Rubbish - it seems everyone`s talking about it these days
We produce a lot of rubbish in Gateshead. Along with our neighbours, South Tyneside and Sunderland, we produce 370,000 tonnes of rubbish every year. Each year, the average UK household produces about one tonne of rubbish – that's the same weight as a young elephant.
At the moment we only recycle 26% of our rubbish. We know we can do better than this. We need to reduce the amount of waste we bury in the ground because landfills produce methane which damages the environment. We are running out of landfill space and it is getting more expensive to use.
Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland councils are working together as the South Tyne and Wear Waste Management Partnership to improve the way we handle our rubbish.
Recycling
Some people think recycling is too much effort. In actual fact, it'snever been easier to recycle -
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Newspapers, magazines, junk mail, white telephone directories, envelopes, glass (including bottles and jars) and steel and aluminium cans can go in your Kerb-It box
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Old clothes, shoes, cardboard, cartons, plastic bottles, glass, paper and food and drink cans can go to local recycling centres and recycling banks
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Green garden waste can be recycled in your Green-it bin
Dealing with the rubbish that's not recycled
When we've recycled as much of our rubbish as we can, we then have to deal with the rubbish that's left. Last summer you told us that you want to get value out of our rubbish. So, the partnership is considering several ways in which we could do this.
We have considered nine types of technology including:
Mechanical Biological Treatment (through Aerobic Digestion) -a large compost operation that creates a soil improver or reduces the amount of material that needs to be landfilled.
Energy From Waste Facility – an efficient burning process with low levels of emissions. Produces electricity for the National Grid and steam for heating hospitals, homes and other buildings.
Autoclaving - sterilises rubbish, using steam. Some of the by-productscan be recycled or used as a fuel or building products,or can be landfilled.