Recycling reaches record levels

12.00.00am GMT Thu 20th Nov 2008

Recycling in Leeds is the highest it's ever been, figures reveal. And the man in charge of the council's environment service has revealed the proposals he hopes will take it even higher next year.

At full council yesterday (Wednesday 19th November), Cllr Steve Smith, Executive Member for Environment Services revealed that a record 34.4% of Leeds' waste was recycled or composted in September. This puts Leeds on track to comfortably exceed its target of 30% recycling for the current municipal year.

Following the meeting, Cllr Smith outlined measures the council will be taking in coming months to ensure that recycling levels continue to rise. These will include expanding garden waste collections to 60% of all Leeds households, and piloting food waste collections and fortnightly green bin collections.

Cllr Steve Smith (Lib Dem, Rothwell) said:

"This year has seen us make great strides with recycling in Leeds. Much of this can be put down to the garden waste project which has hugely exceeded our expectations.

"The pilots of weekly food waste collections and fortnightly green bin collections we will be embarking on next year should see us move even closer to our target of recycling a minimum of 50% by 2020.

"Before the current administration took power, nearly a quarter of households weren't receiving a kerbside recycling collection and recycling stood at a disappointing 14%. I am proud that we have turned things around so dramatically and am confident that this improvement will continue in years to come."