OUGD102 - What a load of rubbish - Group Brief - Research

http://www.leeds.gov.uk/outsizeFiles/waste/mirf360/index.html

Recycling depot Leeds..

Our aim is to collect as much recyclable waste as possible.  The materials collected from the green recycling bins are passed onto a contractor.  The contractor separates all the materials using mechanical and manual sorting.  The materials can then be sold on to be used to make new products. The council has implemented various schemes to help reduce and reuse your waste. 

 

Green bin waste is taken to a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) for sorting.  The materials can then be made into other recyclable materials.  Click on the picture above to view the tour of the MRF.

We collect any excess recyclable waste at the same time as your green wheeled bin as long as it is loose in transparent bags.  Do not use a black or other non-see through bag as it will not be collected.

All drinks cans, plastic bottles and food cans must be washed out before placing in green bins/bags to avoid contamination.  Squashing them will give you additional space in your bin.

All of the following items can be put in your green bin/bag:

• Paper - junk mail, office paper, newspapers, magazines
• Cardboard -  brown card,  glossy card,  egg boxes, inner tubes from toilet and kitchen roll
• Metal Cans -  drink cans,  food cans,  pet food cans
• Aluminium aerosols but must be empty - deodorant, cleaning material, hair products, squirty cream
• Plastics - types 1 (PET/PETE), 2 (HDPE/PE-HD) and 4 (LDPE/PE-LD ) these numbers can be found in a triangle on many plastic items for example plastic bags, plastic bottles and plastic milk containers - lids off.  

Shredded paper can not be recycled in the green bin because the machinery at the sorting factory can't separate it and it can clog up the mechanisms.  You can take shredded paper to the paper banks at bring sites and household waste sorting sites.  It can also be composted in your garden.

Please make sure that you are careful not to recycle anything with personal details on it, unless it has been made unreadable first.

The following materials must not be placed in the green recycling bin/bag

• kitchen food waste
• garden waste *
• glass bottles *
• plastic types 3 (PVC/V), 5 (PP), 6 (PS) and 7 (other plastics) for example some margarine tubs, yoghurt pots, food cartons 
• polystyrene
• tetrapaks (juice cartons) *
• electrical items (including batteries)*
• textiles (clothes, shoes, belts, bags etc)

* please take these items to a household waste sorting site

Remember to put your bin out by 7:00am on day of collection and put it away again as soon as you can after it has been emptied.

Why we need to reduce, reuse and recycle

Recycle for Leeds logo

A landfill site

Recycling materials being sorted

Cans for recycling

What is waste?
Waste is simply material that someone no longer wants or needs. One person’s waste may be useful to another person. In England and Wales approximately 400 million tonnes of waste is produced every year. To ensure household waste is suitable for use in making new products it needs sorting. Sorting should begin at home and continue at your local household waste sorting site. Sorting enables us to produces a clean, usable `streams` of raw materials, e.g. paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, tin cans, compost and wood.   

A useful principle in dealing with our waste is the waste hierarchy.  This is part of the UK Government's Waste Strategy, and also the council's Integrated Waste Strategy.  The waste hierarchy lists the ways to deal with waste, with the best method at the top, and the worst at the bottom.  'Reduce' is better than 'disposal' (ie landfill)

How you can help

ReduceReducing waste is the best way to deal with it, so try to avoid creating it in the first place. Garden and food waste make up a third of the contents of most dustbins. Home composting is the most single most effective action you can personally take to benefit the environment.  Try to buy items that have less packaging.

Reuse

• Buy products packaged in re-usable, refillable or recyclable containers.
• Highly concentrated products, such as washing powder/liquid, use less packaging and often give greater value for money.
• By offering your goods for reuse through sale or giving away you are doing your bit for the environment by helping to conserve the world's natural materials such as metals, wood and oil.  This is because these materials are in limited supply and by re-using the goods we already have, ensures these natural materials last longer.
• Whether you have a dustbin with a liner bag, or a black wheeled bin, remember that this waste will end up in landfill – please think about reducing, reusing and recycling your waste before you put it in your bin. Virtual tour of the landfill in Leeds   

Recycle
Rubbish dumped in landfill sites is a waste of natural resources and energy and can be a source of pollution. The number of suitable new landfill sites is diminishing and the existing sites are filling up. To tackle these problems, councils are now obliged to reduce the amount they send to landfill. Leeds City Council is working towards finding alternatives to landfill which you can read about on our waste strategy page.  Currently over 66% of our waste ends up in landfill and this is not the most environmentally friendly way.  It is important to buy recycled products too.

