Teignbridge raises recycling rate for the fifth year running

Recycling news from Teignbridge Council is that the district has increased the amount of waste it recycles for the fifth year running, with a new rate of 57 per cent placing it sixth in the national top-ten recyclers, while collection costs were the lowest in Devon.

The new rate for the year 2008/09 was announced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and confirms Teignbridge Council as one of the country’s leaders for waste recycling. The authority has a growing reputation for green issues, marked earlier this year by its finalist position for The MJ magazine’s Energy Efficiency Achievement of the Year Award.

As well as coming sixth nationally for the amount it recycled in 2008/09 at 57.37 per cent, Teignbridge also had the second lowest amount of waste per household in Devon, with just 372kg per household last year. Teignbridge’s waste collection costs were also the lowest in Devon at just £44.34 per household per year.

The achievements are the result of people separating and recycling their household waste, supported by regular green initiatives. Since introducing district-wide alternating fortnightly collections for landfill waste and recyclables in 2004, Teignbridge has seen the amount of waste recycled jump from 27 per cent in 2004/05 to a huge 57 per cent last year.

Over the past year Teignbridge Council has further boosted performance by introducing a trial of plastic bottle collections for 10,000 households, and a decision is expected early in 2010 as to whether it will be rolled out district-wide.

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