recycling

Hundreds of employees from a waste management firm which collects waste in Devon have geared up to take part in a 2,400 mile, UK cross-country cycle tour to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.

The Big Ride cycle relay, organised by national recycling and waste management company SITA UK, staged a Grand Depárt from one of the company’s northern-most sites near Aberdeen on May 12 and will now finish at its most southerly facility in St Erth, Cornwall, on June 20 – six weeks later. (They are currently in Hampshire).

The winding route, designed to include as many of SITA...

Residents could benefit from weekly food waste and recycling collection services under plans being considered by Teignbridge Council.

Teignbridge’s Executive is looking at proposals to change its current service, replacing it with easier, more frequent food waste and recycling collections.

This proposed ‘best affordable’ scheme has been designed to keep Teignbridge at the forefront of recycling in Devon while ensuring residents have a fair, simple system that encourages them to reduce, reuse and recycle.

It includes introducing weekly food waste and weekly recycling...

Primary school pupils across Devon have been bravely examining the rubbish produced by their packed lunches over the past few weeks in readiness of the County-wide “Waste Free Lunch” week campaign from 10th – 14th March.

Donning gloves, and with strong stomachs, children have been weighing waste, sorting snacks and picking out packaging from the mountain of rubbish generated every day after lunch time.

The aim of the campaign is to reduce the amount of waste produced by packed lunches in schools, and to share innovative ideas for packing “waste free” lunches with pupils,...

Sam Alford and Sam White, both from Exmouth, are starting a bike recycling project at Bicton EaRTH in East Devon. It is one of few such projects based in the heart of a rural community where there is a need for low-cost, independent transport – especially for young people.

After working for various charities and youth projects they are now establishing EaRTH Cycles and want the public to donate their old bikes, rather than throwing them away.

“We’ve secured support for the project from Devon County Council’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund, Making it Local and Awards For...

Whilst we are all busy thinking about presents and festive food over the coming days, Devon residents are also being asked to try and remember to recycle and re-use where ever possible.

Wrapping paper, cardboard, bottles and even christmas trees can all be recycled or taken to recycling centres. In many areas, a collection service for Christmas trees will make sure those trees are taken for chipping and composting.

Unwanted fake trees can be passed on to someone else via reuse sites such as Freegle, Freecycle or sold via Gumtree, Preloved, Amazon or Ebay or taken to your...

Residents in Teignbridge are being encouraged to ‘starve your bin’ by reducing, reusing and recycling waste wherever possible this festive season.

To prevent a build-up of rubbish, all households are urged to visit Teignbridge District Council’s website to check out green gift ideas, how to recycle Christmas wrapping paper, cards and trees and get the revised waste and recycling collection dates.

Over three million tonnes of waste is created in the UK every Christmas and to help reduce the build-up a ‘ Christmas Waste ’ page has been put together and is packed with...

Devon County Council is officially opening its brand new state of the art Recycling Centre which will serve Sidmouth, Ottery St Mary and the surrounding villages. The gates will open to the public on Tuesday 10 December 2013 at 11.30am The facility replaces the old centre at Woods Farm which is now inadequate to meet modern demands. It is located about 300metres south of the old centre on the C808 road near Bowd between Sidmouth and Ottery St Mary. The old site closes permanently at the end of Sunday 8th December 2013 and both sites are closed on Monday 9th December 2013 whilst equipment...

Devon is in the top three performing counties in the country when it comes to recycling its waste, thanks to many of you who make the effort on a daily basis. With a recycling rate of 55%, it remains slightly behind Oxfordshire and Leicestershire in the recycling league tables.

Residents in West Devon have the best recycling rate in the county at 57%, followed closely by Teignbridge (56%) and South Hams (54%) Devon residents are doing very well when it comes to recycling, however householders still produce more waste on average per person when compared to other counties.

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Proposals to save more than £1.2 million next year from the way the County Council manages waste and recycling have been put forward for consultation this week.

The potential savings are part of a wider plan to reduce the council’s budget by over £100m over the next three years to meet the latest Government spending targets. In addition to renegotiating and re-tendering existing waste management contracts , a series of measures are being proposed for 2014/15. These include:

A reduction in the opening hours at Household Waste Recycling Centres by one hour in the morning and...