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Sign for waste transfer station

Disappointment at rejection of call to cut household waste

16th July 2021

Cllr Duncan Kerr, expressed his disappointment that Conservative controlled Shropshire Council rejected his call for a waste minimisation strategy yesterday.

He said:

“In 2010 Shropshire Council wouldn’t have dreamt of declaring a climate emergency, but it did approve a waste minimisation strategy. This expired in 2015 and there hasn’t been one since. We now have the bizarre situation of a Council that has declared a climate emergency but obstinately refuses to have a waste minimisation strategy even though it produces more waste by a head of population that almost any other Council in the country. Indeed we each throw out half a tonne of waste each year, that’s over six times the average body weight and produces over 1 tonne of carbon, equivalent to driving a petrol car 2,500 miles. The problem is very serious but instead of progressing with urgency as it said it would in declaring a climate emergency, Shropshire Council is doing less now that it did eleven years ago!

The Government’s waste hierarchy puts minimisation and re-use way ahead of recycling and incineration but it seems that the controlling group on Shropshire Council think they know better. Next week the Cabinet will be considering replacing the containers for recyclables with a wheeled bin. Whilst I welcome residents being given the choice of a wheeled bin for their recyclabes, without any accompanying incentives for residents to slim their residual waste bin Shropshire will still be heading for a waste crisis, and the Government will, ultimately have to take action.

It has left me wondering what Shropshire Councillors thought they were doing when they declared a climate emergency, it is action not words that the planet needs”.

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