A NEW partnership is ensuring that none of the waste generated by the almost half a million visitors to Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire will end up in landfill.

As part of a new waste management service being provided by Yorwaste, all of the rubbish collected from the forest is now either being recycled or transformed into green electricity.

The material is collected twice a week by Yorwaste and taken 40 miles away to the Allerton Waste Recovery Park, near York.

Glass is then sent to be recycled back into glass or used as an aggregate in road building, drinks cans are recycled back into new cans and food waste is sent to a biomass facility where it is turned into renewable energy.

Plastic is sent for reprocessing into a variety of new plastic products.

Any remaining waste then undergoes treatment which ultimately provides electricity to be fed back into the National Grid.

Enough energy is created to power 40,000 homes, equivalent to the size of a town like Harrogate.

Alison Leyshon, forest centre operation manager at Dalby Forest, said: “Following customer feedback, we identified issues regarding how we managed our waste and worked closely with Yorwaste to find a solution which meets the needs and expectations of our customers.”

Liz Thompson of Yorwaste said: “Dalby Forest shares our commitment to protecting the environment and ensuring North Yorkshire remains a beautiful place in which to live and work.”