This is where the Our Cornwall campaign comes in, with tips for reducing waste and aiming to get as many residents as possible sorting their recyclables from the rubbish.  It’s not glamorous but it is necessary: EU regulations mean that by 2020, only a third of the amount landfilled in 1995 can be sent to landfill.  Not only is it bad for the planet to bury waste, it’s also bad for our wallets. Recent figures show that it costs £1.99 to collect, transport and landfill a black bag of rubbish, but only 41p to collect and recover a box or bag of recycling. The cost of landfill tax for disposing of waste to landfill is currently £48 a tonne and will rise every year by a further £8 until 2014.

All in all, that means that all our rubbish that isn’t recycled goes to landfill, where it rots, creating gases which add to global warming, and costs the council over £19 million per year.  Cornwall Council is still debating how much it wants to set as its target for the total amount of waste to be recycled. The national target aims to see half of all rubbish recycled by 2020, but Cornwall might seek to set an example and hit the 50 per cent figure even sooner than other counties.

 It recently asked residents across the county for their views on the future of waste and recycling collections in Cornwall. The results of the seven-week public consultation, which ended on December 31, will soon be made public. More than 1,950 residents responded to tell the council how they want their waste handled when the current contract ends in 2012.

Source: This is Cornwall 

United Mines, which stopped taking landfill in October 2010. Sending rubbish to sites like this is far more expensive than recycling waste.