Some of the litter and rubbish collected during this year's Spring Clean in Peterborough is being used to provide fuel for a cement manufacturer to use in its kilns.

During the six week clean-up, Peterborough City Council's hit squads removed just over 86 tonnes of rubbish and litter from the streets of Peterborough. Of this six tonnes of metal and 15 tonnes of wood have been separated and sent for recycling - the first time Spring Clean material has been recycled - and 26 tonnes of waste sent to be turned into fuel.

Cleansing teams also removed 4,091 graffiti tags from 585 locations during the campaign, as well as 350 discarded needles, 34 abandoned shopping trolleys and ten abandoned and un-taxed vehicles.

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This year's clean-up was even more successful than last year when the teams removed almost 61 tonnes of combined litter and rubbish, cleared 1,444 items of graffiti and seized more than a dozen untaxed vehicles.

Mark Horsley, the city council's Senior Street Scene Officer, said: "We are really pleased with the results of this year's Spring Clean especially as our hard-working teams improved on last year's results.

"This is the first time that any of the waste collected during Spring Clean has been separated and sent for recycling and it's great to think that this material will be made into new metal and wood products.

"It's also the first time that waste collected by the campaign will be used to produce refuse derived fuel. We are working with a cement manufacturer who will use the fuel to power their kilns, after a successful trial scheme last year."

(CD/BMcC)