Households across Cumbria deserve a pat on the back for improving recycling records at an impressive rate.
Cumbria County Council today released the latest figures showing that a whopping 34.23 per cent of the household waste stream was recycled in the first three months of the year starting in April.
That means that an extra 1,000 tonnes of green waste has been saved from landfill already this year and residents have already recycled 185 extra tonnes of plastic bottles - up from 50 tonnes during the same period last year.
News of the improvements comes as the Cleaner, Greener, Safer campaign gets underway on Monday August, 21st, to make Cumbria a better place to live.
Figures from the first quarter of 2006/7 suggest the county is on track for an encouraging improvement on previous years figures - total household recycling across the county for 2005/6 was 29.93%, and 25.55% for 2004/5.
Jack Richardson, Cumbria County Council waste spokesman and chairman of Resource Cumbria partnership board, said: "This is a great start to the year. We ought to give ourselves a pat on the back in Cumbria because we have come a long way in this county in a short space of time.
"There's no room for complacency though. We've made a lot of progress and we are heading in the right direction but the targets are tough and we'll have to work hard together to avoid serious LATS fines in the future.
"We're going to have to embrace a change of culture - for a lot of people that's going to mean changing the habits of a lifetime but its important that we all make the effort. I'm confident that the people of Cumbria are up to the challenge."
Notes for Editors
RUBBISH FACTS
There are 498,000 people in Cumrbia. The total household waste per person based on that total population last year was 634kg compared with 649kg last year.
Cumbria County Council and the district and borough councils are working together to encourage people to reduce, re-use and recycle as much as possible. For more information visit www.resourcecumbria.org
BREAKDOWN OF CUMBRIAN HOUSEHOLD WASTE
In 2005/6, a typical Cumbrian household’s waste output could be broken down as follows:
38.1% Garden and kitchen waste
19% Paper
10% Plastic
7.9% Glass
5% Card
3.5% Metal
2.7% Textiles
13.8% Miscellaneous (i.e. furniture, treated wood, nappies etc that is burnable, DIY waste like rubble concrete fireplaces etc.)
TONNES RECYCLED
In 2005/6 the following were recycled in Cumbria:
36,718 tonnes of green waste (for composting)
12,240 tonnes of paper
7,240 tonnes of glass
549 tonnes of cans
The average Herdwick sheep weighs around 55kg so the amount of paper recycled in Cumbria last year was equal to the weight of 222,500 sheep or 24,480,000 big bars of Kendal mint cake.
The Cleaner, Greener, Safer campaign involves the county council, district councils and the police.
It will see a series of initiatives aimed at improving the environment and making the streets cleaner and safer including:
A plastic bag amnesty, promotions on kerbside recycling schemes, a drive for the police's Streetsafe operation, initiatives to get Cumbrians composting more of their green waste, innovative ways of promoting home fire safety checks, an update on the problem of abandoned vehicles in the county and street cleaning promotions.