Tameside leading the way nationally in improved recycling rates

TAMESIDE has been highlighted nationally for achieving some of the country’s most improved household recycling rates.

Recycling rates for 2021/22 have been published by DEFRA showing that Tameside households are leading the way with recycling rates rising to over 52%.

In 2020/21 the borough’s residents recycled 47.2% of their waste but they have increased this by 5.4% to achieve a 52.6%, making Tameside the 9^th most improved local authority area for household recycling rates in the country.

The borough’s 52% recycling rate is also significantly higher than the national average recycling rate in England of 44%.

Tameside Council Executive Member Cllr Denise Ward, who is responsible for environmental services, said: “This is brilliant news and a testament to residents really getting into the habit of separating and recycling more and more of their waste – it is a fantastic effort from everyone and is helping to save limited council funds to protect vital services. Thank you to everyone for reducing their waste as much as possible and for recycling – you are making a real difference and setting an example for others to follow.”

Greater Manchester as a whole is one of the one of the best performing city-regions in the country, with a household recycling rate of over 50%.

The landfill diversion rate in 2021/22 was 98.4% which means that of all the household waste collected from over one million households across the nine boroughs of Greater Manchester, only 1.6% was sent to landfill.  Instead, the majority of waste that cannot be recycled goes to energy from waste, where waste is burned to generate electricity.

Greater Manchester has improved recycling facilities across the network of 20 household waste recycling centres operated by SUEZ recycling and recovery UK. This includes new containers for mattresses, carpets, and hard plastics as well as containers where household items can be donated for reuse.

As well as improvements at the recycling centres, Greater Manchester councils are now able to recycle street sweepings at a new SUEZ plant in Ashton-under-Lyne. Here 90% of the grit, soil, stones, leaves, twigs, and other detritus swept from Greater Manchester’s roads is cleaned, separated, and recycled through a specialist, hi-tech mechanical sorting process. Organic matter is extracted and transferred to other processing facilities to be turned into compost and sand and aggregates that are then used by the construction industry.

For more information on recycling in Tameside see www.tameside.gov.uk/recycling

Household Waste Recycling Centres are open 7 days a day from 8am to 8pm (during British Summer Time), to find your nearest visit: www.recycleforgreatermanchester.com