Council chiefs are asking residents to help them save energy and get Leeds on the road to becoming a zero waste city.
A staggering 15 percent of black bin waste in the city is made up of perfectly recyclable paper and cardboard. With close to 350,000 homes in Leeds this unnecessary waste adds up quickly.
In fact each year Leeds households throw away over 1700 trees worth of recyclable paper. Laid end to end they would reach all the way from the centre of Leeds to York.
A high number of residents are unaware they can put lightly soiled pizza boxes, envelopes with windows, junk mail, bus and train tickets, cereal and handkerchief boxes, loo rolls and cardboard packaging into their green recycling bin.
Deputy Leader of Leeds City Council Councillor Lucinda Yeadon said:
“Only a small percentage of people say they are confused about paper and card recycling yet we still have such a high level of unnecessary paper waste. If every household made a change to reduce this percentage of waste it would make a massive difference to the city.
“Some people think recycling paper and card in rooms other than the kitchen is difficult, but it’s pretty easy to separate out items and this one little change could make all the difference.”
If Leeds recycled all the paper and card it could it would save enough energy to power all eight of its hospitals for a year. That is a lot of unnecessary waste.
To find out what else you can recycle in your green bin and get collection day reminders download the Leeds Bins app on ISO or Android.
