Council leader encouraging recycling

Councillor Richard Farnell, leader of Rochdale Borough Council

Leader of the Council, Councillor Richard Farnell, is encouraging residents to recycle all the rubbish they can.

He said: "For all the green fingered among you, the summer's (apparently) here so it's time to get cracking on with all your gardening chores; not least your grass cutting.

"As you'll all be aware by now the council's provided bins to households across the borough to collect their garden waste. I'm sure residents know that they can put all their food waste in this bin as well.

"It's thanks to our residents that our recycling rates continue to rise year on year, up to 56% for rubbish collected from people's homes. This has been mainly driven by the successful food waste campaign the council ran which led to an impressive 29% jump in collected food waste.

"That means we are now collecting nearly 400 tonnes of food waste more than the same time last year. That's 400 tonnes that we're recycling instead of sending to landfill which is increasingly expensive and costs our residents.

"I've spoken before on the issue of recycling and the importance of achieving high rates of collection. I can tell from the monthly figures I get that the public is listening and responding to our green message.

"It's always been a firm belief of mine that, although we can provide all the recycling facilities in the world, we can't force people to think and act green.

"What we can do, however, is explain why it's important to recycle, what to recycle and where to put it.

"From the monthly figures I get, our recycling communications are obviously working as more and more people get on board with our messages.

"We're far from finished; we'll only stop encouraging the public when we're sure everyone recycles all the rubbish they can.