Town and County Councillor concerned about the recycling disparity between Northumberland and the rest of the UK.

 

Councillor Kath Nisbet who represents Croft ward is extremely concerned with figures issued by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs regarding the downturn in recycling rates across Northumberland.

With the Town of Blyth having the largest number of residents with the opportunity to recycle, Councillor Nisbet said “I believe I need to bring this very worrying tail off in recycling to the attention of Blyths residents to hopefully improve the recycling rates across the Town”.

Across England as a whole an average of 6.4% of all material sent by residents to be recycled last year 2021/22 was rejected, but in Northumberland a massive 14.9% of material sent by residents for recycling was rejected, well over twice as much as the national average.

Councillor Nisbet said that “the 8,877.12 tonnes of rejected recycling was extremely costly to dispose of and better recycling was one of the ways Council Tax rates could be lowered”. “Its been quite disappointing to me and many of my Labour colleagues that a number of recycling centres have had their hours cut, which won’t help the overall picture in future years”.

Northumberlands overall recycling rates fell from 33.4% in 2020/21 down to 32% last year 2021/22.

Councillor Nisbet told Blyth Labour News that she will be bringing matters up with the County Council to reissue the dry recycling list as a reminder to all households on what should be placed into their recycling bin. She also wants to remind people to recycle their glass jars and bottles through the Council's glass banks.