A plea has been issued for Shropshire Council to draw up plans to cut the amount of household waste produced in the county by a quarter within the next four years.

An Oswestry councillor has tabled a motion to go before councillors this week that says that while Shropshire has a higher than average recycling rate, too much general rubbish is still being created.

The motion, being put forward by Oswestry South’s Green Party councillor Duncan Kerr, calls for the council to commit to reducing this by 25 per cent by 2025 and publish a strategy by the end of the year setting out how this will be achieved.

Cllr Kerr said the move would bring Shropshire in line with comparable areas of the country.

Figures from Let’s Recycle for 2019/20 show Shropshire Council ranked 43rd out of 341 authorities in England for recycling, with a rate of 54.6 per cent.

But the total amount of waste produced per person was 489.9 kilograms – one of the highest figures of any local authority area. This includes recycling and general rubbish collections.

A 25 per cent reduction in waste would take the total produced per person each year down to 367kg, just below the England average of 373kg.

Cllr Kerr said the strategy would complement other initiatives to further improve recycling rates, such as the council’s plans to replace recycling boxes with wheelie bins.

The motion goes on to say that while some of the measures to cut waste might have “resource implications”, there are potential savings which “will more than off-set any upfront costs”.

Cllr Kerr said: “I think the facts speak for themselves.

“We do well at recycling but this is undermined by the enormous amount of waste we collect in total – waste that has to then be transported and processed, all of which has environmental and economic consequences.

“The council had a waste minimisation strategy in 2010, but failed to follow it through.

“It contained measures such as setting up banks for the recycling of tetra packs and crisps packets which can’t go into the house to house collection scheme alongside campaigns to ‘slim your bin’ and maybe even providing a smaller bin for household waste as if we are recycling so well we shouldn’t need such a large container.

“The council can also lobby government and lead by example in to getting reductions in packaging and encourage zero waste shops that help residents re-use containers.

“My motion simply calls for us to get to the average situation by 2025, by talking to councils who are leaders in the field of waste minimisation I’m sure the council would have no difficulty putting together a strategy that would save both carbon emission and money. What’s not to like about that?”

The motion will be voted on at a meeting of the full council to be held at Theatre Severn on Thursday.