Reducing our impact on the environment through our services
Like many councils we’ve invested in providing recycling options for our residents. We collect recyclable waste from the 118,000 homes in our area. We also have 100 bottle banks and four modern tidy tips that accept a wide range of items for recycling, including one that accepts trade waste.
We also plan to give residents even more recycling services in the future, such as food collection for all and have extended the 240l garden waste bin scheme to every householder.
We also encouraging people to re-use things through our re-use shop at Thorn Turn Waste recycling Centre, and through our recycled bikes scheme.
We also encouraging people to use other, more environmentally friendly forms of transport through walk to school campaigns, by installing cycle racks in town centres, and by subsiding public buses and providing the Luton-Dunstable Busway.
We also encourage the use of electric vehicles by requiring electric vehicles points being installed in new shopping retail parks and in public car parks, and new housing developments.
Around 23 per cent of our streetlights are now LED, which require roughly one-fifth of the power for ordinary streetlights. From now on we will only install ‘future-proofed’ streetlights which take into account light levels rather than relying on timers and can be easily retrofitted with electric vehicle charging points. The first will be installed on Dunstable High Street as part of our regeneration work there.