Wakefield gets 185,000 to make Cash from Trash

Cash from Trash is a not-for-profit company which operates bring banks for cans and plastics in Wakefield, Leeds and North Yorkshire. Using a workforce that includes people sentenced to Community Service, people with learning difficulties and people placed under the New Deal Environmental Task Force, the company also runs collections and a plastics and metals MRF in the area.

Free

Cash from Trash, which is run in partnership with the West Yorkshire Probation Service and with the support of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, also provides free bins and collections for schools and community groups in the Normanton area. The Trust money, available through Landfill Tax Credit contributions from Ibstock Brick and Cory Environmental, will mainly be used for an educational campaign to expand this activity.

Cash from Trash's Bill Bradley explained: “We have split Wakefield District into three parts and we will concentrate our efforts in one area in each year of the scheme. We will be visiting schools and community groups and concentrating on building up the recycling rates in that part of the district.” This will be backed up by more free bins, bags and boxes for these groups and free collections, in west Wakefield in year one, the north east in year two and south east in year three.

The MRF currently takes in 80-100 tonnes mixed plastics and metal each year. Of these, polyethylene plastics go to Linpac Plastics Recycling and PET goes to Reprise. Cans go to Alcan and British Steel Tin Plate. After the three year scheme, it is hoped the tonnage will increase by 53%. And when the fund runs out in 2006, Mr Bradley said, the organisation hoped either to have collected sufficient material for the MRF to sustain itself or to have secured further funding.

Future

With the future in mind, Cash from Trash has already applied to receive more funds from both Ibstock Cory and the new National Lottery Transforming Waste programme, which is part of the New Opportunities Fund. This programme, launched on January 27 2003, will make 40 million available for community groups to encourage recycling. If successful, Mr Bradley said, the organisation would use the funds to build up their capital infrastructure and invest in new bring banks.