Councillors Report

Waste Not ...

Household waste to landfill costs a great deal of money to dispose of and there is a severe fine (landfill tax) imposed for doing so. It could also be fairly argued that this method of disposing waste shows disregard for our following generations who will have to deal with the run-off and waste effluent. Materials used in packaging are also in shorter supply and in many cases are vital to protect and reuse because their rarity is growing.

It is therefore vital that we recycle more. It is important that we, as a community, take ownership of our waste and remove everything feasible from the landfill waste stream.

To that effect Cornwall Council is rolling out kerbside recycling throughout the county using nationally standardised recycling container colours. You will shortly be receiving containers which I urge everyone to use with enthusiasm and positive will.

The containers will be

Black Recycling Box

Glass bottles and jars. To avoid injuring yourself or the collection crews, please only ever put glass into the box.

Textiles – Clean dry clothing, shoes, towels, sheets, (no duvets or pillows) please put them into a plastic bag to keep dry and put them on top of your box.

Blue bag for paper

Newspapers, Magazines, BT and Thomson phone directories, Yellow Pages Catalogues and brochures, Junk mail, White office paper, White envelopes including windows. Shredded paper in a separate, tied plastic bag.

Red bag for cans and plastic bottles

Any plastic bottles. (All plastic bottles, but only plastic bottles). Drinks cans, food tins. Aerosols. Clean aluminium foil. Metal bottle and jar lids.

Orange bag for cardboard

Brown, white and grey cardboard, brown paper, coloured paper, wrapping paper (Non shiny), greetings cards. Please remove all staples, sticky tape and plastic bags. Larger cardboard boxes can be folded and tied separately.

Recycled material is actually recycled.
All this recycling is audited and is totally recycled so the Council can say with complete confidence that everything is recycled. In the near future we hope to introduce all plastics in the plastics red bag as well as tetrapacks (the orange juice type box) and kitchen waste collected separately. In the interim I urge everyone to consider the following generations and make that effort to use the recycling containers fully.

Phil Tucker 01288 341617 philip.tucker@homecall.co.uk

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