COUNCILLORS are planning to unveil a far-reaching dossier aimed at raising the city’s recycling rate to 40 per cent by 2010. The waste management document is set to be released in December. It comes as latest recycling figures show the city council is beating this year’s target of 20 per cent by more than a quarter. There are also plans to expand the ‘blue-box’ recycling scheme for glass, drinks cans and HDPE plastic to cover the city as a whole. It currently serves 21,500 city homes. The city council has said it can only recycle HDPE plastic – used for milk cartons – because it is the only type which can be dealt with in the UK. Other plastics have to be shipped to the Far East and the council has said it does not support that strategy. To enforce and encourage more people to recycle, the council is also planning to recruit three new waste education/ minimisation officers. These officers will be sent to city schools to educate children about the environment and encourage them to implement ideas at home. They will also work with community leaders in launching a series of recycling campaigns. In 2003/04 Coventry recycled just 14 per cent of all domestic waste. This year the city council has now reached a 25 per cent recycling rate for all domestic waste, including schools – more than five per cent above target. Cllr Gary Ridley, the council’s first cabinet member for climate change, is now heading up a report on waste management in Coventry which is due to be published in December. He said: "We are meeting our targets and we want to do more. "We are still sending the least amount of waste to landfill out of all authorities in England – just seven per cent." The majority of Coventry’s waste is diverted to the Whitley Incinerator – which is part owned by Solihull Metropolitan Council – to create heat and energy for city projects. Cllr Ridley told the Coventry Times last week this energy could be used to supply the city’s Swanswell regeneration area. Since 1998 the government has been pushing for poor performing local authorities to increase the amount they recycle. According to the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs, Coventry was one of those authorities. To solve the problem targets were introduced which the authority had to meet and for the past five years Coventry has exceeded those targets – with DEFRA describing it as one of the most improved authorities in the Midlands. How we compare Coventry City Council figures for recycling domestic waste show that it reached around 19 per cent in 2005/06. But how well did we match up to other authorities in our region? Warwickshire 29.9% Solihull 25.3% Nuneaton and Bedworth 25.1% Coventry 18.9% Rugby 18.4% Birmingham 17% Do you live on the city’s greenest street? THE Coventry Times and Coventry City Council have joined forces in a bid to find two city streets that will receive the title of Coventry ‘Eco Streets’. Over the next few weeks we will be searching for two neighbourhoods which believe they are doing the most to help the environment. The lucky winners will get the chance to show us how green they really are and we will profile a day-in-the-life of the eco neighbourhoods. ARE YOU AN ECO STREET? Write to: Richard Ashmore, The Coventry Times, Corporation Street, Coventry, CV1 1FP, or call 02476 500398. Alternatively email: richard_ashmore@mrn.co.uk. | 
