More recycling on the way as Sheffield tackles climate emergency
Sheffield residents should be able to recycle more plastic, aluminium foil and aerosols in their bins in a year’s time, as part of changes to help tackle climate change.
Sheffield City Council is working with its waste management contractor Veolia to expand what can be included in home recycling collections. This will include plastic pots, tubs and trays, cartons, aluminium foil and aerosols by April 2026, in line with new legal requirements.
Other changes could include increasing the amount of paper and card that is collected, said a report to the council’s waste and street scene policy committee on Friday (April 4). The update to the committee’s climate change policy said that the proposals will be discussed later this year.
The committee is also reviewing the use of lower-carbon vehicles and is looking at how to support community groups who want to run community composting schemes. A food waste composting scheme was trialled by the council but the project had to be put on hold because it would have to pay extra to Veolia to run it.
Work is also underway on expanding low-carbon heating schemes.
All council committees have to come up with actions to address the climate crisis and contribute to ambitions for the council and city to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030. The report acknowledges that reaching this goal will be “very challenging”.
It adds: “The vast majority of the action that is required to tackle climate change will have benefits beyond reducing carbon emissions and so the content of the statements also draw attention to the socio-economic, health and wellbeing and other benefits to taking action on climate change.”