Why worry about waste?
In less than two hours the UK generates enough rubbish to fill the Albert Hall - and we carry on that way all through the year.
Did you know that, on average, about 2% of the rubbish thrown into UK bins is nappies? That's equivalent to the weight of 70,000 London buses! Learn more about real nappies and how we can help.
Most of our rubbish finds its way to landfill sites, which need careful monitoring and control to avoid harmful environmental effects. About a quarter of the UK's methane emissions come from landfill sites. Methane is a greenhouse gas which is over twenty times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
It has been estimated that, at the current rate of waste disposal in Surrey, we will run out of landfill capacity within the county by 2014.
Maintaining the status quo is clearly not a sustainable option.
How much waste do we throw away in Epsom & Ewell?
Each year we produce nearly 30,000 tonnes of household waste in the Borough - nearly 3 times the weight of HMS Belfast! Around 23,000 tonnes of that has ended up in landfill.
The good news is that our waste mountain is beginning to fall. During 2007/08 we reduced the amount we sent to landfill by nearly 13% compared to the previous year.
How much waste does each person create?
We measure the total amount of waste (including recycling) produced, on average, by each person in the Borough. In 2007/08 the figure stood at 403 kilogrammes per person. This figure has slowly fallen for each of the last five years. But 2007/08 showed the biggest drop for some time, at 12 kilogrammes per person.
This seems such a small reduction that it might be thought insignificant. In fact, it is very exciting news. Traditionally, over the last half of the 20th Century, household waste doubled every 20 years! So a fall of 12 kilogrammes per person, instead of the previous huge growth, is incredibly positive news.
The residents of Epsom & Ewell are clearly waste-aware.
What do we throw away?
At the beginning of 2006 we conducted a study of what gets thrown away in Epsom & Ewell. We examined the contents of a representative sample of bins and recycling boxes which gave us good information about average waste levels across the Borough (it was not used to look at individual bins).
The study revealed several significant parts to our waste stream such as:
- Garden waste was around a quarter of the contents of our rubbish bins.
- Kitchen waste represented another fifth of our rubbish bins.
- Around 8% of our rubbish bins is cardboard of various types, including envelopes.
- Although about 7% of our rubbish bins is plastic items, only around 2% is readily recyclable, in the form of plastic bottles. It is hard to find recyclers willing to accept other forms of plastic due to the complexity and range of plastic polymers in use today.
After this survey, and in response to wishes expressed by many of our residents, we introduced our kerbside garden waste recycling service.
We recently once again surveyed our waste stream to ensure that we continue to plan improvements to our recycling services with the best possible information about what is actually being thrown away in Epsom and Ewell. We will update this page when the results of that survey become available.
What do we recycle in Epsom & Ewell?
At the moment we are recycling around 30% of our household waste. That's great news, and this looks set to rise during the coming year.
| In November 2006 we introduced a kerbside recycling service for garden waste. This has had a very positive impact on our recycling. Already over 8,000 households have joined the service, which is performing ahead of forecast. |
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Recently our councillors voted to approve the launch of kerbside recycling services for food waste, cardboard and plastic bottles. At the end of this year we will be changing our vehicle fleet and will acquire new, multi-compartment vehicles which will allow this to happen on a cost-effective basis. This means that we will start to launch the new services during 2009.
What happens to our recycling?
All materials that we collect for recycling go either to recycling companies or to companies who can reuse the material. For example:
- Newspapers & magazines go to Aylesford Newsprint near Maidstone, to be turned into new newsprint under the "Renaissance" brand name. Did you know that a newspaper can be recycled from kerbside to newsstand in just 6 days?
- Glass bottles & jars go to the British Glass Recycling Company (United Glass) in Harlow. Much of the recycled glass is turned back into bottles and jars but recycled glass can also be turned into pellets which are used as a subsurface in road-building.
- Steel & aluminium cans are recycled by AMG Recycling, who have plants in Birmingham and Hartlepool. Cans may be recycled into a number of products and parts for products - including new cans, of course!
- We donate all clothing collected through our recycling services to SCOPE, the cerebral palsy charity.
- Garden waste is processed by Laverstoke Park, and organic farm near Basingstoke, Hampshire.
- Plastic bottles go to YSB Recycling in Lancashire for recycling into new products. Did you know that a new fleece jacket can be made from just 10 recycled plastic bottles?
Is it worth recycling?
The benefits of reducing landfill and methane emissions are clear. But recycling can also have a significant impact on carbon emissions, even allowing for the fact that we must employ more vehicles to collect the materials in the first place. For example, it has been calculated that the energy saved by recycling cans, compared to manufacturing from raw materials, reduces their carbon footprint by nearly three quarters. And recycling will reduce our reliance on finite natural resources as well.
What about packaging and carrier bags?
The Packaging Waste Regulations have been in force for ten years now, requiring EU member states to recycle 60% of the packaging in the waste stream by 2008. There are approximately ten million tonnes of packaging in the UK’s waste stream, about half of which arises from the domestic sector. When the Packaging Waste Regulations came into force in 1998, approximately 3.3 million tonnes of packaging was being recovered and recycled in the UK. This has risen to around seven million tonnes last year.
