PEOPLE in Huddersfield are doing their bit to cut waste.

Nearly 34% less waste has been sent to landfill sites in Yorkshire and Humberside compared to 2001, a new report from the Environment Agency reveals.

And the efforts of councils including Kirklees have been praised for their campaigns to promote recycling.

Environment Agency area manager Phil Younge said: “In 2001 Yorkshire and Humberside sent over 10m tonnes of waste to landfill, but by 2006 that figure had been reduced to less than 7m.

“During the same period, the amount of waste being treatment or recovery increased from just over 2m tonnes to 4.6m tonnes.

“Landfill should be the last resort for waste that we can’t recover or recycle, as it is not sustainable to keep sending it to landfill.

“Also, landfilling waste is set to become more expensive as the landfill tax goes up and waste has to travel greater distances for disposal as the number of sites is reduced.

“So while we are heading in the right direction to reduce our dependency on landfill by recycling more of our waste we still need to avoid producing so much waste in the first place.”

Kirklees is expanding a new programme of waste collection. Thousands of households are being urged to use green wheeled bins for recylable materials and also to use glass collection boxes.

Other key findings for Yorkshire and Humberside in the Waste Data Update report for 2006 are:

The county is sending less waste to landfill year on year; the amount of waste going to landfill fell 14% between 2005 and 2006 to 6.79m tonnes.

More waste is being recovered and re-used. The amount of waste being treated or recovered went up by 23% between 2005 and 2006, including an increase in industrial composting of over 300% from 40,000 tonnes to 129,000 tonnes.

Available landfill capacity remains high compared to other regions. At the end of 2006 Yorkshire and Humberside had ample landfill capacity, with over 11 years landfill life left across the region.

Mr Younge added: “These are projections and do not necessarily mean that we will physically run out of landfill space in the next few years.

“But it highlights the urgency that still exists to reduce waste production, promote waste recovery and develop new infrastructure to support this.”