Wastesavers began life in 1986 as an environmental, interest group promoting the importance of reuse and recycling. In the mid 90’s it became more proactive and began picking up old newspapers from peoples doorsteps for recycling, and hand sorting these at the local paper mill. In 1995 Wastesavers collected and recycled 22 tonnes of paper. Today Wastesavers recycles more than 15,000 tonnes of material a year and can’t imagine hand sorting the 5000 tonnes of paper it collects! That’s more than 85,000 trees per year! Progress has certainly been made in Newport with residents now receiving a weekly kerbside recycling collection of not just paper, but cans, plastics, glass, textiles, mobile phones and toner cartridges as well food waste and small electrical items.
swestberry on 09 Dec 15Georgia Tech is researching an additive to plastics that speed up the break down process and allow a plastic bottle to biodegrade in 5-10 years in an landfill.
