Recycling in Shropshire
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In Shropshire we produce around 150,000 tonnes of waste every year – more than 1 tonne per household. Thats the same weight as more than 20,000 double decker buses - if you parked these buses end-to-end they would stretch from Shrewsbury to London!
Why should we recycle?
Most of your rubbish goes into holes in the ground called landfill sites, but these are filling up fast and the cost of having to bury your rubbish is going up year on year.
Unlike burying and burning rubbish, recycling allows materials to be used again and made into useful products. Its good news for the environment because it reduces the need to take raw materials out of the earth. This saves energy and so helps to reduce your carbon footprint.
The UK’s current recycling of those materials saves between 10-15 million
tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year. This is equivalent to about 10% of the annual CO2 emissions from the transport sector, and equates to taking 3.5 million cars off UK roads!
How much do we currently recycle?
The good news is that nearly 48 per cent all waste from households is now being recycled or composted, and Shropshire Council is working hard to make it easier for you to recycle more.
Residents in the Shropshire Council area recycled or composted 47.57 per cent of their household waste in the year April 2008 to March 2009, compared to 43.5 per cent in the previous year the latest official Government figures show. The national average for England was 37.6 per cent.
Within Shropshire, the former South Shropshire District Council had the highest combined recycling and composting figure of 57.45 per cent – making it the fifth best performing council in England.
For more information about the amount of waste produced, recycled or composted in the year 2008/2009, please follow the link entitled 'Rise in Shropshire's recycling rate'
How and where can we recycle our waste in Shropshire?
For information about how to recycle in Shropshire follow the links to the kerbside recycling services or household recycling centres.
Where can I find out more about recycling?
Follow the link to the RecycleNow webiste.