RESIDENTS in Redcar & Cleveland are being urged to ‘Check it before you chuck it’ as part of a campaign aimed at increasing the amount and quality of recycling in the borough.
Pupils from Lakes Primary School launched the campaign at the school today where recycling staff put them through their paces on what can and cannot be recycled.
The initiative encourages the public to think about what they recycle to ensure they are recycling as much as possible and that it is going in the right recycling bin.
Each additional tonne of recycled paper is equivalent to the energy saved to heat a home for six months and recycling an aluminium can saves enough energy to power your television for three hours.
In Redcar & Cleveland we currently recycle 47% of our waste which is the highest rate in Teesside and slightly above the national average. Despite these encouraging figures we still need to recycle more.
Cllr Helen McLuckie, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods said:
“Recycling the waste material we produce makes sound economic sense as well as protecting the environment.
“This campaign will highlight the issue and hopefully encourage people to recycle more as well as reduce the amount of contaminated material being sent to the processing site.”
A fortnightly recycling collection is provided to residents for glass, card, plastic and tins as well as a separate caddy insert to collect paper.
Recyclable material is sent to a recycling site that sorts and processes the material however due to the high levels of contamination 34% of the recycling material is returned to the council as general waste. This has a significant environmental and financial cost as the council is effectively paying twice for the processing and haulage of the waste.
The council currently spends £2.6 million on waste disposal each year which could be spent on vital services for example we could resurface an extra 19 miles of the areas roads.