York keeps recycling environmentally friendly (York Liberal Democrats)

York Liberal Democrats <info@yorklibdems.org.uk>

York keeps recycling environmentally friendly

September 5, 2008 12:00 AM

Cllr Ann Reid, Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Neighbourhood Services, has revealed that City of York Council recycles the vast majority of its recycling within the UK.

York's kerbside recycling - steel, aluminium, glass, paper and plastic - goes to 6 different companies in the North of England. Each type of recyclable material goes to a different company, as listed below.

CYC Kerbside recycling outputs (07/08)

Material Amount (tonnes) End processor Destination

Steel 563 T J Thompson (Can Route Centre) Stockton-On-Tees Corus - UK

Aluminium 69 Novelis UK Ltd Warrington UK

Glass 3793 Glass Recycling UK Barnsley UK

Paper/ cardboard 7721 Kruger Mill - StockportUK (some cardboard to China)

Plastic 1000 Alternative Waste Solutions Lincolnshire UK

Plastic 400 J & A Young (Leicester) Derby China

The 14000 tonnes of plastic which York recycles is split between two companies - one of which recycles the plastic here in the UK, and the other, which receives 400 tonnes, exports this plastic to China to be recycled there.

A recent WRAP report shows that shipping these materials more than 10,000 miles in fact produces less CO2 than sending it to UK landfill. Transport is just one of the factors in assessing the environmental impact of exporting recyclable material. For example, there is a strong demand for paper in China where there is not enough trees to make paper, and a strong demand for plastic bottles from China's manufacturing industry.

Cllr Ann Reid, Executive Member for Neighbourhood Services, said, "York now recycles 43 per cent of its waste, which is a very impressive rate. Last year York residents recycled 7721 tonnes of paper and cardboard, 3798 tonnes of glass and 1400 tonnes of plastic, amongst other materials."

"We need to ensure that residents can have confidence in where their recycling goes and are keen to recycle more. It is therefore very important that the Council is clear and transparent about the end destination of our recycling, which it is."

"The Council encourages Yorwaste to recycle as much as possible within the UK, and I am pleased that the overwhelming majority of the materials collected from York residents is sent to companies within 100 miles of York, and recycled here in the UK. However, although it seems strange, it appears that transporting some of the city's plastic and cardboard to China is better environmentally than sending it to landfill here. In some cases the UK isn't able to reprocess everything we collect, in others there isn't the capacity to recycle it, so it makes sense for it to be used in China where there is a high demand for plastics and paper."