What is waste?
Waste is another name for rubbish. Waste is simply material that someone wants to throw away. But one person’s waste may be useful to another person. In England and Wales approximately 400 million tonnes of waste is produced every year. By recycling some of this waste, raw materials are produced for factories to make new products.
To ensure household waste is suitable for use in making new products it needs sorting. Sorting should begin at home and continue at your local household waste sorting site. Sorting enables us to produces a clean, usable `stream` of raw materials, e.g. paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, tin cans, compost and wood. Virtual tour of materials recycling facility (MRF)
Why recycle? Virtual tour of landfill site
Rubbish dumped in landfill sites is a waste of natural resources and energy and can be a source of pollution. The number of suitable new landfill sites is diminishing and the existing sites are filling up. To tackle these problems, councils are now obliged to reduce the amount they send to landfill.
Recycling has been around for a long time. The Chinese were recycling as long as 2,000 years ago and so were the Romans. Recycling is now easier than ever, make the best use of your local Household Waste Sort Site and recycling banks (usually situated near your supermarket).
How can you help?
Avoid – Try not to create waste in the first place. Prevention is better cure.
Re – use
Many household items have `second life` uses, e.g. glass jars, newspapers and tin cans. Buy items with a minimum of packaging. Buy products packaged in re-usable, refillable or recyclable containers. Highly concentrated products, such as washing powder/liquid, use less packaging and often give greater value for money. Buy recycled products. Garden and food waste make up a third of the contents of most dustbins. Home composting is the most single most effective action you can personally take to benefit the environment.
Leeds City Council is constantly striving towards finding alternatives to landfill. Currently over 75% of our waste ends up in landfill and this is not the most environmentally friendly way.
By offering your goods for reuse you are doing your bit for the environment by helping to conserve the world's natural materials such as metals, wood and oil. This is because these materials are in limited supply and by re-using the goods we already have, ensures these natural materials last longer. By adapting to this lifestyle, you can ensure that your family's needs will be met and maintained now as well as in future generations.
Whether you have a dustbin with a liner bag, or a wheeled bin, remember that this waste will end up in a tip – please think about reducing, reusing and recycling your waste before you put it in your bin.
If you have any comments about our recycling service please e-mail us at info.recycling@leeds.gov.uk or call 0113 2224406.
Please remember the environmental contact centre is open Monday to Friday between 08:00 - 18:00. Please be aware that Monday morning is the busiest time at the contact centre.