Surrey achieves 50 per cent recycling rate

Surrey has achieved a 50% recycling rate for household waste almost a decade ahead of schedule.

A Government target requires councils to recycle at least half their household waste by 2020 which means Surrey is nine years ahead of time.

The green milestone was reached thanks to the willingness of residents and councils to recycle rubbish instead of simply throwing it into landfill. This benefits the environment and saves Surrey taxpayers millions of pounds a year in reduced landfill costs.

Efforts that helped to increase recycling include:

* Improving community recycling centres to make it easier to recycle waste, including extending opening hours
* Increasing the variety of waste that can be recycled
* Teaming up with organisations that find a new home for people’s unwanted furniture and other household goods
* Working with district and borough councils to collect food waste separately

Dr Lynne Hack, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “Achieving a 50% recycling rate required a lot of hard work by residents and Surrey councils, so we should all be proud of this achievement. As well as benefiting the environment, recycling saves Surrey taxpayers millions of pounds a year because we don’t have to pay to send the waste to landfill.”

The county council is now focused on reaching a 70% household waste recycling rate by 2014. This will be achieved in a number of ways, including further improving community recycling centres, working to identify more materials that can be recycled and educating people about the benefits of recycling.

Community recycling centres recently upgraded include Blenheim Road in Epsom, Martyrs Lane in Woking, Lyne Lane in Chertsey, Charlton Lane in Shepperton and Earlswood in Redhill.

The community recycling centres at Petworth Road in Witley and Randalls Road in Leatherhead will be upgraded soon. There are also plans to increase the variety of material that can be recycled at Earlswood community recycling centre in Redhill and Slyfield in Guildford.

To find out more about recycling visit http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling. For information on how to reduce the amount of food waste you produce visit http://www.lovefoodsurrey.com.