Recycling directories
The average household in the UK produces a tonne of rubbish each year. Under the European Union Landfill Directive we must dramatically reduce the amount of biodegradable rubbish sent to landfill sites over the next 20 years.
A quarter of the 400 million tonnes of rubbish produced in the UK each year comes from households and industry. The remainder is made up of construction and demolition wastes, mining and agricultural wastes, sewage sludge and dredged spoils.
The proportion of rubbish recycled by local authorities is growing, yet the amount of household rubbish we produce is actually growing faster. Increases of as much as 30% are predicted over the next ten years. What goes into rubbish bins varies across the country depending on where people live, the time of year, household size, and councils’ waste collection methods.
But wherever you live it is likely that rubbish bins, or black bags put out for rubbish collection, will contain lots of materials that can be reused and recycled – from clothes, jewellery, keys, kitchen scraps and shoes to cans, paper and plastic bottles.
If a black bag of rubbish is put out it won’t be sorted, just taken to a tip where it will be dumped in a landfill site where it will take many generations to rot. It will produce the gas methane, which contributes to global warming.
So where do Recycling Directories fit in?
To tackle the rubbish crisis we all need to:
- Reduce our rubbish
- Reuse our rubbish
- Recycle our rubbish
- Buy recycled goods
Recycling Directories can help us do all these things and more. They are an A to Z guide on how to reduce, reuse and recycle rubbish in your local Community Area.
A Recycling Directory lists what can be taken to your local Household Recycling Centre or what kerbside recycling collections cover. It also carries information such as which local charities take specific items, what specification a computer needs to be for reuse, information on the condition the items need to be in is also included.
The Recycle for Wiltshire website also has advice on the council run facilities.
Items from the usual paper, glass and metal are included alongside items that are rarely thought of such as dog leads, computer cables and corks! There are a number of handy hints for reusing items (and therefore reducing rubbish). Did you know that old woollen jumpers could be boiled and shrunk to make liners for hanging baskets?
A limited number of hard copies are available (but not for all areas) from the Trust’s office in Devizes. If you have any queries on how to deal with waste items by reducing, reusing or recycling please use the contact form below and we will do our best to answer you query.
Recycling Directories help to provide encouragement and information on how to make lifestyle changes that will reduce your rubbish. They also help local charities, organisations and schools collect items for reuse or recycling which boost their fundraising efforts and help local businesses attract customers by showing what items they reuse or refill.
If you have some information about reducing, reusing or recycling rubbish you think would be useful to add to the Recycling Directory please contact the Trust's Waste Minimisation Officer Sara Cundy on (01380) 725670 ext 235 or email her using the form below.
The information in the directories has been gathered by groups of volunteers in each community area, many of whom have also helped with the distribution of the booklets. Local schools and youth groups have been involved in the project by taking part in a competition to design the front covers.
Support for the Recycling Directory project came from the Community Recycling and Economic Development (CRED) Programme and Wiltshire County Council.
