Cheshire West & Chester Council. Printed on recycled paper - read me, recycle me. Council tops Recycling Carbon Index

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1 Cheshire West & Chester Council Recycle First News Printed on recycled paper - read me, recycle me Winter % We recycled over of all our waste Council tops Recycling Carbon Index It has been another year of fantastic recycling that we couldn't have done without the efforts of all our residents. We recycled over 58 per cent of all our waste, keeping us firmly in the top five per cent of best unitary authorities for recycling in the country. We also achieved an excellent recycling rate and once again topped the annual Recycling Carbon Index for England. This means that not only are residents recycling large amounts of waste, but the type of things we recycle also help reduce the impact we have on our planet. Recycling makes an important contribution to the UK s efforts on tackling climate change. It helps avoid both the disposal of waste into landfill and incinerators, and the need to extract raw materials to make new products. This reduces our carbon footprint, meaning the recycling habits of our community have a real impact. Councillor Karen Shore, Cabinet Member for Environment, said: This achievement is the latest in a series of successes for our recycling collection services and proves the recycling efforts of our residents are helping to improve the environment.

2 Looking back We know residents of west Cheshire are brilliant at recycling as our recycling rate is high, but we could still do more. Think before you bin it. Reduce, reuse, recycle. A number of our waste collection staff have recently celebrated 40 years of service. This got us thinking about how waste has changed in the time they have been with us. To learn how you can reduce what goes into your black bin, we've decided to take a look at the recent past of recycling. John Richardson retired on New Year s Eve in 2018, after 40 years of service. 1970s Back then, only one recycling rule applied: Reuse. Milkmen delivered fresh milk and orange juice in glass bottles and collected the empties for reuse. Shops took back glass pop bottles and paid customers for returning them. Clothes and textiles were repaired instead of being discarded. Fresh meats came wrapped in waxed paper instead of plastic, and fruit came in paper bags. Many households had coal fires and residents would burn any left-over waste, including food waste that wasn t compostable. 1980s Following the introduction of gas heating, residents moved away from coal fires and could no longer burn their waste. Household waste began to increase, and it was all landfilled. Bottle banks started to appear for people who wanted to recycle their glass.

3 1990s The Government introduced new laws, including the Environmental Protection Act and later the landfill tax. It committed to the target of recycling 25 per cent of household waste by 2000 and recycling became more widespread. 2000s We began to recycle more items from our homes, such as glass, tins, paper, card, garden waste and eventually plastics saw the introduction of our Recycle First partnership, which brought recycling to the forefront for residents of west Cheshire People are now more aware of the waste they produce and the impact it can have on the environment. The Government has proposed a deposit return scheme for cans, plastic and glass bottles, making suppliers responsible for the recycling of the waste they re producing. In west Cheshire, around 51 per cent of your unwanted textiles are sold online or given to charity by residents. You can also recycle your textiles in your green box instead of putting them into the black bin. Some stores will allow you to bring your own containers when buying fresh food. This would cut down the amount of non-recyclable plastic in your black bin. We can still compost food waste and recycle the rest in our brown food bin, which is then used to produce electricity. In the last 13 years, there has been more plastic produced globally than we ve seen in the previous half century. We can cut down on our single-use plastics by choosing reusable flasks, taking a packed lunch, using reusable wraps for our foods and reusing our non-recyclables around the home. Sometimes, the best way forward is to learn from our past. We can reduce our waste and help neighbourhoods and our wider environment, if we reuse all that we can and recycle the rest. What more can you do?

4 ... Your recycling efforts have had a positive impact over the last year, but you can always do more. Large quantities of recyclable waste are still finding their way into black bins across west Cheshire. Please ensure that all recyclable items are put into your recycling boxes for collection. If you need more boxes, please visit: cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk.