There has been a great deal of discussion on this matter of late, and some major supermarkets have recently made announcements on packaging and carrier bags. You can now find biodegradable carrier bags, or bags made with recycled content, in major supermarkets, although using a re-usable shopping bag is by far the best option for the environment.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a government-funded body which promotes recycling in many forms, including funding for Epsom & Ewell Borough Council's home composting scheme, has been working to bring together packaging designers, suppliers, retailers, brand owners and manufacturers to develop new approaches to packaging.
A key driver behind such work is the Courtauld Commitment, a government-backed agreement on packaging reduction for businesses in the grocery sector, which accounts for around 70% of the UK’s packaging market. Under this commitment, many large producers and retailers have stated their intentions to reduce packaging by significant amounts. WRAP has established a monitoring programme to check progress towards these targets.
Consequently, the amount of packaging which councils have to deal with is reducing, and manufacturers are working on new ways to make packaging recyclable or compostable.
Epsom & Ewell Borough Council, along with all of the other councils in Surrey, has signalled to government our desire for the work on packaging to be continued. This has been done through the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy for Surrey. One of the policies of this strategy states that “We will vigorously pursue the minimisation of waste to achieve a growth rate below current levels, through common public messages, lobbying retailers and enforcement activities”. This strategy has been endorsed by all of Surrey’s councils and submitted to government.
How do we propose to manage waste in the future?
Waste continues to be the subject of much debate around the country. In Surrey, all councils, including Epsom & Ewell Borough Council, have joined together to endorse the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy for Surrey. This strategy sets out our joint vision for managing Surrey's waste through to 2025 and incorporates significant targets for waste minimisation and recycling.
Surrey's joint waste strategy recognises that reducing waste is even more important than recycling it. There can often be a cost to councils for recycling, even though it is better than sending waste to landfill. Clearly, having less waste to deal with in the first place would be better for all of us.
Of particular concern to councils is biodegradable waste, such as garden waste, kitchen waste, paper and cardboard. This is the waste which creates methane when dumped in landfill sites. Legislation therefore now restricts the amount of biodegradable waste which councils can send to landfill. Severe fines can result if these limits are exceeded, potentially forcing up costs to Council Tax payers. Clearly, councils cannot allow this to happen. The launch of Epsom & Ewell's garden waste recycling service in 2006, and our plans to recycle food waste early next year, are significant responses to this legislation.
What are Epsom and Ewell's plans to recycle more?
Epsom & Ewell Borough Council’s Environment Committee recently gave the go ahead for the detailed development of a major new plan to increase the borough’s recycling rate to around 50% by 2009-10. The plan targets the kerbside collection of biodegradable food waste, cardboard and plastic bottles.
We will be unable to do this without new, multi-compartment recycling vehicles. These will be acquired when the Council renews its vehicle fleet at the end of this year. The new services will therefore start during 2009.
The Council is committed to cost effective recycling. Currently our recycling costs are among the lowest nationally. Food waste must be recycled if we are to meet new national targets but to collect plastic and cardboard alone is a high cost, low performance service. Combined recycling in multi-compartment vehicles helps us to keep services cost-effective. Working in partnership to enhance cost effectiveness and productivity, new containers will need to be sourced and procured jointly with other Surrey authorities.
Equally important is that the recycling service should meet with the approval of residents. According to independent statistics produced by the Audit Commission the council achieves one of the highest levels of satisfaction for its recycling service in Surrey. We aim to keep it that way.
The Council will consult and communicate with residents during the planning process, including articles in Borough Insight and here on our website, to ensure everyone is on board and understands how their household can help increase the recycling rate.
Councillor Mike Richardson, Chairman of the Environment Committee said, “I’m very pleased planning can now get under way in earnest. The aim is to provide a recycling service that ranks amongst the highest nationally on all three indicators – a high recycling rate, cost effectiveness and customer satisfaction. We will work with the community and our partner agencies to make a real difference to our carbon footprint here in Epsom and Ewell.”
What can I do to help?
As we have said, it is important to consider the 3 'R's - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle - in order. Careful attention to them can save energy and reduce harmful effects on the environment.
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Reduce: We only throw away what we buy in the first place, and often it's just packaging we neither want nor need. Careful consideration of the impact of the types of items we buy and the packaging they come in can help us reduce the potential for waste in the first place.
- Reuse: Energy is used in the manufacture of a replacement item, even if it is recycled. By finding another use for items we can postpone their replacement - perhaps indefinitely. Sites such as Swap-it Surrey and Freecycle could make it easy for you to find another home for your unwanted items.
- Recycle: If you can't reduce or reuse, recycling is much better than simply throwing something away - and is so easy to do. You can explore ways of recycling in Epsom and Ewell by clicking on the links at the bottom of this page.
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Help for schools
We are always happy to work with schools to educate pupils on waste management issues. Several schools in Epsom and Ewell like Wallace Fields Junior School, above, have embarked on the Eco-Schools project. If you would like to speak to us about the possibility of working in partnership with your school, please call or email us.
We are also always delighted to come and talk to other childrens' groups such as Cubs, Scouts, Brownies and Guides.
Recycling and Waste options in Epsom & Ewell
