Ashby de la Zouch Town Councillor, TOM STANLEY, provides his monthly environmental column, and explains the council is now refusing to send waste to landfill

Ashby de la Town Council has changed its refuse provider as part of its drive to reach net zero, with the new contract sending no waste to landfill.

Previously mixed waste, such as that collected from the Bath Grounds, had been sent to landfill, causing large emissions due to the creation of methane as the waste decomposed.

Methane is one of the most harmful greenhouse gasses in the world, so removing a process that creates it is immensely beneficial to the planet.

The new waste provider uses machinery to separate the waste and pull-out materials such as wood, metal and card that can be recycled.

The waste that cannot be recycled, such as food waste is used to create Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) which has a lower carbon footprint than landfill.

Refuse-derived fuel is made from burning both domestic and commercial waste including both biodegradable materials and plastics.

The materials are shredded and then compacted into bales before being sent onto a facility that incinerates the RDF fuel. This burning occurs at specialist facilities across the UK and the energy produced is used to create electricity for local homes or industry.

Currently there are few of these tightly regulated plants in the UK so most of this waste is sent to mainland Europe and despite this transportation, the emissions produced are still significantly less than landfill.

In the short-term, this alternative solution to landfill offers a means to remove the need for landfill, as some waste will never be recyclable.

Though longer-term solutions are needed to reduce the amount of this waste and increase recycling. A simple way to start this process is by reducing unnecessary single use plastics and wrappers. With the current government not aiming to eliminate avoidable plastic waste until 2042, we are relying on individual businesses reducing plastic use.

Locally, large companies such as Pladis, which owns McVities, are changing their packaging and have pledged to make all their plastic packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.

Whilst KP snacks is redesigning packaging to reduce the amount of plastic used.

Finally, North West Leicestershire District Council has announced a trial of recycling plastic wrappers and bags in Coalville.

This is a welcome development, and the rollout of this across the district will be a welcome step to reducing the amount of waste that the district sends to landfill from the current 30 per cent to a target of five per cent by next year.