Date: 22/07/2008
Recycling rates have reached a record 42 per cent, as the Borough Council gears up to launch our Cleaner High Peak campaign, next week.
That's nearly half of household waste recycled, re-used or composted during May -- beating the previous record of 37 per cent in January 2008, and the 2007-2008 overall average of 31 per cent.
The impressive rise is mainly due to a huge increase in garden and cardboard waste collected from green-lidded bins, which doubled from 427 tonnes in April to 850 tonnes in May.
"This really is very encouraging news, especially as we prepare to launch our wider campaign for a Cleaner High Peak," said Councillor John Haken, High Peak Borough Council's Executive Member for the Environment. "It demonstrates that people are really taking the recycling message on board, and taking positive action to help us in our continuing quest to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill as well as safeguarding the environment.
"Our target for 2008-2009 is to recycle, re-use or compost 38 per cent of the borough's household waste, so we have got off to a flying start. I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone in the borough who has contributed to this record figure. If they continue to make such an excellent effort, we can achieve even greater heights in the future."
The news comes exactly two years after we began introducing our green-lidded bins for garden and cardboard waste, and just as the final batch of 1,500 bins have been delivered to the more remote rural properties of High Peak Borough.