One of the firms contracted to collect local kerbside recycling, Lancaster-based Envirofirst, is considering billing local authorities to store 3,000-4,000 tons of waste. The charges would include local councils who use the company’s services.
The Daily Mail reports that bale after bale of waste paper sits unwanted at a depot in the south of England, a sight being repeated all over the country because the market for all the paper and card so carefully put aside by households has collapsed. The country’s mountain of such waste, growing at a rate of 8,300 tons a week, is costing taxpayers millions of pounds because the private firms contracted by councils to collect and dispose of it are now charging them to store it.
Envirofirst, which is based on the Lune Industrial Estate, say it is committed to reducing landfill and offering a first class service to local businesses wanting to recycle. Their service is available to all local businesses and they work closely with local councils and local and national waste management companies operating in the Lancaster and South Lakes area.
Under EU legislation the UK has to ensure that less than one third of its waste is sent for landfill by 2020. But by that time these sites will have been full for seven years. At present we bury a massive 80-90% of our waste of which at least two thirds of this is recycleable.