Recycling targets - getting greener

Did you know that every year each home in Coventry produces over a tonne of rubbish? That's the equivalent of a small family car.

In fact, if you combine all of the waste that is handled by the Council each year it's in the region of 180,000 tonnes.

That's why it is a massive issue and the facts show that waste has an impact on Climate Change and has an impact on our daily lives.

In 2000 we recycled about 10 per cent of waste and now we recycle 40 per cent. This is a huge increase at an incredible rate and has been helped by the Council's investment in new waste collection services.

The big target outlined in the draft strategy is to recycle even more. Looking ahead our target is to increase levels of recycling in the city to 50 per cent by 2020.

We landfill the least amount of waste compared to other local authorities and we also want to recycle as much as possible.

The cornerstone to our proposed plans is to prevent waste in the first place - our priorities are to prevent, re-use and recycle waste.

We all need to recognise the importance of waste prevention and recycling and changing attitudes won't happen over night. Education is important but we will also be looking at collection services and putting other systems in place to enable people to make the right choices about getting rid of their waste.

For additional information on recycling and for tips on the best ways to save money with food and cooking, please visit http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/