Press Release
Brighton & Hove City council is recycling less than it was in 2007[1] figures recently release by DEFRA show.
In 2007/08 the city was recycling nearly 29% of its household waste. However this year the City struggled to reach 27.5%. This is against a background of increased amounts of rubbish being thrown away by city residents.[2]
Overall every year England is producing less waste and recycling more[3] yet Brighton & Hove seems to be determined to buck this trend. The City’s waste strategy[4] highlights that 35% of our waste comes from food thrown away in the kitchen but still there is no clear plan for dealing with large amounts of kitchen waste.
The City’s Waste Strategy also shows that in addition to food waste; metal, garden waste, glass, paper and card[5] is still being thrown away rather than being recycled and composted. Yet instead of working to recycle more, the DEFRA statistics also indicate that as a City we are now sending more waste to incineration than we are recycling. Brighton & Hove now languishes at 319th out of 358 councils for recycling in the country.
Over the coming weeks Brighton & Hove Friends of the Earth will be asking the council searching questions on what is going wrong with our recycling and composting. In particular we will be looking to find out what the climate change impact is of our current system and what the council is planning to do about improving this and our recycling and composting rates.
Alison Walters of Brighton & Hove Friends of the Earth said:
“It’s a disgrace. The Council insisted that building the Newhaven incinerator would not limit recycling and composting, but rather than improving recycling rates we are falling well behind other parts of the country. It is shocking they are choosing to transport waste to incinerators across the SE England. Local people do not want to pay through the nose to send valuable resources up in smoke”.
“City residents expect more from the council we should be increasing recycling and composting, not just throwing it all into incinerators. It’s about time the council stopped ignoring food waste and we had some serious composting action“
Ends
CONTACT:
Alison Walters tel: 07779 634710
Notes to Editors
[1] DEFRA publishes waste and recycling statistics every year. http://www.defra.gov.uk/evidence/statistics/environment/wastats/bulletin10.htmhttp://www.defra.gov.uk/evidence/statistics/environment/wastats/bulletin10.htm
[2] Brighton & Hove City produced 107,586 tonnes of waste in 2008/09 and 108,443 in 2009/10
[3] DEFRA Waste Bulletin Key Facts:
- The proportion of household waste sent for recycling, composting or reuse in 2009/10 in England was 39.7 per cent, increasing from 37.6 per cent in 2008/09.
- The generation of household waste continued to decrease between 2008/09 to 2009/10, with a 2.7 per cent reduction to 23.7 million tonnes in 2009/10. Household waste generation has been decreasing annually since 2006/07.
[5] About 67% of what is left after recycling and a small amount of composting see Waste Strategy above
Brighton & Hove Friends of the Earth 
Leave a Reply