Recycling has been around for a long time. The Chinese were recycling as long as 2,000 years ago and so were the Romans. Recycling is now easier than ever, make the best use of your local Household Waste Sort Site  and recycling banks (usually situated near your supermarket).  By recycling some of this waste, raw materials are produced for factories to make new products. Many household items have `second life` uses, e.g. glass jars, newspapers and tin cans. Buy items with a minimum of packaging. Virtual tour of materials recycling facility (MRF)

Recycling and waste statistics

Recycling at household waste sorting site

Did you know in September 2010

• 9,564 tonnes of waste has recycled or composted in Leeds
• 3,143 tonnes of garden waste has been composted from your brown bins   
• 2,035 tonnes of recyclable materials has been collected from your green bins/bags

The city's recycling performance for last year 2009/10 was 31.25%. 

This included

• 8,807 tonnes of glass
• 11,029 tonnes of wood
• 35,629 tonnes of garden waste and leaf fall
• 21,005 tonnes of recycling collected in the green bins and bags

So far in 2010/11 our recycling rate is 36.8%

Which includes

• 4,375 tonnes of glass
• 6,207 tonnes of wood
• 28,337 tonnes of garden waste
• 12,483 tonnes of recycling collected in the green bins and bags
• 472 tonnes of food waste in the Rothwell pilot

nformation for students and landlords

Green bins

Your responsibility as a student

For many of you it will be the first time you have lived away from home or outside halls of residence and the first time you will be responsible for dealing with your own waste. 

As a tenant you, and not the landlord, are responsible for making sure all your household waste is disposed of properly and legally.

Everyone living in the house is responsible for the bins.  This includes putting the correct waste in the bins, putting them out for collection and returning them back to your property after they have been emptied.

Our enforcement officers patrol the streets to check if bins are being put back into gardens.  If bins are repeatedly left on the street everyone living in your house could be issued with an £100 fine each.

Possible prosecutions you could face as a tenant:

• Leaving waste in the garden or yard can result in a £2,500 fine
• Illegally depositing waste on the street can result in a £50,000 fine and up to 5 years imprisonment 

Students and residents can help us by reporting landlords who commit any of the environmental crimes mentioned above. Please let us know of any suspected environmental crimes.

Please remember to be a good neighbour by keeping your street and garden clean and tidy.   

Your responsibility as a landlord

We will classify waste from your rented premises as “generated as a result of your business” which means that you have a responsibility for ensuring that all the waste generated from the students leaving your premises is disposed of properly and legally. 

• Leaving waste in the garden or yard can result in a £2500 fine
• Illegally depositing waste on the street can result in a £50,000 fine and up to 5 years imprisonment 

Letting agencies and landlords can help us by reporting their tenants who commit any of the environmental crimes mentioned above. Please contact the Enforcement Team to report suspected environmental crimes using the email address in the right hand corner of this page.  

Leeds accredited landlords scheme

We already work in partnership with many letting agencies and landlords across the city.  You can download the leaflets you are interested in

• Leeds non accredited landlord leaflet for more details about your responsibilities and waste services provided
• Leeds accredited landlords leaflet for more details about your responsibility and  waste services provided
• Leeds landlord accreditation scheme

Otley Good Green Guide

Otley Good Green Guide

Leeds City Council has worked in partnership with Otley Town Council to produce an Otley Good Green Guide. 

The Good Green Guide lists a number of simple steps that enable you to reduce your carbon footprint and contribute to the protection of the environment. Examples include information on the council's kerbside recycling service, the freecycle group and the council's real nappy scheme.

There are lots of opportunities for you to reduce the amount of waste you generate, reuse your household waste and recycle. Examples include:

• hiring something rather than purchasing it
• repairing your electrical appliances, computer or watch
• donating unwanted books, music, bric-a-brac and clothing to local charity shops
• recycling cans, empty aerosols, card, paper and plastic bottles and bags in your green bin/bag
• take glass to a bottle bank
• we accept a wide range of materials at Household Waste Sorting Sites. These include aluminium foil, batteries (car and domestic), electrical goods, garden waste, ink cartridges, mobile phones, oil (engine or vegetable), stamps, tyres and wood.

