Council’s recycling rates rocket
Recycling levels in council offices across Oxfordshire have soared over the past couple of years thanks to a range of new initiatives designed to make the sites greener. District councils are now recycling 65% of the waste from their own buildings compared to 46% three years ago and have reduced overall levels of waste by over 40%.
The Environmental Information Exchange at Oxford Brookes University was invited by Oxfordshire Waste Partnership (OWP) to see how district council waste performance stacks up.
Project director on the Oxford Brookes University programme Michael Esvelt oversaw the recent waste audits that showed these huge improvements. He was delighted with the findings: “We naturally expected district councils to have high levels of recycling, but these current findings put their offices in the top quarter of all business we survey” said Michael. “It’s great to see these advancements brought about through updated recycling schemes, being more efficient over use of resources and printing double sided: simple activities that will save councils money too!”
Lorraine Lindsay-Gale chairs OWP and is also very pleased with the results. She says: “It’s really important that council staff lead by example when it comes to recycling and green initiatives and these latest results show that we are. There’s still progress to be made, but we’re improving all the time and aim to be even more sustainable over the coming years."
