THE green achievements of a council have been underlined as its leaders approved a strategy to move towards sending no waste to landfill.

Councillor Nick Wallis, Darlington Borough Council’s leisure and local environment boss, said while the authority had made remarkable improvements in dealing with and reducing amounts of waste over the past five years, a refreshed policy would see progress cemented for more than a decade to come.

Ahead of the council’s leading members approving a Tees Valley Joint Waste Management Strategy for 2020 to 2035, he said its objective “to move towards towards zero waste to landfill” would present “a big challenge”.

Cllr Wallis told a meeting of the authority’s Cabinet: “The amount of household waste sent for recycling or composting has risen from 23 to 40 per cent since 2012/13.

“The amount of waste sent to landfill 67 to 20 per cent. The current contract we have has achieved an enormous amount and we look forward to a new contract after 2025 with other Tees Valley authorities bearing even more fruit.”