Press Release: Sheffield Near Bottom of Recycling league

Press Release: Sheffield Near Bottom of Recycling league

For immediate release: 27th August 2002

New Government figures on waste recycling put Sheffield City Council in 322nd place, out of 371 local authorities in the UK, with a recycling rate of only 4.4%. At the top of the table, Daventry Council are recycling 42% of their waste.

The UK league table is hardly the premier league of recycling. Overall in the UK we only recycle 12% of waste. This compares very badly to other European countries, such as Switzerland and Austria.

In 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio, world leaders pledged to reduce waste and introduce schemes to improve recycling. Ten years on, world leaders are meeting again in Johannesburg. Reducing the amount of waste we produce is one of the many important issues they will be discussing. Embarrassingly, the recent figures show that the UK has increased the amount of waste it produces over the last ten years.

Responsibility for increasing the rate of waste recycling lies with local authorities. Sheffield City Council are currently considering an application from the waste company ONYX to build a new incinerator at Bernard Road. Friends of the Earth believe that this new incinerator, if built, would remove any incentive for the City Council to improve its appalling record on recycling.

Steve Goodacre of Sheffield Friends of the Earth said-

"Responsibility for tackling global problems has to begin at home. Sheffield should be leading the way in reducing, reusing and recycling our waste. Yet the City Council seem determined to build an unwanted and unpopular incinerator for our waste."

Contact: Steve Goodacre steveg@doctors.org.uk

0114 267 0508

07890 374154

Source:

www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/wastats/mwb0001/download/xlsdata/annexb.xls