Shropshire's recycling rates up by three times

Officials say the introduction of recycling collections and the creation of new recycling centres means that more than half of households in the Shropshire Council area now recycle their waste.

When the first ever national Recycling Week was held in 2003, just 14 per cent of homes in the old Shropshire County Council area recycled their waste. That year, the authority introduced alternate weekly collections of waste and recycling were introduced in the county for the first time, in the Oswestry area.

Since 2003, five new household recycling centres have opened – in Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Bridgnorth, Whitchurch and Craven Arms – kerbside collections of paper, glass, cans and plastic have been introduced across Shropshire and there are now more than 100 recycling banks across the county.

Now, each year, there are more than 10 million individual waste and recycling collections, and more than 750,000 visits to Shropshire's five recycling centres, where more than 30 different materials can now be recycled.

Councillor Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council's cabinet member responsible for waste management, said: "In a relatively short period of time we have seen a huge improvement in the amount of waste that is recycled in Shropshire. . . Though Shropshire Council and Veolia provide and deliver the services, we would not have seen such a big increase in our recycling rate without the efforts of local people."

Jon Callaghan, general manager for Veolia in Shropshire, added: "Since Veolia took over the contract to manage Shropshire's household waste in 2007, residents in Shropshire have seen a number of improvements to their waste and recycling services."

Work was also started in October last year on a £60 million incinerator next to the recycling plant in Battlefield, Shrewsbury. It is expected to be operational by 2015. Veolia say once running, the plant will burn up to 90,000 tonnes of waste providing energy to power 10,000 homes.