Last year, at the first Transition Towns meeting, Gareth Ratcliffe talked about the day he'd spent on the bin lorries, finding out what happens to our waste. He said then that Powys Council pays a fine of £200 a tonne for all the waste that is not recycled - and I asked why nobody knew about this.
Well, now the Council have laid it all out in black and white in their little magazine Red Kite.
The good news is that we currently recycle 41% of our rubbish.
The bad news is that, if we carry on at our present levels, we will have to pay something in the region of £30 million in fines over the next ten years.
The targets for recycling, set by the Welsh Assembly, are rising - to 52% by 2012/3, and to 70% by 2024/5 - and Gareth said himself that, at the current rate, the landfill site at Llanidloes will only last another 7 years, and where do we put it all then?
One of the improvements the Council plans is to collect glass at the kerbside, too - and food waste (all my food waste goes on the compost heap - but that's not possible for everybody).
Think what we could do with £30 million, if it's not wasted in paying fines.
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2 comments:
What entity administers and receives the £200 per tonne fine I wonder? I recently applied for a job at my local council (rubbish dept) and I think the reason I didn't get the job is that I was too interested and curious about rubbish and they probably thought I was some sort of mole!!!!!
So - you applied to the rubbish department and they thought you were too interested in rubbish?!
I believe the money goes to central government.
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