Carmarthenshire in top 20 in UK waste reduction league table

CARMARTHENSHIRE is winning in the race towards zero waste.

The council is number 20 in a UK league table of 203 local authorities showing the amount of rubbish being thrown away per person.

The table has been put together by industry magazine Resource as the best measure of progress towards zero waste. Recycling and the separate collection of food waste together with waste minimisation initiatives have helped reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

Based on official figures from WasteDataFlow the average person in the UK now throws away about 283kg per year – the figure for Carmarthenshire is much lower at 245.8kg.

Carmarthenshire was the second best performing authority in Wales after Denbighshire in the table.

Executive board member for the environment Councillor Philip Hughes said: “We are working hard to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and to increase our recycling rate.

“For Carmarthenshire to be the 20^th out of 203 local authorities throughout the UK – not to mention the second best performing authority in Wales – demonstrates that all this hard work is paying off.”

Approximately 77,000 households in Carmarthenshire now benefit from kerbside recycling, and the green bin/blue bag scheme has been a huge success since it was launched in February 2008.

Director of technical services Richard Workman said: “I am delighted that Carmarthenshire is performing so well, however, we still have much more work to do.

“We can all make a difference by changing the way we do things, so that we reduce, reuse, repair and recycle rather than just throwing away.”