Essex town named second least wasteful in England
They were pipped to the post by Stroud
Last updated 25th Jan 2022
A study by a sustainable living company, Bower Collective, has named Colchester as England's second least wasteful town.
It found that the town generates 27% less household waste than average and is sixth best in the country at recycling waste.
While the average waste produced per household in England is 403kg, which is equivalent to the average weight of a horse, the average in Colchester was 295kg per person.
Sue Lissimore, deputy leader of Colchester Council is very proud of the town:
"It's magnificent and this is a huge thanks and congratulations to Colchester residents who've done their absolute best to reduce, reuse and recycle. Well done to them, it's absolutely brilliant news."
She also said that more can always be done:
"The survey showed there was a 22% increase in fly tipping and we've got to understand why this is happening. Is it because of the position of the recycling sites and people just can't be bothered to travel to them? Is it a lack of recycling facilities or is it a lack of recycling products, such as the clear sacs that we need for plastic, paper and garden waste?"
"One thing we're doing is ensuring as much as possible that the Council keeps a really good stock of its recycling products so that there's no excuse for residents not to recycle as much as possible."
"We're doing everything we can to try and change with the times and make it as easy as possible for people to recycle... Essex County Council offer compost bins to residents and we're really doing our best to promote those so that residents can recycle actually at home on their own property."