City profits from recycling

It has been announced that Exeter's recycling rate has just reached an all-time high of 37%, even though the weight of the city's recycling has actually gone down.

Mike Trim, the Head of Cleansing Services said "people are recycling more, but the weight has gone down slightly, by 280 tonnes on last year, because of the lighter packaging which many manufacturers are now using."

As well as being good news for the environment, it all benefits the City's bank balance, as it made a record £1.42 million from its recycling over the past year - a cash income of £834,000 from recyclets [recycled items] and another £586,000 in recycling credit.

And the amount of grey waste sent to landfill continues to fall. Compared to the previous year, the amount of rubbish sent to landfill has dropped by 1263 tonnes - the equivalent of 3.15 elephants.

Again that's good news for the budget as the City has to pay for any waste that goes to landfill sites.

Mike Trim again: "if we could convince people to recycle more, we could put at least another £200,000 into the city's pot."

Any money raised in this way goes back into the general support fund, and is used to help other services across Exeter. It also helps keep Exeter's Council Tax as one of the lowest in the South West.

Councillor Rob Hannaford, the City's Portfolio Holder for Environment and Leisure, said: It's fantastic news that the cleansing department have again exceeded expectations, with the help of the public, and raised more funds in this way.

"Despite this exceptional performance, I do still feel that there is a considerable amount of recycling that doesn't happen in the city.

"As figurs show, the more that can be recycled the more council services can be protected, so it is really a 'no-brainer' because recycling is helping the whole community."

So to re-iterate:

RECYCLING brings in income

SENDING WASTE TO LANDFILL costs US money

and FORTNIGHTLY collections brings in more recycling than WEEKLY