“IT is about encouraging people to look at the amount of waste they produce and think about how they dispose of it.”

As national Zero Waste Week kicks off, Councillor Imran Khan, Bradford Council’s executive member for environment, sport and sustainability, outlines a district-wide drive to cut the amount households throw away.

Cutting down on general household waste that is sent to landfill not only helps in our global fight against climate change, but can save costs locally at a time when Council finances are stretched.

Every tonne of waste that Bradford Council puts into landfill - from households’ green bins - costs taxpayers £83. Environmentally, it creates between 200 to 400 cubic metres of greenhouse gas.

“It is in everyone’s interests to produce as little waste as possible,” says Coun Khan, “If together everyone does their bit to reduce waste, and reuse and recycle more, we can save money. We won’t have to collect people’s waste as often and we won’t have to pay to put as much of it into landfill. ”

Government funding for Bradford Council services has been cut by £165million in the past few years and the reductions are set to continue. Since 2011, due to spending cuts, the Council has to find savings of £170million. Increasing demand and rising costs mean further, higher cuts in the future - over the next five years the money available for Council services that is under the authority’s direct control is forecast to fall by more than 25 per cent.

To try and lessen the impact of such dramatic cuts, the Council is looking at a new way forward - a ‘new deal’, involving its partners, communities, business and the voluntary sector.

Every year, each household in the Bradford district currently produces an average of around 450kg of general household waste. That equates to 453 tonnes, which costs around £85 per tonne to dispose of.

“Some will produce more and some will produce less,” says Coun Khan. “The average is a high amount and linked to this is the cost of collecting and disposing of it, and its impact upon the environment.”

Currently the authority recycles 51.6 per cent of the district’s waste. “We aim to increase that figure by another ten or 20 per cent over the next two years, which would bring savings of around £1million,” says Coun Khan.

One of the difficulties is that people place rubbish that can easily be recycled, in particular paper and card, into their general waste bin.

With the aim of saving money while helping to protect the environment, Zero Waste Week - which runs until13 September - is in its eight year. The theme for 2015 is ‘reuse’ - stop wasting money by saving resources.

“The grey bins, for recycling, make money for us - around £40 per tonne,” says Coun Khan. “At present, contractors paid to dispose of waste pick out the recyclables and make money for themselves.”

To tackle this, the Council is taking steps to remind and educate people as to how they can reduce the amount of rubbish they produce, how they can recycle and reuse, and what the benefits are both for themselves and the wider community.

Measures will include leafleting, knocking on doors to chat to people face to face, and placing special stickers on bins. “We are not going around with a stick, expecting people to do this straight away - we realise that it will be a gradual thing," says Coun Khan.

He stresses, however, that “There will come a time when we will stop taking additional rubbish that is not contained within the bin. The majority of people have recycling facilities, but some areas have lower rates of recycling than others.”

One idea being trialled is to place community recycling facilities in places where rates are low and to provide those communities with a share of the income from recycling to spend in the local area.

The drive to cut waste extends to rubbish thrown down in the street. Bradford Council spends £4.2million every year cleaning the streets, picking up litter, clearing fly tips and dealing with dog fouling.

“About 80 per cent of us never drop litter,” says Coun Khan, “We all have a part to play in keeping streets and public spaces clean but the main responsibility lies with the people who use them.”

“It is about making sure that people take a little more responsibility for their actions. If we reuse and recycle more we can save money, help the environment and create a better place to live now and for our children and grandchildren.”