Recycling and Waste Management
Collecting your waste is only part of the picture. We also provide facilities to help reduce waste, increase recycling and dispose of the waste we produce.
High Peak Borough Council, Derbyshire County Council, Derby City Council and the seven other district and borough councils have drawn up a strategy for managing household rubbish called Looking after Derbyshire's Waste. You can view this strategy and other information here:
Since August 4, 2008, High Peak Borough Council have formed a partnership with the UK's leading waste management company, Veolia Environmental Services. The new contract will help High Peak residents recycle, reduce and reuse waste with a brand new fleet of high performing vehicles.
There is no change to any of the recycling or refuse services we offer, nor is there any change in front-line staff structure.
Recycling facts and figures
The facts about waste are startling, and highlight why it is such an important issue for us.
Landfill is a very environmentally destructive practice, but it is where we send most of our waste. If we recycle more:
- We reduce the amount of harmful gases, which are a cause of global warming, being released from landfill sites into the atmosphere;
- We reduce potential pollution of watercourses;
- We preserve valuable resources and environments from which raw materials are extracted; and
- We provide valuable raw materials for new products and new industries.
Nationally,
- The Government has set a recycling target for England of 30% for 2010;
- We use more than six billion bottles a year;
- We need a forest the size of Wales to provide the paper we use each year;
- We bury 80 million food and drinks cans in landfill sites every day; and
- We throw away eight million nappies a day.
In High Peak,
- The average household throws away 1 tonne of waste each year - totalling 40,000 tonnes per year;
- About 70% of our waste goes into landfill;
- About 30% of our household waste is recycled or composted - but up to 80% of waste can actually be recycled; and
- In 2006-2007, we recycled 3,150 tonnes of paper, 2,210 tonnes of glass, 335 tonnes of cans, 120 tonnes of plastic and 265 tonnes of textiles in the High Peak.
- By 2010, the Council must more than double our recycling and composting rate, and cut down the amount of rubbish we send to landfill by half.
Top tips for reducing waste
We can all take steps to reduce the waste we need to get rid of at home. Each of these is a small contribution, but taken together, they can make a big difference to the High Peak. Why not try some of the following to help reduce your waste:
- Use re-usable nappies
- Avoid buying heavily packaged goods
- Use refillable containers where possible
- Re-use paper as scrap
- Use your own shopping bags or boxes, reuse shopping bags as many times as possible, or invest in a stronger plastic shopping bag, sometimes called a "bag for life" which are available at most supermarkets
- Repair broken goods, rather than just replacing them
- Re-use envelopes
- Take unwanted clothes to charity shops or textile banks
Our Recycling Sites offer a range of facilities to help to ensure that as much household waste material as possible is recycled.
Facilities are also provided by Derbyshire County Council at Melandra, Glossop (External website**) for the proper disposal of other household rubbish.
**Please note: High Peak Borough Council is not responsible for the content of any external websites.
