Waste and Recycling

General advice if services are interrupted due to severe weather:

Please leave your containers out for a further 2 working days from your scheduled collection day (this does not include the weekend) during which time if conditions and resources allow we will re-attempt collection. If the container is not collected by then, please take it in. We continuously assess the conditions to ensure it is safe for our collection crews, the large vehicles and for our residents.

			Society today produces more waste than ever before: Each UK household produces about 1 tonne of rubbish annually, amounting to about 27 million tonnes for the UK each year. On average every person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every 7 weeks. Every year, the average dustbin contains enough unutilised energy for 500 baths, 3,500 showers or 5,000 hours of television. Each week the average family in a developed country gets through 4 glass bottles or jars, 13 cans, 3 plastic bottles and 5 kilograms of paper.

In North Hertfordshire the average household produces over a tonne of compostable, recyclable and landfill waste, which are collected by the District Council. This is on average 287 tonnes of compostable waste, 211 tonnes of recyclable waste and over 500 tonnes of landfill waste.

North Hertfordshire's 122,500 residents and 3,000 businesses produce 56,600 tonnes of waste that has to be collected, transported and disposed of. The District Council is responsible for organising the collection of waste from 54,241 homes and from business premises.

With landfill sites rapidly filling up, North Herts Disctrict Council (NHDC) like all Local Authorities, is looking towards alternative ways of dealing with the waste produced. NHDC has a sustainable waste management policy which includes the increase of recycling and composting of waste and the promotion of waste reduction.

In line with this policy we have recently introduced the following services:

• Recycling sites for plastic bottles across the district in August 2007.
• New waste and recycling service in October 2007.
• Food waste and unlimited cardboard collections together with organic garden waste in brown bins in June 2008.
• Expansion of plastic recycling service - plastic banks now accept plastic food trays, margarine tubs, yoghurt pots and foam trays as well as plastic bottles and food and drink cartons.

Domestic residual waste, recycling and composting rates April 06 - March 09

Large graph (15.6KB)  (link opens in a new window)

Jointly, the Hertfordshire authorities aim to recycle and compost a minimum of:

• 45% of household waste by 2010, and
• 50% of household waste by 2012

Large financial penalties may be imposed by central government if UK and European targets are not met. As well as recycling, there are challenging targets to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste (material that decomposes in landfill) being landfilled. The baseline was set on 1995 levels and the targets are:

• A maximum of 75% of the 1995 levels in 2010,
• A maximum of 50% of the 1995 levels in 2013 and
• A maximum of 35% of the 1995 levels in 2020.

In order for North Herts to fulfil its targets we still have to reduce the waste we send to landfill further.

If we are unable to meet these targets we will face huge penalties. For every tonne of extra rubbish that is dumped at landfill, we will be fined up to £150 in addition to the current disposal rates.

Contacts

If you have any queries regarding your waste or recycling collections contact Veolia on 0800 3286023.

If you have any questions or ideas regarding waste management or recycling in North Herts contact us on 01462 474000 or on service@north-herts.gov.uk .