recycling on trend for new year despite council 'battle of the bins'

Recycling and waste management specialist advocate public engagement over recycling schemes rather than misguided U-turn to weekly council collection schedules.

Latest Government figures show that fortnightly refuse collections, a policy criticised as ‘lazy’ by the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, increase recycling habits. Analysis of official figures* from the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) show that in the past two years, nine of the ten councils with the biggest improvements in recycling pick up non-recyclable waste fortnightly.

The recycling and waste management specialist Printwaste Recycling & Shredding based in Cheltenham have commented that the UK is still way behind the EU in recycling and that the current battle on the bins over weekly versus fortnightly collections is confusing the vital message of good recycling habits for domestic and business scheme adopters.

Managing Director Don Robins says, “In the UK the target is to recycle 50% of all waste from households by 2020. The DEFRA report highlights the fact that in 2011/12 43% of household waste is recycled in England. It also confirms the UK Government is leading by example having achieved their 2014/15 targets for Green Commitments by achieving reductions in levels of carbon, water and waste. This is commendable but by comparison with some members of the EU we are way behind. The potential for almost zero waste and the drive to recycle more has been proved to be possible by countries such as The Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Belgium. Whilst only broad comparisons can be made due to different types of waste management in all of these countries, the DEFRA report lists less than 5% municipal waste going to landfill.”

“Looking at our European neighbours, the UK has the potential to improve recycling rates by a long way. These facts suggest that Eric Pickles is missing an opportunity. Engaging the public positively  regarding waste and recycling requires a straight forward message which is not confused by a general rule on how often collections should be made. Collection schedules are a logistics issue and in this age need to be adaptable to suit the individual council or business requirement. Increasing recycling rates can be seen by many councils to reduce cost. Achieving these goals require education and publicity to engage the will of the public. The £250 million fund would have been better spent on education rather than confusing the message to the councils by imploring them to go back to weekly collections.”

“There will naturally be densely populated areas of districts where weekly collections are required. But if we want to achieve 50% recycling where individual family homes have the space for their own bins then we need to provide 50% of the bin space for recycling materials and when provided, alterative weekly collections are being seen to work.  In many areas the combination of these factors is contributing to the issue of overflowing general waste bins. The UK Government needs to follow its own example and having digested the DEFRA report, take another look at the why they are advocating a return to weekly collections. “