LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE RECYCLING
| Published: 14th July 2007 21:58 |
The reason for the anticipated increase is the delivery to thousands of homes and businesses of the new Yellow Pages directory. Beginning on 23 July, the distribution of the directories across the borough is scheduled to take between three and four weeks.
Keen for people to realise they should not put their old directories out with their non-recyclable waste, Croydon Council is asking that everybody ensures that their copy is recycled.
The familiar business directories are accepted at the borough's three reuse and recycling centres, the council's 27 neighbourhood recycling sites and its 150 mini recycling sites.
Until recently, Yellow Pages phone books could not be accepted at the local sites because they were printed on yellow paper - a contaminant to the white paper collected. Now, however, they are produced on white paper with yellow dye on the surface only, allowing recycling with the rest of the white paper.
Reduced dependency on landfill will help the council avoid having to charge more council tax to pay substantial penalties imposed for exceeding landfill targets.
Currently, Croydon composts and recycles 20% of the household waste produced in the borough each year.
Councillor Phil Thomas, cabinet member for environment and highways, said: "People now realise that it's vitally important that we do as much as we can to cut the amount of the borough's waste that's sent to landfill, and our residents are rising to this important challenge
"Obviously, Yellow Pages directories are bulky items and removing them from the general waste stream goes some way to helping us cut waste disposal costs and meet our targets.
"Yellow Pages directories are accepted at our reuse and recycling centres at Factory Lane, Purley Oaks and Fishers Farm, as well as now being accepted at all 177 community recycling sites in Croydon."
The main way in which residents can contribute to reducing waste costs is by putting out for collection the four main recycling materials in their green boxes (white paper, including newspaper, magazines and envelopes; glass; cans; and old clothes and shoes). When green boxes are full, extra recyclables can be put in a plastic bag for recycling.
It must be stressed that Yellow Pages directories cannot go in the green boxes, as the quality of the paper used in their production is too low for this waste stream.
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