YORK RESIDENTS HAVE A GREEN CHRISTMAS (York Liberal Democrats)

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

YORK RESIDENTS HAVE A GREEN CHRISTMAS

February 23, 2009 12:02 AM

Figures released today show York Residents recycled 17% more of their waste this Christmas, compared to the same period last year.

The Council usually expects to collect around 2000 tonnes of recycling waste over the four week festive period. However, in the last festive period (28th December 2008 to 24th January 2009) the council collected 2,320 tonnes of recyclable material.

1,200 tonnes of the recycling waste was collected through City of York Council's kerbside recycling scheme. The Liberal Democrat budget proposals include an investment of £210,000 to extend the kerbside recycling scheme across the city.

York has one of the highest recycling rates in the country, by the end of the year the Council estimates that 45% of all waste in the city will be recycled.

Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Neighbourhood Services, Councillor Ann Reid welcomed the increase in Christmas recycling. She said, "I would like to thank the residents of York for continuing to support the drive to recycle. This is a great result and shows that people are more than happy to recycle, particularly if we can make it easy and convenient."

Councillor Reid said it was also important to note that there is still a healthy market for the recycling waste collected in York. She said, "There has been a lot of media coverage recently about mountains of recycling building up in warehouses across the country. I would like to assure people that this is not the case for the recycling waste collected in York."

"We have been able to sell on all the material we have collected and we expect to continue to be able to do so."

"The more people choose to buy recycled goods, the stronger the market will be for us to sell on the waste we collect. It is important that, as well as recycling our waste, we choose to buy recycled goods. We have a role as both suppliers and consumers in the recycling market."