Commercial Waste Management Skipton

Skipton is a market town in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to the south of the Yorkshire Dales, 27 miles (43 km) north-west of Leeds, and 38 miles (61 km) west of York. At the 2011 Census, the population was 14,623. Known as a gateway to the magnificent Yorkshire Dales, people travel from all over the country to visit this charming town, with its famous 900-year-old castle, romantic ruined priory and historic cobbled High Street.

Many of the town’s attractions are linked by the Millennium Walk route, making it easy to navigate around. Take a short stroll along the Springs Branch canal which runs beneath the castle ramparts into Skipton Woods, watch the world go by as you relax on a Leeds-Liverpool canal cruiser or you could even take the helm yourself. If you want to venture further afield, take a steam locomotive from nearby Embsay station, or visit the wonderful and historic Bolton Abbey.

Skipton is home to a number of community-led groups and venues which provide the opportunity for locals to create something together. A relatively recent addition to the town is the Skipton Community Orchestra. The group of 30 amateur musicians meet on a fortnightly basis to play together, and can often be seen performing at local public events. Skipton in Bloom is another community-led initiative aimed at boosting local pride and making this already picturesque town that extra bit more attractive. Prizes are awarded for categories such as ‘Best Back Garden’ and the judging committee even take a look in at the two sets of allotments in the town. Other community groups open to new members include The Three Links Club, Skipton Working Mens Club and Soroptimist International Skipton.

Craven District Council manages the household waste collections for Skipton and has its headquarters in the town centre. The population for the entire region, including Airedale, Wharfdale and Ribblesdale, was last estimated to be over 55,000. Recycling, composting and reusing rates in the region steadily improved from 2007 to 2012, rising from 31.4% to 43.4%. After plateauing at this level for the next 6 years, however, this number dipped to 37.7% in the records dated 2018/19. This recent figure is nearly 5 percent below the national average and is a 5% drop from the previous year. Such changes in statistics might not necessarily suggest a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the local population, however. Over 6,000 people from Skipton have signed up to an online free-cycling program, where users are encouraged to offer items that they no longer need to the general population. In the space of 12 months (from April 2019-April 2020) 6.2 tonnes of goods were saved from landfill, saving 3.2 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

The town is also home to a popular eco-shop that sells environmentally friendly cleaning goods and foodstuffs. Steep and Filter is Skipton’s only Vegan and Vegetarian cafe and made the news in October 2019 when it decided to expand the range of eco-friendly goods that it sold on the side. The shop owners had noticed an increased interest in such items as chemical-free cleaners and had also become a popular meeting place for local environmental groups such as Plastic Free Skipton and Extinction Rebellion. The shop strongly encourages customers to bring their own containers to fill up on essentials, instead of buying products that are wrapped in plastic already.