RECYCLING is a hot topic in West Devon and it?s down to the public?s response and enthusiasm that the region can continually boast to be the best in the county. West Devon Borough Council is proud to say it has the most waste conscious residents in Devon who are now recycling 30% of their rubbish. Every week green recycling boxes are collected from the doorsteps of 22,350 households in the borough and taken to the Haye Down Recycling Centre near Tavistock where the contents are crushed or bailed ready for reprocessing. Since the green box scheme was introduced in 2001 taking glass bottles and jars, paper, card, cans and aerosol cans, the amount of recycling has doubled and 72% of residents are taking part. These figures are music to the ears of Waste Reduction and Recycling Officer Jane Savage but she?s adamant there?s no room for complacency. ?It?s great that people are really responding to the campaign and we get good feedback from the residents but we want to do more,? she said. ?We are introducing more options for recycling but we could do a lot better if people reduce the amount of waste in the first place by not buying what they do not need. Purchasing rechargeable batteries instead of disposables, reusing supermarket shopping bags, not buying over-packaged goods and using washable nappies are some of Jane?s suggestions. ?Home composting is another thing we have promoted a lot over the years at our recycling roadshows,? said Jane. ?We subsidise the bins and contrary to what a lot of people think home composting is very simple, it does not smell or attract rats providing you put the right material in.? The right balance can be achieved with weeds, grass clippings, egg shells, shredded paper and vegetable peelings (strictly no cooked food waste) and a year later you have top-of-the-range compost, preventing a costly trip to the garden centre. For those who cannot compost there is now a Green and Clean scheme available to households in Bere Alston, Horrabridge, Buckland, Crapstone, Mary Tavy, Bridestowe, Tavistock, Okehampton, Yelverton and Dousland for all garden waste and thick card which is collected fortnightly. Plastic milk bottles can be put into 14 recycling banks in car parks around the borough and very shortly these bottle banks will be converted to take any plastic bottles. Last year 1,627 tonnes of paper was taken to Aylesford in Kent to be reprocessed into newsprint ? around 60% of every newspaper is now recycled material. Glass goes to Nottinghamshire for bottles, cans to Lanelli for prime metals and card to Plymouth for paper products. Textiles head for London to be exported to the Third World, yellow pages are used for animal bedding, plastics go to Peterborough for bollards and street furniture and garden waste, card and leaves are made into compost at Plymouth. Haye Down Recycling Centre was constructed two years ago due to demand for a purpose built facility. Crowndale Tip in Tavistock was used previously but was running out of space. A £300,000 grant from Defra, awarded due to good recycling figures in West Devon, brought the project to fruition. Five vehicles are based at the centre with a spare designed to get to those ?awkward to reach? locations and there is a workforce of 15 employed by the council?s contractors FOCSA. Sorting recycling at the site of collection has been an educational tool for residents because anything that cannot be recycled is left in the box. The old system of one-bag recycling meant everything was mixed up and had to be sorted out at the recycling plant. ?We have had TVs, chicken carcasses and old nappies in the mix and sometimes contamination has occurred,? said Jane. ?We are very pleased with the system now ? it was a courageous move because we had to send out more people on the rounds but it has paid off because the residents are now taking responsibility for themselves.? Waste Contracts Manager Jill Skelton said obviously there was a cost to recycling at the moment but the council was trying to look to the future. ?Our general waste is taken to a landfill site in Newton Abbot and one in Cornwall,? said Jill. ?Running a landfill site is a high tech business and it has to be maintained in perpetuity so there are ongoing costs. ?With landfill sites filling up the way they are authorities can now be fined for putting too much in them. Devon is still under the threshold because we are doing a lot to divert the rubbish but the fine is £150 for every tonne over the limit. ?By recycling a good percentage of our waste we are avoiding extra taxation.? Press officer for West Devon Borough Council Alison Stoneham said there had been an amazing take-up from the green box scheme ever since it was introduced: ?It is the residents who have made West Devon top in the county for recycling,? she said. ?We want them to carry on the good work and if one box is not enough they can have another one. ?Jane is full of good tips on recycling ? one I swear by is tea bags dug into the base of my camellias, it works a treat!?