5 What have we got planned for Love Your Streets? ASIST officers Our new ASIST (Area, Streets, Information and Solutions team) officers will bring together all our place delivery services. They will investigate your issues and find solutions. They will investigate your issues and find solutions, promote our message of Love Your Streets, and work with residents and community groups to encourage involvement and volunteering. SMART team We ve created a SMART (Street Maintenance Action Response team) to provide a fast, reactive maintenance service that can respond to requests quickly and effectively. Having these new members of staff will mean our existing officers won t be called away from our planned dayto-day operations. Investing in bins We re investing over 22,000 to replace 118 open-top bins that are currently being misused for household waste. Our bins are designed for general litter and replacing open-top bins with our new closed bins will stop household waste overfilling our street bins. Tool bank Our new tool bank will support residents who want to volunteer and be part of Love Your Streets. The tools will be used for light maintenance and community clean-ups to help individuals and groups who want to do their bit and get involved. Find out more on the Your Streets website. Enforcement We are investing in technology to stop environmental crime by placing new mobile CCTV cameras in hotspots to catch those who persistently fly-tip, litter or don t pick up after their dogs. Keeping you informed Don t forget, the Your Streets website has the latest information on our services, links to our corporate website to report faults and a section on how you can get involved. Love Your Streets and report any issues you spot in your area. The Love Your Streets quiz (Tick one box) 1. What is the current maximum penalty for fly-tipping in Cheshire West and Chester? a. 75 fine b. 400 fine c. Prison sentence 2. How many miles of road is the Council responsible for in Cheshire West and Chester? a. 1,645 miles b. 906 miles c. 2,309 miles 3. How many miles do the Council's gritting fleet drivers cover for each gritting run? a. 606 miles b. 707 miles c. 808 miles 4. How many street lights is the Council responsible for? a. 44,000 b. 33,000 c. 22, How many litter bins does the Council own? a. 930 b c Find the answers on the Your Streets website: westcheshireyourstreets.co.uk

6 How you can help us The Council spends hundreds of thousands of pounds every year just to clear litter and fly-tipping to keep the borough looking tip top. And it s not just about what we spend there are the indirect costs too, such as the harm it can do to the environment. With your help, we can all make a difference. Here are a few things you can do today to help keep our borough looking lovely. Love Your Streets, hate litter Please use bins It might sound an obvious one, but you would be surprised how many people don t know what belongs in the bin. That half a cup of cold coffee left under a bench is litter, as are apple cores and cigarette butts, also any rubbish left right next to a bin. Please be clear on what counts as litter, always use a bin and encourage others to do the same.... Love Your Streets, hate fly-tipping Report fly-tippers The Council has been very successful catching and prosecuting people who use west Cheshire as a bin. We have increased penalties for fly-tipping in the borough to the maximum level of 400. If prosecuted, offenders could end up going to prison for up to five years. We need any information that would help track the offenders down. This could be the location, vehicle registration, description of the tippers themselves and the type of waste. But please stay safe. Only take photographs of fly-tippers if you feel it is safe to do so and don t examine the waste yourself it could contain dangerous items.... Do your homework If someone appears with a van offering to take your DIY or garden waste away, it may seem like great timing, but you really need to turn detective to check they are genuine. Anyone removing waste from a home or garden needs to be registered as a waste carrier. Ask for their waste carrier number, which you can check on the Environment Agency s public register. Unlicensed contractors are more likely to dump your waste somewhere they shouldn t, and you would be liable and could end up in court. Bin your butt Many smokers flick cigarette butts on to the ground and don t class themselves as litterers, but they soon mount up and cause us a huge problem as it costs a packet to clean them all up. Cigarette butt pouches or portable ashtrays are an easy way to deal with cigarette ends if there isn t a bin nearby. The Council is currently working on a very unique design for some cigarette butt pouches so watch this space. Take your litter for a drive Some people like to deposit litter on the move through their car window, perhaps thinking no-one will notice. This makes our roadsides look ugly and can cause accidents. Carry a rubbish bag in your car to keep your litter contained until you get home to put it in your bin, and encourage your family and friends to do the same.

7 Why Love Your Streets? Foreword by Councillor Karen Shore We listened to you and you told us you wanted your streets and neighbourhoods to be cleaner, safer and greener. The vast majority of us are responsible and respect our environment, but there are some people who mistreat the environment. This can damage its quality and impose a financial burden on us all. This new campaign aims to get the whole community to work collectively to improve our local environment and your support will be vital to its success. Thank you. Love Your Streets - What's it all about? Cleanest, safest, most sustainable neighbourhoods in the country

8 Winter 2019 The new Love Your Streets campaign is here Cheshire West and Chester Council is launching a new campaign to improve Your Streets in communities across the borough. The Love Your Streets campaign aims to help residents, businesses and communities to work together with the Council to improve our local environment. This special edition Love Your Streets newsletter has details of what the campaign is all about, and shows how we can all play our part and help improve the quality of the streets we live on. What s in this issue? Find out more about what we re doing to Love Your Streets How you can help us Test your knowledge with the Love Your Streets quiz... Love Your Streets and report it Please help us and report fly-tipping, environmental crime or other issues in your neighbourhood on the Your Street website: westcheshireyourstreets.co.uk. Fly-tipping in the borough cost the Council almost 295,000 last year