Do we need landfill?

If the wind blows from the south, the fumes from Bernard Road incinerator drift over Burngreave. If the wind turns north west, then we get whatever is blown off Parkwood Landfill. Waste disposal problems are problems for Burngreave and Pitsmoor, whether we like it or not. Some of the waste is produced by us. What can we do to help? Sheffield recycles just 5% of its waste. In other parts of the country, 50% of waste is recycled. We could be composting kitchen and garden waste, reusing bottles, and selling sorted materials such as paper, glass, plastics and metals. Residents of Burngreave may well be willing to contribute to recycling of the waste they produce. But Sheffield Council doesn’t make it easy for them. In the whole of the S3 and S4 postal districts, there’s only one place to dispose of paper (at Tradebase in Old Firth Park Library) and two places to take unwanted textiles (Tradebase and Furnival Community Centre). If you want to recycle other materials, you need to use a car to take them further afield. You can of course compost organic waste yourself, but only if you have a garden where you can use it. The Council could ask us to sort our waste into containers for collection at the kerbside. Waste collection contractor Onyx provides this service for 17500 properties in Sheffield – but not for us. We don’t get this service because Sheffield Council claims it would cost too much. RABID (see page 4) has provided the Messenger with evidence that this is a very short-sighted view. While organising kerbside collections and disposing of sorted materials would involve some initial investment, this would be quickly recouped by reductions in fees paid for incineration and landfill (currently £25 per tonne and likely to rise) and sales of recycled materials. So the most effective action we can take to reduce the need for both incineration and landfill, is to demand that Sheffield Council adopts recycling policies and practices immediately. RABID has calculated that the existing demand for landfill space can be reduced by up to 80%. At that rate, Parkwood Springs can be restored as public open space. For more information contact: SCRAP 275 5055 or RABID (see page 4)