Local residents are being thanked for their recycling efforts as Cheshire East Council confirms it has saved nearly £400,000.
The Council's nine household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) across the Borough are now reusing and recycling 79.7% of items and diverting them from becoming landfill.
This is almost 9% higher than the figure for 2008/9 (71%) when the new unitary authority of Cheshire East was formed.
Since April 2008, the HWRCs have reduced the amount sent to landfill by 43% or almost 6,500 tonnes a year – resulting in a saving of nearly £400,000.
Councillor Don Stockton, Cheshire East Council Cabinet member in charge of regeneration and assets, said: "These figures are more excellent news and I would like to thank not only our excellent staff but also, most importantly, our residents for working with us to make Cheshire East a cleaner and greener place to live, work, visit and do business.
"We will not be resting on our laurels and will continue our efforts to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill and improve our recycling service further.
"The feedback provided by residents was excellent, with some extremely positive comments relating to the levels of service and the helpfulness of staff.
"We also gained insight into where improvements could be made, such as on-site staff wearing ID badges, and our contractor, HW Martin, is reviewing the results to see where more improvements could be made.
"One key area the contractor is looking to improve in coming months is the flow of traffic on the Congleton site to make it a more user-friendly environment for our customers."
All Cheshire East Council's household waste and recycling centres (HWRC) are open seven days a week throughout the year including Bank Holidays and only close on Christmas Day.
For more information on exactly what can be recycled or about the facilities at the HWRCs visit the Cheshire East Council website.
Photo: Don Stockton, Councillor for the Lacey Green Ward and Cabinet member in charge of regeneration and assets.
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Cost of Lyme Green £2m approx. Oh dear; what a shame.
As we all know, C Tax rose slightly this year for some, thanks to Fire & Police each increasing their precept by about 1.5%.
Councillor Don Stockton in charge of regeneration and assets. Previously in charge of regeneration and housing, I believe. So he has not suffered in the local cabinet reshuffle despite the Local Plan debacle.
Instead, we have avoided paying £400,000 in punitive government landfill taxes.
It's a bit like when my wife says she has "saved" lots of money at the sales, even though the credit card bill is much higher than the month before.
So, yes, its good news that we are recycling more (provided the recycler actually does recycle it, but that's another story). However, to claim it "saves" us money is pure spin.
A full list can be found at: http://bit.ly/1FtvbVB
Now we must see that CEC apply the similar targets to use brown field sites throughout the borough rather than our green fields.
To date CEC reacts to developers. CEC is a soft touch and has no brownfield recycling target. We can start with town councils and move on from there. CEC pretend that there are very few brown field sites available.
Detailed work in Wilmslow reveals it's far far higher. WTC can pick this up and tell CEC what to do. Let's not wait to be told by CEC what's going to happen at our expense. Tell them and don't take no for an answer.
If it is a no, then Cllrs can simply switch parties en masse. It's that important.