Each year, Cornwall's population rises from 500,000 to 1.5 million in the summer, with tourists creating a significant amount of the county's waste.
Richard Bower, waste management officer (education) for Cornwall council, told letsrecycle.com this week that the county and its six district councils have teamed up with the Environment Agency and the Cornwall Association of Holiday Homes to promote recycling services to visitors.
“We are targeting the holiday industry this year. There are an awful lot of holiday cottages in Cornwall,” he said. “We are producing leaflets in a DL and A4 size that are going to go to people who are renting cottages.”
Mr Bower explained that it is difficult to co-ordinate kerbside recycling collections for use by cottage renters and their landlords.
Instead holiday makers will be encouraged to make use of more than 900 bring banks in Cornwall, many placed outside supermarkets. “People in cottages are self-catering so are more likely to be visiting a supermarket during their stay to get supplies,” Mr Bower said.
Landfill
The project joins a number of waste minimisation and recycling programmes by Cornish councils trying to divert more waste from landfill as the county's landfill capacity runs out.
Cornwall has two landfill sites and with the existing United Mines site expected to close by the end of 2004, the counties' waste disposal company County Environmental Services (CES) is keen to get additional capacity on line.
Last month, the Environment Agency announced it would give CES a Pollution Prevention and Control Permit by the end of June 2004 for an extension to the United Mines site.
Mike Brown, Managing Director of CES, said: “We're very pleased that the Environment Agency has now decided to approve the extension, which will create vital additional landfill space in West Cornwall.”
The company is now preparing to start work extending the United Mines landfill site near Redruth. Mr Brown said: “We hope to start work on the extension as soon as possible so that it is ready to accept waste once our existing site at United Mines is full at the end of this year.”
Diversion
In addition to the new recycling campaign for holiday makers, other landfill diversion programmes in the county last year achieved recruiting 15,000 people onto the Mailing Preference Service to block junk mail, reducing nappy waste by 520 tonnes through a real nappy campaign and recycling 77 tonnes of Yellow Pages.
“We also have a constant and imaginative education programme for schools using theatre companies, carnivals and puppet shows,” Mr Bower said.
The county's preliminary recycling rate for 2003-04 suggests is over 20%, which is supported by more than 90% of households receiving a kerbside recycling collection.
Cornwall is also currently in the tendering process for a 25-year waste management contract worth 60 million (see letsrecycle.com story). Covering disposal, civic amenity sites, recycling and composting, the contract has 25 million in PFI support from the government and a target to reach 40% recycling by 2010/2011.
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