Member Article

Dalby Forest given zero waste to landfill commitment by local waste company

A new partnership between Yorwaste and Dalby Forest is ensuring that none of the waste generated by the almost half a million visitors to the popular North Yorkshire tourist destination will end up in landfill.

As part of a new waste management service being provided by Yorwaste, all of the waste collected from Dalby Forest is either being recycled or transformed into green electricity.

The material is collected twice a week by Yorwaste and taken only 40 miles away to the state-of-the-art Allerton Waste Recovery Park, near York.

Here, the waste is sorted, with all recyclables being removed. Glass is then sent to be recycled back into glass or used as an aggregate in road building, steel and aluminium cans are recycled back into new cans, food waste is sent to a biomass facility where it is turned into renewable energy and plastic is sent for reprocessing into a variety of new plastic products.

Any remaining waste then undergoes energy from waste treatment which ultimately provides electricity which is fed back into the National Grid. Enough energy is created to power 40,000 homes, equivalent to the size of a town like Harrogate.

The five 360-litre bins at Dalby Forest are enclosed by a wooden bin store close to the visitor centre/entrance. Yorwaste has supplied posters under each one which let visitors know that this is where they should deposit their general waste. The posters also show an icon of a bin with a plug socket and a lightbulb about to be plugged into the socket with the strapline ‘Powering Yorkshire’, so people are aware of what happens to the waste.

In addition, Yorwaste has supplied Dalby Forest with an infographic video which will shortly run on a screen in the visitor centre café. Entitled ‘Recycling on the Go’, the video details how people can reduce, reuse and recycle their waste when they are away from home and work.

This complements Dalby Forest’s existing ‘Don’t be a Rubbish Visitor’ campaign which encourages visitors to take their waste home with them.

Alison Leyshon, Forest Centre Operation Manager at Dalby Forest, said: “Following customer feedback, we identified issues regarding how we managed our waste and worked closely with Yorwaste to find a solution which meets the needs and expectations of our customers.”

Liz Thompson, Yorwaste Business Development Director, said: “We’re delighted that Dalby Forest has chosen to work with a local waste provider like Yorwaste.

“As well as ensuring that none of their waste goes to landfill, we can guarantee to keep their carbon footprint to an absolute minimum through our unrivalled network of local waste processing facilities.

“Dalby Forest shares our commitment to protecting the environment and ensuring North Yorkshire remains a beautiful place in which to live and work.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Neil Shaefer .