The street plan also identifies local facilities including charity, hire and repair shops and identifies where the recycling facilities are in Otley. Copies have been distributed to all the town's residents with the Otley Matters newsletter. Additional copies will be distributed through local retail outlets and other facilities in Otley in the near future.

You can download the map as a pdf from the right hand side of this page.

Carton recycling

Cartons to be recycled

You can recycle your paper-based drinks and liquid food cartons, such as those made by Tetra Pak, at various points within the city.  Carton collection banks can be found at:

• Milner Road household waste sorting site, Milner Road, Yeadon, LS19 7JE
• Owlcoates shopping centre, Pudsey, Leeds, LS28 7JE
• Meanwood Road waste sorting site, Meanwood Road, Leeds, LS7 2LP
• White Rose shopping centre, Dewsbury Road, Leeds, LS11 8LU
• Thorp Arch household waste sorting site, Thorp Arch industrial estate, Wetherby, Leeds, LS23 7BJ

Each year, UK beverage carton manufacturers produce 55,000 tonnes of paper-based cartons for milk, juice, sauces and other liquid food/drinks.  This equates to around 2.3kg of cartons per household which could be recycled instead of thrown in the rubbish bin. 

We are working with Tetra Pak and the carton industry body ACE UK (Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment) to establish carton collection points at key recycling points for residents to take their empty cartons to be recycled.

Once collected, the cartons can be taken away to be baled, transported to a recycling mill. They can be recycled into a number of different products, ranging from plasterboard liner to high-strength paper bags and envelopes.

Litter and street cleaning

Litter binsWe provide and empty litter bins in public areas throughout Leeds. Depending on how busy the area is, we arrange for bins to be emptied either daily or two or three times a week.

Fixed penalty notices
There is a £75 fixed penalty for people who drop litter, including cigarette ends, chewing gum and flyers left on vehicle windscreens and for motorists who throw litter out of their vehicles or allow their passengers to do so. Failure to pay will result in prosecution leading to a fine of £2500.

Street cleaning
We also sweep streets regularly to keep them clean. If there is an emergency such as spillage from a vehicle or large volumes of litter at any one location, the emergency services contact us and we clear up the mess.

To find out which day your street will be cleaned, open up the street cleaning schedule attached to this page. Hold down the Ctrl button (at the bottom left of your keyboard) and F together. Type in the street name you want to look at. Click on search and you will see a calendar which will tell you the date.

Cigarette litter

No butts - stub it, bin it

Keep Britain Tidy have released a short online video clip highlighting the problem of litter created by smokers.  We would like your help to raise awareness around the problem.

The problem

Three-quarters of English streets are scattered with smoking related litter according to a recent survey by Keep Britain Tidy.

This type of litter is unsightly and difficult to clean up, as the small filters fall into grates and cracks in the pavement, avoiding detection by normal cleaning processes. Cigarette filters are composed of cellulose acetate, a plastic that can take anywhere between 18 months and 500 years to break down and be absorbed back into the environment. It can also lead to toxins leaking into watercourses which pose a serious threat to our wildlife.

How can you help?

General public

If you’re a smoker, and sometimes find it difficult to find a bin to extinguish your cigarette ends, why not use a pocket ashtray.  Encourage your employer to provide smoking areas and cigarette bins.

Businesses

• Install cigarette bins on your site – have a dedicated smoking area and clear signage so employees, visitors and customers know exactly where they should smoke and how they should get rid of their cigarettes.
• Distribute portable ashtrays to your employees or if you are a retail outlet, consider selling them to your customers.
• Sign up to the campaign, and get your business listed on the Keep britain Tidy website as a company that is taking responsible action to improve local environmental quality.

What we are doing

We are

• Increasing enforcement
• Increasing cigarette bin provision across Leeds
• Carrying out local PR and media campaigns
• Distributing personal ashtrays to the public

Further information

To find out more about the campaign follow the the Keep Britain Tidy link on the right hand side of this page.

Flyers - free printed material

Litter caused by flyers

Flyers in residents gardens

Leeds City Council has designated land where free printed material may only be distributed with consent from the council.  As the principal litter authority the council can designate land in the city (under Section 94B and Schedule 3A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990), which cannot be used for the distribution of free material, without permission.  The designated order came into effect on 15 September 2006

The designated areas in the Leeds City Centre and the Headingley corridor bound by Grove Lane to the north, Meanwood Road to the east, Kirkstall Road to the west and Crown Point Road to the south.  A map showing the areas are available to be viewed.

