Recycling rates in Cheshire East have decreased slightly in the past five years, he writes Ethan Davies.
New data obtained from the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs also shows that the Cheshire East Council collected 501.3 kg of household waste per person from households in the area over the 2019-20 period – 18.3 kg more than five years earlier.
Of that, 56.5% was sent for reuse, recycling or composting – five years ago the rate was 56.8%.
This is well above the rate for the Northwest, where in 2019.6 45.6% of household waste was sent for recycling or reuse.
Cllr Laura Crane, CEC Cabinet Member for Highways and Waste, said, “Given the volume of waste we collect across the community, our recycling rates in Cheshire East are impressive.
“We outperform many other local authorities, who are ranked 28th out of 341 councils, for the amount of waste we can recycle.
“At 56.5%, we are the fifth highest single agency when it comes to recycling and the best in the Northwest, which means we celebrate the fact that our recycling rate is 10% above the Northwest.
“Although our recycling rate has fallen a bit, we are still above the national target of 50%. With the recycling of food waste through our new composting process, we’ve seen rates increase by 4.7 percent.
“Only five other authorities saw higher increases.
“However, we cannot be complacent and we continue to urge our households to recycle whenever and whatever they can.
“We must commend our Ansa waste service for their heroic efforts to continue all three collection streams for household waste during this very challenging time of the pandemic.”
The 501.3 kg of waste collected per person is 63.2 kg higher than the northwest average of 438.1 kg and 94 kg higher than the UK average.
The news has led environmental organization Keep Britain Tidy to say that there is “an urgent need” to completely revise the way we collect and dispose of waste, with manufacturers taking more responsibility for reducing packaging.
Allison Ogden-Newton, General Manager, said, “Recycling rates have been stalling for a decade.
“The hope is that the environmental law will see the crucial measures outlined in the government’s resource and waste strategy.
“This includes expanded producer responsibility, a beverage container return system, and consistent recycling collections, including food waste. When that happens, we will make all the difference and get ourselves where we need to be in relation to our current goals.
“If by implementing these measures we can drastically reduce the amount of packaging that goes on the market, ensure that refillable options are encouraged, and insist that all single-use packaging is 100 percent consistently recyclable throughout the national cycle, then and only then will We achieve our goals and fix a system that is now going nowhere. “
