ASHINGTON SAYS NO TO LITTER BUGS
The town of Ashington is calling on all residents to show their love for their community by reducing waste, reusing items, and recycling properly.
Recent figures show fly-tipping is on the rise, with a whopping 115 tonnes of illegally dumped rubbish spread over nearly 2,000 incidents in the last financial year ☹️ Not to mention an astounding 326 tonnes of general litter in public bins and found littering our streets, despite the tireless efforts of volunteers and the NCC Local Services Team who litter pick. It's hard to imagine that amount of rubbish - we hope our infographic below helps.
Fly-tipping and litter is a huge issue in our town, it is a drain on resources, and is setting a terrible example for young people. It has cost over £45k in disposal costs for fly-tipped and littered waste this past year - on top of the £250k Ashington Town Council pays annually for these additional services, and that's only part of the costs.
"This fly-tipping and litter is harming our beautiful town and the environment we all share," said Chair of the Climate Change and Environment Committee, Cllr Sophie Robinson. "While we're grateful to the volunteers and NCC Local Services Team for collecting 326 tonnes of litter, some we appreciate is correctly disposed of in litter bins, that is still a huge amount of waste."
“We want Ashington to be a community our kids can be proud of and continue calling home for years to come,” said Council Leader, Cllr John Tully. “The Council supports the Great British Spring Clean, we support volunteer litter pickers, we have a poster competition on the go in Primary Schools at the moment, and we feel as if we are doing everything we can. ‘Keeping the town’s streets and estates clean and litter-free’, and ‘Improving the environment and providing a safe and pleasant place to live’ are two of the Council’s priorities, there has to be more that can be done to change behaviour."
The Council urges everyone to:
♻️ Recycle where they can. (see image about recycling in Northumberland, or click here for more information.
Reuse and repurpose items when possible.
⬇️ Reduce waste by choosing products with less packaging.
✋ Never fly-tip - use proper waste disposal services at the recycling centre. Click here for more information.
The Council is asking our 28,000+ residents to join us and take the #LoveWhereYouLive pledge. Small changes add up to make a huge difference for our community and our planet, and it would be great to see the amount of fly-tipping and litter reduced dramatically going forward.
If you have ideas for inspiring better recycling and reduction habits, or stamping out fly-tipping, please let us know. Let's make Ashington cleaner and greener for future generations. Let's all do our part to make Ashington a litter-free, sustainable town we can be proud of!
