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Help small businesses to reduce their waste |
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Businesses in central Berkshire will be helped to bin their current waste practices and get into the spirit of recycling as part of a new plan – which is now available for everyone to have their say on.
A survey carried out on behalf of the re3 partnership last autumn found that only 37 per cent of businesses in central Berkshire, which includes Bracknell Forest, Reading and Wokingham, recycled their food waste, while 39 per cent recycle plastic. Of those surveyed 58 per cent said they recycled paper where possible and 62 per cent said they recycled cardboard. On average, more than 60 per cent of all waste thrown into increasing costly landfill sites comes from businesses and the waste survey carried out in central Berkshire suggests that this area is no exception. Businesses from all three local areas were invited to log their waste and recycling habits during the survey and almost 400 people replied, including Sheila Tims from Bewitched Fancy Dress Hire in Crowthorne, who won a sat-nav for her efforts in the prize draw. Mrs Tims, who has been the owner of the shop for six years, said: "I was keen to give feedback on this survey and am pleased that the re3 councils have taken this initiative to make it easier for businesses, especially small businesses, to reduce and recycle their waste." To halt the trend of dumping recyclable items in with general waste, the re3 partnership, with some help from Business Link Berkshire, has devised a plan to help businesses understand what they can and can’t recycle, where they can recycle and how they can set up better recycling systems themselves. The action plan is still in draft at the moment because the re3 partnership wants to ensure what is proposed meets with the expectations and needs of the businesses and organisations being targeted. It currently outlines nine different objectives for the three councils, including: To support the reduction of business waste by raising awareness of what business are legally expected to do and providing additional support To encourage more local reuse and reprocessing schemes To provide, or put in place, suitable recycling collections for all businesses To provide more easily available information for businesses on how, what and where to recycle Cllr Mrs Dorothy Hayes, Bracknell Forest Council's executive member for the environment, said: "Now residential recycling rates are improving, we want to help businesses to cut the waste they leave in landfill sites. "I urge any businesses to respond to the consultation, so we can help them to recycle more." Cllr Paul Gittings, Reading’s lead councillor for environment and sustainability, said: “This is a vital initiative and I would appeal to businesses in the Reading areato play their part in cutting their waste to a bare minimum. "This makes both environmental and economic sense andI hope the re3 partnership can assist in raising awareness of this issue.” Cllr Rob Stanton, chairman of the re3 project board, said: “Together we have been successful in getting household recycling to increase year on year in all three boroughs. But we recognise that business waste is also a major component of the rubbish that ends up in expensive landfill sites, which is why we are focussing on business waste and how to encourage and support companies to recycle more. "The business waste strategy is a guideline for that and so we want to hear from as many organisations and individuals as possible to see if we are proposing the right level of support.” Anyone can submit comments, suggestions and ideas on the business waste strategy, which can be found at www.re3.org.uk . Comments should be sent to steve.pearce@scottwilson.com by 5pm on March 6. |
