To find out more about what happens to the other materials we
collect, please click on the following links.
What happens to your rubbish?
All the refuse that is put out for collection or thrown away at
the Recycling Centres is sent to landfill sites.
How do we send our rubbish to landfill?
Refuse is collected from the front edge of people's
properties and loaded into vehicles which compact the waste.
The waste is then taken to one of the Council's two Transfer
Stations at Bath and Radstock.
At the Transfer Stations, waste is transferred into large heavy
duty containers where it is compacted further. Each container
can hold just over 13 tonnes of waste.
Every day we send 15 containers by road to
Shortwood Landfill Site in South Gloucestershire and Dimmer
Landfill Site in Somerset.
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What is the problem with landfill?
Landfill sites can produce gases such as methane that
contributes to climate change in addition to the loss of energy and
resources from all the materials that have been thrown
away.
Furthermore we are running out of landfill sites, particularly
in the South West.
To discourage rubbish from being sent to landfill, a landfill
tax is charged for every tonne of rubbish that goes there.
This currently stands at £32 (2008/09).
Under the European Landfill Directive, Local Authorities also
have targets to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going to
landfill. Biodegradable waste is waste that rots and is the
main cause of greenhouse gases within landfills.
If we fail to meet these targets we could potentially be fined
£150 for every tonne of material that exceeds our
targets.
If we continue to dispose at present rates, we could be facing
fines of up to £15million by 2020. These are costs that have to be
paid through our Council Tax.
