Council recycling drive saves Borough £300,000

8.24.49pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 1st Oct 2007

Your green Councillor - Wera Hobhouse meets environmentalists.

Rochdale's Environment & Sustainability Cabinet member, Wera Hobhouse has thanked residents across the borough "for making recycling work." This comes with the news that because of the recycling effort made in the borough, the council has managed to save £300,000.

Councillor Wera Hobhouse said: "I believe that our residents are really starting to see the benefits that recycling can have for our borough, not only in environmental terms but in financial terms as well. In line with other Greater Manchester Authorities, we were expected to pay £600,000 for increased waste charges but because of our successful recycling, we have saved £300,000. As a thank you, this has gone straight back to our townships.

"The Council already pays £7 million for waste disposal, and this cost is going up by about 10% every year. The less we send to landfill, the more we keep our costs down, and keep your Council Tax low. This £300,000 is a bonus and there's more to come."

Leader of the Council, Councillor Alan Taylor said: "One of the things we have identified as your Liberal Democrat council is the importance of the issue of Waste and Recycling in our borough. Half of our residents are now on Alternate Weekly Collections - all households who have their rubbish collected on Wednesdays and Fridays, and the rest of the Borough's households are soon to follow. Thursday collections will get the scheme in early 2008.

"Its astonishing that since the introduction of Alternate Weekly Collections, recycling has shot up, from a modest 9% to a fantastic 34%. We're on course to become the best, or one of the best recycling Boroughs in the whole of Greater Manchester - after being one of the worst only 2 years ago. Our priority has always been to keep Council Tax as low as possible and this £300,000 is just the start!"

"As a council, we will continue our commitment to improve our local environment in a way that will not increase costs for our residents."