Hampshire’s residents are still among the best in the country for recycling their household rubbish. That’s the message from Project Integra, the partnership of all local authorities in Hampshire and private contactor Onyx Hampshire.

Figures just released for 2003/04 show that Hampshire local authorities dealt with 876,469 tonnes of rubbish during that period. Over a third (35%) of the material was either recycled or had energy recovered from it during incineration.

One of the most striking changes over the last year has been a drop in the amount landfilled. The use of landfill has been declining slowly in Hampshire over the last decade, but since 2002 the proportion has dropped from 80% to 65%.

Steve Read, Executive Officer for the Project Integra partnership, commented: “A great deal of this is down to the efforts of the Hampshire public to think more carefully about what they throw away. It’s never been easier to get recycling with 95% of Hampshire households now receiving a regular kerbside collection of recyclables such as newspapers,  plastic bottles, and food and drinks cans.  In addition, there are almost 2,000 banks for a wide variety of materials, while our network of 26 Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) provide a place for residents to dispose of bulky and garden waste free of charge.”

Hampshire’s recycling rate is set to keep rising due to a number of new initiatives, which include:

·      a Government (Defra) grant of £5 million to improve kerbside recycling in many parts of the county and investment to improve HWRCs

• a new, state of the art, Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) which will start trials next month in Alton. This is where materials collected through kerbside recycling schemes are sorted and sent to be recycled, and complements the existing MRF in Portsmouth, giving Hampshire the capacity to process up to 157,000 tonnes of recyclables a year

·      two more Energy Recovery Facilities (ERFs) in Marchwood and Portsmouth will open next year. They will support Hampshire’s first ERF near Basingstoke which has already diverted 96,000 tonnes of unrecyclable rubbish away from landfill by safe incineration. The energy recovered is used to generate electricity for the national grid

·      a major expansion of the Little Bushy Warren composting site near Basingstoke to raise capacity above 100,000 tonnes per year of green garden waste. This is one of three sites in the county which produces the award winning organic soil conditioner called Pro-Grow.

Councillor Roland Dibbs, Chairman of the Project Integra Management Board, said: “These figures are very encouraging and a real credit to everybody in Hampshire who is helping to tackle this very sensitive issue. There will be very little landfill space left available in the county within five years, so the support of the public is crucial to make sure as much material as possible is efficiently recycled. We have markets for all the material which is sorted provided the quality remains high. 

“Integra is recognised by the Government and both nationally and internationally as a blueprint for success. However, we are far from complacent about this and we need to continue to work together to reach the 40% recycling rate by 2006."

More details on the Project Integra waste strategy can be found at www.integra.org.uk.

Ends

For more information, please contact

Steve Read
Executive Officer, Project Integra
c/o  The Old College
College Street
Petersfield
GU31 4AG

Tel: 01730 235806. Fax: 01730 263622
Email: steve.read@hants.gov.uk

20 July 2004

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