Recycle Envelopes in Blue Boxes

27 June 2011

South Lakeland District Council is pleased to advise residents they are now able to recycle envelopes, including window envelopes by placing them in the blue paper box.  However, SLDC strongly recommends that any name and address details be removed before recycling. 

Households in South Lakeland already recycle and compost over 43% of the waste generated in the district, and by adding envelopes to the range of materials that can be recycled will reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

The council has also made it easier to recycle paper and cardboard at the recycling banks, as they will now accept a mix of paper and card in the banks and the council’s contractors will do the sorting later.  

This has increased the number of recycling centres where it is possible to recycle card with the paper banks now able to take cardboard as well.  Rural areas such as Dent now have an extra service, as previously there was only a paper bank and the council was not able to provide cardboard recycling. 

SLDC has also removed the need to separate different colours in the glass recycling banks, which means they are now emptied when the entire bank is full.  This has helped to reduce the number of journeys needed to empty the banks, reducing the number of vehicles on the road and cutting the council’s carbon footprint.

Councillor Clare Feeney-Johnson, portfolio holder for Environment and Sustainability, said: “In South Lakeland, residents recycle over five and a half thousand tonnes of paper and cardboard every year, which works out at around two kilos a week for every household.  I would like to say thank you to everyone for their efforts to recycle.  The more waste we can divert from landfill the better and lets work together and aim towards a recycling rate of 50%.”