Where Does My Rubbish From My Green Wheelie Bin Go?
The contents of Bracknell Forest residents' green wheelie bins for residual waste are transported to landfill sites in Oxfordshire. Currently just under 60% of all rubbish collected in the Borough ends up in landfill. 25,500 tonnes of this rubbish per annum comes from the green wheelie bins. In the UK, over 28 million tonnes of household waste are produced each year.
A landfill site is usually a disused quarry, where waste is tipped and compressed into layers. At the end of each day, the top layer is covered with soil. The waste then begins to degrade, creating the powerful greenhouse gas methane. The gas can be harnessed via a network of pipes to create electricity.
Landfill sites are also notorious polluters. As rain falls on a landfill site, it will mix with any hazardous materials in the site such as bleach, engine oil, pesticides, medicines, and battery fluids. This creates a highly toxic leacheate that collects at the bottom of the site, and has been known to contaminate groundwater supplies.
Space in landfill sites is running out. Any waste sent to landfill has a Government tax added to it. In 2007-8, landfill tax is £24 per tonne, and this will increase by £8 every year from April 2008. The total cost of this tax to the Council is over £1 million and that is in addition to the cost of transporting and burying the waste.
From April 2006 councils have been given a landfill allowance which restricts the amount we can landfill. If the allowance is exceeded it will cost the Council £150 per tonne in fines from the government.
The landfill allowance reduces every year and if the Council had done nothing there was a high risk that its landfill alowance would be exceeded in 2007-08. Instead the introduction of ABC had reduced the amount landfilled by the Borough from 72% in March 2006 to less than 60% as soon as ABC was implemented. In the first year of ABC £125K in landfill tax and substantial fines have been avoided as the Council is well within its landfill quota.
 |
Listen |  |
Feedback |  |
