Environment chief announces new recycling target for Leeds' civic buildings

1.20.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 27th Jun 2007

Councillor Steve Smith, executive board member for the environment, has announced plans to increase recycling rates in the city's civic buildings to 50% by 2010.

Councillor Smith has outlined what measures the council is taking to reach this target.

Councillor Steve Smith (Lib Dem, Rothwell) said "A pilot scheme to reduce the amount of waste produced by office staff has been conducted over recent months. This has involved removing individual employees' waste bins, centralising the landfill bin in each particular office. Staff have been provided with bins for recycling paper, cans, print cartridges, plastics and batteries. It helps ensure that staff are made more responsible for the waste they produce and avoid the practice of sending waste to landfill by default.

"This has been trialled in four offices so far, including the Liberal Democrat group office, where it is proving very successful. Approval will shortly be sought to roll-out the scheme across the rest of the council. The expansion will be accompanied by an awareness campaign to encourage staff to use the recycling facilities more."