North Yorkshire County Council could scrap recycling scheme

Charities could suffer as the council considers scrapping the recycling scheme

North Yorkshire County Council has announced proposals to end its recycling reward scheme which could negatively impact organisations, including charities, which collect and sell on unwanted waste items.

The council is considering cutting the scheme as senior councillors argue that it is “not key” to reaching recycling targets and the monetary awards handed out by the council can no longer be justified, as budgetary consequences must be considered.

The council’s recycling scheme allows charities and organisations to collect waste goods, including paper, textiles, toys, etc, and sell them on to raise charitable funds. North Yorkshire County Council rewards the organisations with cash bonuses as they are helping the council reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

According to figures released by North Yorkshire County Council, it has handed out more than £111,000 per year in recent years to charities and organisations as part of the recycling scheme, however, financial considerations “suggests that the scheme can no longer be protected”.

Senior councillors have produced a report which details the reasons for the proposal and why they support the closing of the scheme. The councillors who approve of the proposal have argued that charities and other organisations will continue to collect the saleable waste regardless of council rewards and therefore recycling rates will not be affected.

However, two charities from the area, Essential Needs in Harrogate and Whitby Area Development Trust, have already claimed that the end of the scheme would mean the end of their charitable efforts as they could not survive.

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