08 : 10 am |9th September 2010

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WELSH MINISTER CELEBRATES SUCCESS OF ZERO WASTE VILLAGE

11/02/2008

Residents of St Arvans Zero Waste Village were joined by Jane Davidson, Minister for the Environment, Sustainability and Housing for Wales, on Friday, to celebrate the success of the project seven months after it was launched.

The minister took a tour with Monmouthshire Community Recycling (MCR), a partnership between Monmouthshire Environment Trust and the largest social enterprise in the UK, ECT Group, and Recycling Officers from Monmouthshire County Council viewing the collection around the village.

She also popped into the local pub for a chat with the Summers - a family in the village who have fully embraced the zero waste ethos.

Louise Summers told the minister: “Since we started having plastics and tetrapaks recycling in St Arvans, there is not a lot left in our bin, we don’t even fill one black bag a week. We’re a family of five so you might think we’d find it harder to recycle. In fact the boys are really on the ball, and they want to find a use for everything. We do think differently about what we buy these days, and avoid any packaging that would have to go to landfill. There’s a lot of awareness in the village, and people are starting to realise that it’s one of the ways they can fight climate change and save energy needed to make new products.”

Jane Davidson AM, said: “Our effect on the planet is called our “ecological footprint”. Wales’ ecological footprint is the lowest of all the UK regions. But as a nation we are still using three planets worth of the earth’s resources, which is why I am delighted to see how well the residents of St Arvans have embraced this innovative project working to reduce waste in the local community.

“Waste reduction is key to fighting climate change as waste currently makes up 14% of Wales’ ecological footprint. If we want to reduce our ecological footprint, it is crucial that we all follow the example being set in St Arvans and look not only to reduce waste but to increase the proportion that is recycled.”

Monmouthshire County Council uses MCR as a contractor to carry out recycling in St. Arvans. Since the launch in June 2007, the village has achieved:
- a 95% participation rate
- 77% diversion rate

The Local Government Association has calculated that households in the UK send more than 26.8million tonnes of rubbish to landfill every year – the equivalent of almost half a tonne for every person in the country. The figures also show that Britain sends 7 million tonnes more rubbish into landfill than any other country in Europe.

David Roman, MCR’s Executive Director, said: “The principle of Zero Waste is that everything we buy is made from materials which can be repaired, reused or recycled, and in those cases where they cannot, the products should use other materials that are capable of being repaired, reused or recycled.

“This month we will start to collect mobile phones, household batteries and toner cartridges. The only things that are left that can’t be disposed in an environmentally sound way are the heavily contaminated or mixed materials like cat litter and disposable nappies.”

Eric Saxon, Monmouthshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “Today was a great way of proving to us all how easy it is to stop producing so much waste. Hopefully, the residents taking part in this groundbreaking scheme will show that the concept of zero waste really is achievable.”

The Zero Waste Village project will run for five years in total, and is supported by Environment Wales with funding from the Welsh Assembly Government, and by Monmouthshire County Council’s Community Economic Development Scheme.

For more information visit www.monrecycling.co.uk