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Bargain compost bins
bargain compost bins

Cumbria County Council are able to offer compost bins for sale from as little as £8 with £5 for delivery. For more information about home composting and the discounted compost bins available visit recycleforcumbria.orgthis external link will open in a new window

The problem with waste

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Cumbria throws away a lot of rubbish - around 300,000 tonnes each and every year. The traditional method of disposing of our rubbish has been to bury it in landfill sites throughout the county. However the environmental implications of landfilling are massive. The main problem lies with any biodegradable waste which is basically anything that rots - paper, cardboard, garden waste, kitchen waste, wood, textiles and disposable nappies. As it rots in landfill it produces methane - a gas 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.

In an effort to reduce the environmental impact of landfilling the EU has introduced the Landfill Directive. This legislation means that the cost of disposing of waste through landfill will escalate year on year. Using 1995 waste levels as a base year, we must reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going to landfill by 50% by 2013, and 75% by 2020. Under the LATS scheme, in addition to the standard costs associated with landfilling, we will be fined £150 for every tonne of biodegradable waste that we landfill over these limits.

These potentially massive fines mean that other options need to be considered to manage the waste we create.