At the start of the year, local MP, David Rutley, is encouraging local residents to help make yet more progress towards improving the already high recycling rates in Cheshire East, and recently visited Middlewich Environmental Hub, where household recycling and waste from Macclesfield is managed.
On his visit, David, who is also a Minister at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), was given a tour of the state-of-the-art centre, by Mr Ralph Kemp, the head of waste and recycling services at Cheshire East Council. David saw for himself how recyclable materials from residents’ silver bins are collated at Middlewich, before being sent to a Materials Recovery Facility at Shotton, where all the materials are carefully separated and sorted.
Since the Middlewich centre became operational in 2018, Cheshire East Council has been able to significantly increase the amount of household waste that is diverted from landfill to an energy-from-waste facility. This positive development means that 95 per cent of black bin waste is now used for energy production, rather than being landfilled. David was pleased to learn that Cheshire East has the seventh-best recycling rate in all unitary authorities in England, and this rate should improve further with the planned introduction of food waste collections in the autumn. Mr Kemp urged local residents to ensure that recycling is left loose, rather than tied up in plastic bags, as this enables more materials to be recycled.
Councillor Don Stockton, Cheshire East Council Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “It is great to have received this praise for the environmental hub. The hub enables Cheshire East Council to manage household waste effectively and significantly increase the amount that is diverted from landfill – positively impacting our environment for generations to come.”
Speaking after his visit, David said, "It is positive to see that, thanks to the efforts of local residents, Cheshire East Council continues to be a top performer in recycling and is making positive strides towards cutting landfill waste. The Environment Hub has clearly played a key role in delivering these improvements, and I am grateful to Mr Kemp and his colleagues for showing me around the site. I encourage local residents to continue to ‘leave it loose’ and help to make further progress on recycling locally, building on great initiatives such as Macc-Tastic, Less Plastic, which I strongly support.”