money. A report to the Shropshire Council cabinet says that last year residents each produced on average 530 kilogrammes of rubbish.
That ranks the area second highest out of 34 county waste disposal authorities based on the quantity of waste per person.
The plan aims to reduce the annual figure to 480 kilogrammes by 2015.
Its main focus will be on food waste prevention, home composting and “community re-use” which includes furniture schemes.
The total amount of waste collected last year was 161,867 tonnes of which 94 per cent – 153,817 tonnes – was household rubbish.
This, says the report, equates to 1.18 tonnes of household domestic waste per household.
It means, based on a population of 289,900, on average every person is producing 530 kilogrammes of waste, or six times their own body weight.
The annual cost of managing this waste is £27 million.
But the area also has one of the highest recycling rates in the country, currently running at 47.59 per cent.
The report warns that despite recent reductions in the overall amount of waste being produced, it is assumed this will begin to increase again in the coming years, largely due to population and housing growth.
“The number of households in Shropshire is planned to increase by 25 per cent over the life of Shropshire’s waste contract,” adds the report.
Dave Roberts, council cabinet member for local environment and economy, says in a foreward to the plan: “Waste prevention is crucial for Shropshire Council because it’s the most economic and environmentally sustainable solution for dealing with our rubbish.”
By Dave Morris
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This doesn’t include Telford so why does this misleading story suggest the whole of Shropshire when its only Shropshire Council..
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Last year I managed to recycle may recycling bin.
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im suprised about this i blame the supermarkets
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So what do you do with the rest of the money you screw out of Shropshire residents for rubbish removal?
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Having half decent recycling facilities would be a start. Apparently I can’t recycle halogen bulbs or plastics other than PET or LDPE.
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“The plan aims to reduce the annual figure to 480 kilogrammes by 2015.”
Let me guess. Will this involve some sort of taxation?
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shocking stats
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I hope we do get taxed on the amount of waste we create. We successfully recycle and get the general waste collected fortnightly, simple! Maybe it will help to make the the microwave meal over packaged pre-prepared food consumers think more carefully about what they purchase….. they will probably just shout and scream though, as that’s all that they are good at!
We sometimes create a large heap of rubbish in our garden and burn it along with the local peasants, soap dodgers and unemployed …. Keeping britain tidy!
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i think the comments about recycling miss the point, this is about overall waste generation per capita, waste is bad whether it is recycled or not, we must all try to not produce it in the first place through better procurement and packaging technology to be fair is advancing and helping, like lightweighted glass bottles which use only a fraction of the resources (remember those old victorian beer bottles you see at antiques markets – how thick is the glass on them!) but we all have responsibility to hassel the manufacturers and supermarkets and shop in a way which avoids waste, number one advice i would say is go to the local shrewsbury indoor markets where you can get loose fruit and veg and take it home in your own reusable bag, any leftovers i just put them on the compost bin, there is no waste, its all a resource for my garden
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yeah i have no problem making wasteful people pay more, however if you look into this kind of data you see rural areas like shropshire are always more “wasteful” because we have big gardens and so produce lots of green waste, should people with big gardens pay more tax??? i dont think thats fair, i think the council should take the stuff away and then make the moeny by selling the compost
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clearly there is a problem and i am pleased to see the council trying to do something about it. iN MY OPinion, the most effective single thing to do would be charging for black bag rubbish, but i cant see the tory council voting for that, so they will have to look into smaller measures like education and giving out home composting bins. what they should do is look at the other councils who have better figures and see what they do, also look abroad, the dutch, the swedes etc, they all have better systems, more incineration which reduces the volume of waste, more charging for the collections which encourages consumers to be less wasteful, more in store recycling in supermarkets, more responsible supermarkets who have a duty of care over their packaging, they also do more deposits schemes on bottles and they have more green education in schools, and they all have sensible straighforward recyclign services which collect plastic, note to shropshire council, up your game!!!!
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if you look at the stats its all garden waste, so in answer to the question Why does Shropshire priduce more waste? Answer = because its rural and has big gardens,
dont need a degree in rocket science to figure that out do yoU!?
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no suprise, people on my street have over flowing bins and they clearly never put recycling out, i think they should be prosecuted (meole brace)
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i was at sainsburys the other day and some one from the council gave me a free reusable bag, fair play i am using it now and its probably saving me a bin full of plastic a year!
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i am suprised by this because i think with an elderly population they are normally more frugal having lived thru the war
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it proves we dont need an incinerator in shrewsbury but could instead achieve more by just encouraging waste reduction for homes and businesses
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simple, get a pig, they eat everything and anything, no more waste
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