Shropshire to plan for more recycling as waste rises by 7.5%

The county has prepared the draft strategy with its five districts and has given emphasis to recycling and composting and low profile to any future energy from waste development.

Adrian Cooper, the county’s assistant planning officer with responsibility for the strategy, said that the key to successful achievement of the strategy will be “the establishment of an integrated network of sites because of the nature of the county which has a low population in a mainly agricultural area with a total of 120,000 households”. A simple materials recovery facility is also an option.

Several waste management companies have an interest in Shropshire including SITA which is a shareholder in the county’s contractor Shropshire Waste Management; Biffa which runs a central composting plant for South Shropshire; and Shanks which has a contract with Oswestry. Also, close to Shropshire, Focsa has a large contract for Hereford and Worcester.

Currently out of the five districts, Shropshire District Council recycles a higher percentage of household waste than all other local authorities in Shropshire.
Recently published Audit Commission figures show that during 1999/2000 the district recycled 0.12 tonnes of waste per household, compared to 0.07 tonnes in North Shropshire, 0.08 tonnes in Oswestry and 0.10 tonnes in Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury & Atcham. This means that 13.95% of all household waste in South Shropshire is being recycled.

Ruth Richards, Public Services Officer, for South Shropshire, said the district was making excellent progress, adding: “We are making excellent progress towards meeting the Government’s target. This is a big achievement for South Shropshire. We would like to thank residents for helping us achieve this success by using recycling facilities, buying recycled materials, composting garden waste and taking part in waste campaigns.”

She added “We still have a lot to do and we want to encourage residents to continue recycling materials such as cans, glass bottles and jars, newspapers, textiles and garden waste. In South Shropshire we have more than 100 recycling banks, so please continue to use them.”

Telford and Wrekin, which used to come under the county council, is now a unitary authority and has drawn up its own strategy in a separate but related way to the county.