IN England in the 1980s and early 1990s waste of all kinds was being buried. It was becoming difficult to find new holes in the ground away from water courses and where people live. Land raising sites, or waste mountains as they were known, were resorted to but these also met with public protest. Lorries, flies, smells, noise and methane were unwanted neighbours. No tips near us! But the piles of refuse did not diminish. They increased. It was time to re-think.

Roll forward 30 years and the protests now are against the closure of a recycling site. The aim is for zero waste with efforts not to create it in the first place. There are brave initiatives to stop throwing dead fish back in the sea and for supermarkets to supply food banks and to take vegetables such as carrots of all shapes and sizes so that farm produce is not wasted. Paying for plastic bags will hopefully reduce the number that end up in the sea killing the whales that land up on the shore.

Waste is seen as containing resources that can be reused or recycled. Freecycle and eBay play important parts. There are volunteer initiatives such as Cossors shop in Pewsey which provides a wonderful exchange service where surplus household goods can be taken and others can come and buy. Charity shops fulfil several needs, particularly with clothes.

The Repair Academy at Calne has been set up as a joint venture between the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, Hills Waste Solutions, Wiltshire Council, Wiltshire and Swindon Colleges (these help with apprenticeships so people can be trained to repair and refurbish furniture and electrical goods collected at the recycling centres), and Kennet Furniture Refurbiz and Waste Not Want Not (these help to distribute the repaired goods at low cost to those who cannot afford new ones).

Wood, compost and some waste to energy are processed in Wiltshire and other waste streams such as plastics, cardboard, metals, batteries are sorted and sent to re-processors in England.

Since the EU set a cost for dumping waste to landfill it has risen to £80 a tonne and as a result, a major concern for the authorities is to avoid dumping. Incineration takes large amounts of waste, but what is the cost in pollution terms of taking it all the way from Wiltshire to Slough by lorry? The newer mechanical biological treatment plant at Westbury is local and the process ends with a product that can be used as fuel.

With the increasing pressure for cuts, there was a proposal in the autumn to close the recycling site at Everleigh where there has been a tip for many years. Pewsey and Tidworth areas, led by the parish councils, rose up in protest. People were worried that it would result in fly-tipping. There was concern about longer journeys by car to other sites where there are already traffic queues. Why close an established site when the army re-basing will bring an increase in population?

A survey was done, asking, among other things whether people would agree to half the money saved by closing Everleigh going to help other sites stay open for longer. It turns out that this would mean only some £67,000 a year being saved, and less than that because of closure costs, so it begs the question of whether it would be worth closing the one site that serves a wide rural community?

The message about closure was spread through the internet. Four days before Christmas there was a packed meeting at Tidworth. A resolution was passed to keep the Everleigh site open for two days a week. When the council came to monitor the site there was a huge turnout from the public. In January, the Cabinet resolved to keep it open until April 2017.

What is the future for Everleigh? Where there is an established recycling site, the message seems to be “Don’t lose it. Update it and make it pay.” Reducing, re-using and recycling waste has long been the focus of Wiltshire Council’s municipal waste management strategy. Recently, national headlines have been about a fly-tipping epidemic saying: “Britain is being blighted by a sudden surge in fly-tipping. And the cause? Penny pinching councils making it so complicated and expensive to get rid of our rubbish.”

Can the Everleigh site be updated in order to make if cost-effective? Should the drive for efficiency be the watchword?