Graham, Tom and Ian

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Stockport targets zero waste going to landfill

by Lib Dem team on 20 January, 2015

Already one of the best recyclers in the country, Stockport now aims to reduce the waste going to landfill down to zero.

Stockport residents recycle over 60% of our waste – we’re in the top five nationally for recycling and third in the country for composting food and green waste – with all the other top councils being rural districts.

Now we want to reduce our landfill waste down to zero. In addition to the recycling we put in our brown, blue and green bins, waste from the black bin is starting to go to a new incinerator where it’s burnt to generate electricity. That electricity is sold, with Stockport resident getting our share of those profits.

It will always be better to recycle than to put rubbish in the black bin, but using our waste to generate electricity and earn money for the people of Stockport is a lot better than burying it in the ground. Over the last few years Stockport has earned millions of pounds selling our recycling after Lib Dem reforms and we want that to continue.

 

   10 Comments

10 Responses

  1. shabs says:

    Excellent target, however i swear i remember reading something about if we recycle our taxes would reduce??? Or we would get money back somehow….

  2. Iain Roberts says:

    Shabs – that’s right. Over the last few years Stockport taxpayers have benefited by more than £12 million from recycling, which is one reason why we’ve been able to freeze council tax for three years of the last four and protect our area from some of the worst effects of the austerity cuts that other councils have seen.

    • shabs says:

      Thank you Iian 🙂

    • June Westley says:

      I don’t consider we’ve been very well protetected against austerity when we have a further 25% reduction in the Social Care budget next year.

      • Iain Roberts says:

        Hi June,

        I hope I didn’t give the impression that savings from recycling could fully counter all the austerity cuts. Through additional recycling we’ve saved around £3 million a year so far (though that will reduce over time). This year we have to find savings of more than £17million, with more again the year after and the years after that.

        So you’re entirely right: the money we’ve raised from recycling has allowed us to less than we’d otherwise have had to, but we still need to find enormous savings in council spending.

  3. Bruce thwaite says:

    Forgot to mention that we currently have public transport to Stockport in the guise of the number 11 bus – excellent service and frequency.

  4. richard horsnell says:

    I’m amazed stockport is doing so well. I’m disappointed that the borough can’t recycle/re-use a greater number of types of plastics. For example, I regularly see on food packaging that the bulk of the packet, excluding any film can be recycled but with the caveat ‘check with local authority’. In stockport this means = landfill. It would be great if a borough could look at increasing the types of plastic that can be recycled and bump us up to pole position.

    • Iain Roberts says:

      Hi Richard – that’s an interesting point. To be able to recycle something, Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority need to have a buyer who’ll then use the material. At the moment no-one wants to buy those yoghurt pots in the volumes Greater Manchester produces at a price that’s economically viable to sell at. If that changes, we’ll be able to recycle those other materials.

      • richard horsnell says:

        I really hope so. I would also go as far as suggesting that may be we could use some of the savings cited above to subsidise a buyer to get the ball rolling…

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