Think before you throw

Cumbria County Council and Cumbria Waste Management are asking householders across the county to `think before they throw` in an effort to further improve recycling rates.

The council and CWM - the council-owned company which runs Cumbria`s Household Waste Recycling Centres - are this week launching the "Think Before You Throw" campaign.

The campaign is a drive to encourage people to make sure they separate out recyclable material before throwing their bin bags into the general waste skip at their HWRC.

HWRCs are recycling centres to help people to recycle as much as possible and allow them dispose properly of difficult or bulky items such as engine oil, old TVs and furniture as well as other recyclables like plastic, paper and garden waste.

However, far too much of the material going into HWRC general waste has not had recyclable material taken out.

In fact, when CWM investigated the issue by sifting through the contents of general waste skips at eight of the county`s 13 HWRCs, they found that around 30 per cent was recyclable material.

With 35,941 tonnes going into the general waste skips of HWRCs in 2006/7, that means that almost 11,000 tonnes of recyclable material was last year sent to landfill when it could have been recycled.

The eight week `Think Before You Throw` campaign will target the problem with specially trained staff at the county`s three busiest HWRCs (Bousteads Grassing in Carlisle, Flusco in Eden and the Barrow site).

The staff will be on hand to offer expert advice and will be armed with leaflets providing information on separating out recyclable items from general waste. The leaflet is attached to this press release.

Ian Stewart, Cumbria County Council cabinet member responsible for waste management, said: "We want to stop people simply bringing black bags full of waste that include items that should be recycled and throwing the lot into the non-recyclable waste skips. We want to encourage people to use the sites as recycling centres and will be promoting good practice and urging everyone to think about what they are bringing and about whether it can be recycled instead."