Road sweepings collected in the county will now be processed and recycled in Kent.
Kent County Council’s waste management team has awarded a contract to Thanet Waste Services Ltd to process and recycle waste that ends up on our streets and pavements.
The waste will be treated at a site near Sandwich with 99% of the material collected by sweepers either being reused or recovered for recycling.
Of the 10,000 tonnes of waste collected from the streets each year:
- 60% is recovered aggregate, which are all used locally creating a ‘circular economy’ – waste in Kent, stays in Kent
- 38% is filter cake, used in the restoration process of landfill sites
- 2% is plastic and metals, which are recovered and sent for recycling
Tony Hills
Cabinet Member for the Environment & Waste, Tony Hills said “This is great news which demonstrates a further step in the delivery of the strategic ambition to reprocess the waste collected in the County.
“Not only does this support local business and provide local employment, but it also makes great environmental and commercial sense to not haul materials outside of Kent.”
Kent County Council continues to maximise recycling of all its municipal waste, with landfill at the lowest it can be, just marine carcasses and asbestos have to be treated by landfill which is currently just 0.12% of all collected waste.