Cornwall Council's waste development advisory panel will learn next Monday that they are 15th in a league table of 81 unitary authorities when it comes to recycling. Apparently the amount of "dry" waste recycled is 24.5%, which is pretty good; but the amount of "wet" waste recycled is only 11.7%. One reason for this is that for many years people in Cornwall have been encouraged to compost waste at home, so although it saves on transport costs and CO2 emissions, it doesn't show up in the statistics.
The statistics are produced acccording to EU "waste diversion targets" which quantify material by weight - and as Cornwall's waste department notes:
"The weight based system has resulted in many local authorities being primarily motivated to design services that increase the weight of materials received, above any other environmental consideration."
The waste department report also notes that most of those councils which perform better than Cornwall have fortnightly, rather than weekly, kerbside collections.
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