Home Local News Boost for environment as recycling rates increase and fly tipping declines

Boost for environment as recycling rates increase and fly tipping declines

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Incidents of fly tipping in Wigan Borough have bucked the national trend and are declining, new stats reveal.

Latest figures from Wigan Council show a 35 per cent reduction in fly tipping reports thanks to a proactive approach and the introduction of a new environmental enforcement and education team.

In 2017 there were 1,373 reports of fly tipping compared to 2,105 in 2016.

And it’s more good news for the environment as the borough’s recycling rate has significantly increased and is on target to exceed the 50 per cent target set by central government as residents are recycling right and recycling more.

Since the collection changes in September the rate has increased from 43 per cent to a current estimate of 48 per cent and an extra 1000 tonnes of recycling has been collected compared to the previous year.

With Christmas being the busiest period for the crews and households producing more waste than the other months there’s currently increases of up to 17 per cent in the blue bin and increases of up to 30 per cent in the brown bin.

As part of The Deal, the more people recycle and dispose of their waste correctly the more money the council saves helping it to keep council tax low.

Work has taken place to prevent fly tipping at a number of key hotspot areas in the borough including barriers and the installation of CCTV.

The environmental enforcement team tackle all types of environmental crime, including fly tipping, littering and dog fouling, and now work seven days a week so are able to deal with issues over the weekend. They are also trialling CCTV cameras which will further help them to gather evidence to catch offenders.

Councillor Kevin Anderson, cabinet member for environment, said:

“This is great news to start the New Year and we’d like to say a big thank you to residents for recycling more and for doing their bit to look after the environment.

“These are early reports and the figures have not been verified but we’re making good progress and are confident with the new collections we can further drive up our recycling rates.

“We remain committed to having a clean and tidy borough and are pleased our work to reduce fly tipping is having a positive impact. We would encourage residents to keep reporting incidents to us so we can continue this work.

“In the first instance we will always work with residents to educate them around environmental crime and to ensure they understand how to properly dispose of their waste.

“It costs us money to clean up our communities and remove fly tipping. As part of The Deal, by residents not fly tipping, recycling correctly and disposing of their waste correctly we can keep council tax low and continue to fund essential front line services.”

For more information about recycling visit www.wigan.gov.uk/recycling

To report an incident of fly tipping visit www.wigan.gov.uk/reportit or download the council’s Report It app via your smartphone.

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