Councils won't waste recycling opportunity (From Gazette Series)

Councils won't waste recycling opportunity

AN EXTRA £1.5 million of Government funding will be pumped into Gloucestershire's recycling efforts thanks to a partnership between Gloucestershire County Council, the six district councils and Shropshire County Council.

The Department of Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed a total of £2.5 million in funding would be shared between the partners to increase the amount of recycling and composting taking place in both Gloucestershire and Shropshire.

Cllr Bob Eccles, the council's cabinet member responsible for the environment, said: "It is very important that the authorities responsible for collecting and disposing of all our rubbish and waste work together.

The Gloucestershire and Shropshire partnership is one of only 14 initiatives around the country to be given extra funding and it just goes to prove the power of working together.

"The extra money will be targeted at recycling waste from residents' kitchens - tonnes of which end up in our landfill sites every year.

We want to make sure that such waste is collected effectively and disposed of safely, minimising the effect of methane gas that is produced as the waste decomposes.

"Our aim it to recycle up to 30,000 tonnes of such material each year and I would like to say congratulations to the teams from all eight councils who worked together, drawing on each other's expertise, and whose efforts have today been rewarded."

As well as enabling Gloucestershire residents to recycle their kitchen waste, the funding will also be used to improve and extend kerbside recycling collections throughout the county.

Gloucestershire and Shropshire decided to bid jointly for the funding to tackle the similar recycling and waste issues that both counties are addressing.

Gloucestershire has been set of Government target of recycling 36 percent of all waste by 2005-06. The presnt figure is about 22 percent.