The scheme is chargeable for monthly and yearly consents.  The flyer consent application fees are shown in the attachment on this page.  Cheques must be made payable to Leeds City Council and are subject to conditions.  We also accept electronic payments.  Please telephone 0113 3951765 to make a payment in this way.  Alternatively you can apply on line for consent to distribute leaflets.

Objections may be made to the proposal and should either be in writing addressed to Environmental Services, distribution consent, Knowsthorpe Gate, Cross Green, Leeds LS9 0NP or by email.

The council are continuing to deal with the problems of flyers and other free printed materials being illegally being left in resident’s gardens.  In particular, properties in Headingley have been affected by littering because of flyers and magazines.

A Leeds distributor, who has a valid consent to distribute free printed material, has been fined on two occasions for this offence. The maximum fine for littering any land is £2500. 

To ensure you don’t pay the same penalty - follow these simple steps

• Post your flyers or printed materials through the letter box of a property
• Do not leave flyers or printed material outside that could result in littering
• Contact Leeds City Council to find out what consent you need to distribute free printed material of any kind in Leeds.

Fly tipping

Fly tipping is a commonly used term for rubbish that is illegally dumped on land without permission from the landowners or without a licence.

To report fly tipping please contact the environmental call centre on 0113 2224407.  Please remember the environmental contact centre is open Monday to Friday between 08:00 - 18:00. Please be aware that Monday morning is the busiest time at the contact centre.

Fly tipping which is left on the roadside, pavements and public land will be removed by the Council.  It is the responsibility of the land owner to remove fly tipping from their own land and prevent further tipping.

We have prosecuted over 400 individuals or businesses who have illegally deposited litter and waste in Leeds since 2003.

We will always try to trace the origin of the waste and when it was dumped. Fly tippers will be prosecuted in Leeds if we can prove they have illegally dumped waste. They can be required to pay full clean up costs to the council plus a fine of up to £50,000 and up to five years imprisonment. Fly tipping is an arrestable offences and vehicles used in such offence can be seized by the council and other authorities.

If an area is continually used for fly tipping, we and the Environment Agency have technology which allows them to carry out surveillance of sites.  Along with dedicated teams of enforcement officers, this has led to excellent results in the Leeds courts.

If you see waste being dumped illegally or if it doesn’t seem right to you that people are dumping waste somewhere, please try to take as much information as possible such as registration of vehicle, time, location description of waste and of the people dumping the waste. If you have a camera phone or a camera, please take a picture of what you have witnessed. Do not approach anyone who you witness fly tipping unless it is safe to do so or you have help at hand. Details of how to contact us are displayed on this page.

We try to clear rubbish within 36 hours of being told unless it needs specialist equipment or treatment, for example if it is asbestos or chemicals.

What goes in your brown bin

Collecting garden waste

Delivering garden waste to compost site

Garden waste being shredded

We currently collect garden waste from over 190,000 homes in Leeds.  Last year 2009/2010 we sent almost 23,000 tonnes of garden waste from your brown bins to be turned into compost. This was instead of us burying it in the ground as landfill.

We also collected just over 12,000 tonnes from garden waste skips at our household waste sorting sites.

Only properties with a brown bin receive a garden waste collection service. 

From March to November we empty your brown bins every two weeks.  During December, January and February this will only take place once a month.

You can use your brown bin for the following items

• grass cuttings
• hedge clippings
• leaves
• dead house and bedding plants
• windfall fruit
• weeds
• twigs and small branches (not more than 3 cm thick)

You must put these into your bin loose - do not use any plastic bags.

Please do not put these items in your brown bin

• plastic bags and paper
• noxious weeds
• metal
• soil, stones or rubble
• dog or cat faeces
• turf or ash
• pet bedding or straw
• kitchen waste * (no vegetables, fruit peelings, meat, fish, poultry, bones, dairy products or cooked foods).

You can find out when we are due to empty your bin by on our search page

* You cannot put food waste in your garden waste bin due to the animal by-products order.  This means that food waste is turned into compost under very strict conditions that will kill off harmful bacteria and prevent the spread of disease. 

If food waste is mixed with garden waste in the brown bin it cannot be composted and will have to go to a landfill site.

