The importance of civic amenity (CA) and bring sites is reported in the 1999/2000 Municipal Waste Management Survey, which has just been published by DEFRA.
The Survey says the proportion of households served by 'kerbside' collection schemes remains unchanged since 1998/99 at 43%. However, the amount of waste collected for recycling through such schemes has increased by 23% since 1998/99 to 756,000 tonnes in 1999/2000. There has been a similar increase in the amount of waste collected for recycling from civic amenity and bring sites. 1.9 million tonnes of material were collected through these sites in 1999/2000 – more than 70% of the total household waste collected for recycling.
This highlights, that with the exception of paper and card, the bulk of materials are recycled at civic amenity and bring sites. The 462,000 tonnes of paper and card collected through kerbside collections in 1999/2000 accounted for over 60% of the material collected by these schemes in that year.
Arisings up 5%
Besides highlighting the importance of CA sites to boosting recycling levels, the Survey, which had a 99% response rate, finds that municipal waste arisings increased by 5% in 1999/2000. While recycling that year was 10.3% of household waste it stood at 11% for municipal waste as a whole – the latter includes fly-tipped waste and commercial collections by a council.
The recycling figures, shown above, were originally published in May this year in draft form and the Survey has now been formally published with a wealth of information on the
DEFRA website.
The Survey also noted an increase in the tonnage of municipal waste being disposed of at landfill, although the proportion of waste being disposed of in this way decreased from 82% in 1998/99 to 81% in 1999/2000. With about 90% of municipal waste coming from households, in 1999/00, this represented 1.21 tonnes of waste per household per annum
There has been a similar increase in the amount of waste collected for recycling from civic amenity and bring sites. 1.9 million tonnes of material were collected through these sites in 1999/2000 – more than 70% of the total household waste collected for recycling.
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