Waste reduction plea to save money

Denbighshire council want a reduction in waste

A council chief has been getting his hands dirty in an attempt to encourage householders in Denbighshire to recycle more of their rubbish.

Local authority chief executive Ian Miller has spent the day working with refuse collectors in Rhyl.

There is so much that local people could do now to improve our performance to retain resources locally

Ian Miller council chief executive

More than 49,000 tonnes of waste is collected in the county each year and about 95% of it is sent to landfill sites across north Wales and Cheshire.

Mr Miller has said that if landfill was reduced by 5,000 tonnes the council would save £65,000 and the extra money could be used to directly benefit local people.

The council has to pay £13 landfill tax for each tonne of rubbish sent to the tip.

People are being encouraged to recycle

"It could be spent on improving local services or keeping council tax down," he said.

"At the moment this money goes to the treasury in London with no guarantee that it will come back to Denbighshire to benefit local people.

"This landfill tax is set to increase rapidly over the next few years.

"There is so much that local people could do now to improve our performance to retain resources locally," he said.

Rubbish collected from the north of Denbighshire is sent to landfill at Llanddulas near Colwyn Bay, waste from the county's centre is sent to Ruthin and transferred to a landfill site in Cheshire.

Refuse which is picked up during collections from the Dee Valley area is sent to landfill in Chirk near Wrexham.

At present, about 95% of Welsh waste is buried underground in landfill sites with Wales lagging behind the rest of Europe in the recycling league.