Date: 29/08/2007
High Peak Borough Council is praising residents for exceeding the targets for diverting household waste from landfill sites, and for helping to keep contamination levels low.
In July, around 35% of waste was recycled because garden waste and cardboard are being collected in the north and central areas of the borough through the Binnovation recycling scheme. The borough's recycling target for 2007/8 is 30%.
Contamination, which includes non-compostable waste like plastic, glass and beverage cartons, as well as food waste like fruit and vegetable peelings, has been slight. It is very important to keep contamination as low as possible, because the composting site can reject material that contains too much contamination.
Although food waste cannot be accepted in the green-lidded bins at the moment, the new composting facility, which is being built in Buxton, will be able to process it. This means that next year food waste can be added to the garden waste and cardboard mix. Residents will be notified of this change in the service in advance.
Councillor John Haken, High Peak Borough Council's Executive Member for the Environment, said: "The support that the council has been receiving from residents has been excellent. The high levels of participation and very low levels of contamination are vital to the success of the scheme.
"The scheme is being extended to Buxton next month, and we are confident that our recycling performance will increase even further."
He concluded: "I urge all residents to keep up the good work. By using the containers provided at home, and by taking plastic bottles and cartons to the recycling sites, we can keep contamination down and continue this promising trend."