Who do I contact if I have any questions?
If you have any questions please call 0113 222 4406 or email us.

Household waste: in statistics

The UK produces about 330 million tonnes of waste a year, a quarter of which is from homes and business. The government is looking at a series of measures to reduce waste, including charging people who fail to recycle their rubbish and, in parts of the country, weekly bin collections have been reduced to fortnightly. Councils in England have been told to increase recycling rates to 50% by 2020 - that is about double the current rate. An Open University survey suggests kerbside collection in England of recyclable items like glass and paper has already contributed to increased recycling rates. The survey also shows more kerbside collections of garden waste have been introduced - with about a third of households in 2006 setting out compostable waste for collection, up from 27.6% in 2005. Fortnightly bin collections, now being introduced in many areas, have also seen recycling rates rise. Defra figures for 2006 put North Kesteven district council in the East Midlands top of the municipal waste recycling league with a rate of 48.4%. The United Kingdom still produces more waste per head of population than many of its European neighbours, with an average of 592kg (1,306lb), above the EU average of 577kg, (1,274lb). It also lags behind in the amount of waste recycled, with a UK average figure of 18% based on these figures, well below the EU average of 36.4%. The Netherlands leads the way in Europe with a national recycling average of 64.4%, more than double the level achieved in England. Greece is the worst offender on landfill, dumping 90% of its municipal waste, with Portugal and the UK dumping about three-quarters of their waste. The maps above show how recycling rates have increased in the past five years in England, Scotland and Wales. At the same time the actual amount of household waste collected has fallen slightly in England by 70,000 tonnes from 25.5m to 25.4m tonnes and in Scotland, which has seen a drop from 2.121m to 2.094m or 27,078 tonnes. In Wales the amount of waste collected has risen slightly over the same period from 1.488m tonnes to 1.542m tonnes, an increase of 53,908 tonnes. Household waste Recycling rate in England rises to 35% Household waste and recycling, UK Between 1991/92 and 2007/08 household waste generated per person in England increased by 16 per cent. This was equivalent to each person in England generating an average of 495 kilograms, or just under half a tonne of waste. The proportion of household waste per person collected for recycling or composting increased from 3 per cent in 1991/92 to 35 per cent in 2007/08 representing 171 kilograms per person. Waste that was not recycled has decreased by 22 per cent since 1991/92 to 324 kilograms per person. Most of this waste goes to landfill, a method that makes little use of waste and produces greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide and methane. The recycling rate for household waste in England was around 35 per cent. In Scotland, 33 per cent of household waste was recycled or composted, while in Wales and Northern Ireland 32 per cent of household waste was recycled. In 2007/08 compost was the largest component of recycled household waste in England (36 per cent of the total). The next largest components were paper and card and co-mingled collections (a collection of a number of recyclable materials in the same box or bin, such as paper, cans and plastics – together with other materials such as wood, furniture and oils) - these both made up 18 per cent of the total. Glass made up 10 per cent of the total recycled household waste.

Waste arisings 330 million tonnes of waste in the UK

Waste arisings by type

The United Kingdom generated an estimated 330.4 million tonnes of waste in 2002/03, 13.1 million tonnes (4 per cent) higher than in 1998/99.

Mineral waste in 2002/03 amounted to 128.1 million tonnes while inert, construction and demolition waste accounted for a further 107.5 million tonnes. Mineral and construction and demolition waste accounted for 71 per cent of all UK waste. Construction and demolition waste rose 21.8 million tonnes between 1998/99 and 2002/03, reflecting the increase in construction activity during the period. This rise was partly offset by a 5.2 million tonne fall in mining and quarrying waste.

The main sources of waste are the construction industry, the mining and quarrying industries and UK households, which generated 122.1 million tonnes, 95.9 million tonnes and 30.9 million tonnes respectively. Waste from those three sources accounted for 75 per cent of all UK waste generated in 2002/03.


http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/RegionalTrends/RT41-Article3.pdf

11.15 Household waste: kilogrammes per household per week1, 2001/02
North East	23.4
North West	26.4
Yorkshire and the Humber	23.2
East Midlands	24.1
West Midlands	23.8
East	23.9
London	21.1
South East	24.3
South West	23.7
England	23.8
1 Table grossed-up from reported data with missing values estimated from household numbers.
Source: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs