Recycling Matters

Recycling is on the up in West Sussex – the latest figures show that in the past year there has been an increase of more than 1,000 tonnes of items being recycled at the specialist Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in Ford.

That’s largely thanks to residents placing more of the right items in their recycling bins and making sure that non-recyclable items, such as household waste, wet paper or food coated recycling, are placed in the rubbish bin.

It means in 2014/15 the MRF sorted and baled 69,048 tonnes of material for recycling, compared with 67,955 tonnes in 2013/14.

David Barling, West Sussex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Residents’ Services, said: “This is absolutely fantastic news.

“On behalf of my colleagues in the waste teams across the county – both here at the County Council and at the District and Borough Councils – I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to making West Sussex greener.

“And with the recent change meaning household plastic pots, tubs and trays can now be recycled, I’m sure we’ll see even more good news over the coming months.

“In fact, we’ve already seen some very encouraging signs with almost 32 tonnes of plastic pots tubs and trays recycling being processed in first week following the launch of the service in April and the same again during the second week.

“It proves the real commitment that many of our residents have when it comes to recycling at home.”

As well as a huge decrease in the number of non-recyclable items coming into the facility, which is operated and managed by Viridor, there have been some increases in the amount of recycling collected by residents.

This has been across a variety of materials, including HDPE plastic bottles (such as milk bottles or bleach bottles) which increased by around 80 tonnes, steel tins (nearly 24 tonnes) and aluminium cans (nearly 60 tonnes).

David added: “While this increase is fantastic, my challenge to every household now is to see if they can recycle even more over the coming year and help boost our countywide figures over the next year. Please be green and recycle where you can.”

To find out more about recycling in West Sussex, please visit www.recycleforwestsussex.org