Reducing waste to landfill is necessary as waste in landfill produces greenhouse gases as it rots, damaging the environment. Putting waste into land fill means that valuable materials such as metals, glass and wood are lost which could have been reused or recycled. The costs of putting waste into land fill are also increasing year on year.
The Derbyshire councils are committed to increasing recycling and composting and have set a joint target of 55% by 2020.
Efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle rubbish are essential parts of the strategy and initiatives in support of this include:
- expansion of kerb side collections of materials for recycling and composting - a number of councils have recently introduced a third wheelie bin for collecting recycling
- provision of local recycling banks
- provision of 9 household waste recycling centres
- development of an in-vessel composting facility at Waterswallows, near Buxton, with a further one planned in the Chesterfield area (subject to planning approval)
- raising public awareness of a whole range of waste reduction, recycling, reuse, and composting services
- promotion of specific campaigns including Love Food Hate Waste, home composting, real nappies and recycling of small electricals
However, even with increased efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle more of our waste, we will still be left with just under half that will need managing in other ways to avoid it going to landfill. This waste will need to undergo some kind of treatment.