Non-recyclable materials being placed in the recycling bin
contributed to more than half a million tonnes of household
recycling being rejected at the point of sorting in 2019/20, the
Local Government Association reveals today.
The LGA said councils and households are working together to
increase recycling rates, with plastic packaging collected by
councils doubling over the past decade. However, packaging
manufacturers are still not doing enough to stop producing
non-recyclable packaging or contributing to the ever-growing
costs of disposal.
Latest figures show 525,000 tonnes of household recycling
collected was rejected at the point of sorting in 2019/20.
Each tonne of waste collected from a household recycling bin that
can’t be recycled attracts an extra cost of around £93 to dispose
of through an energy from waste facility. This equates to over
£48 million per year in additional costs.
The LGA, which represents councils in England and Wales, is
calling for manufacturers of non-recyclable packaging to front
the costs associated with this sorting and disposal.
Cllr David Renard, Environment spokesperson for the LGA, said:
“Households have made a real shift over the past decade to ensure
they are recycling as much as possible and councils work hard to
share information on what can and can’t be recycled.
“However, the manufacturers of plastic packaging products are
still continuing to create and sell packaging that cannot be
recycled and will be put in the recycling bin by people in good
faith. The burden then falls on councils to not only collect it
and dispose of it, but to pay the extra cost of disposing of it.
“At a time when councils are working towards achieving net zero,
they are doing so with one hand tied behind their back courtesy
of manufacturers who are littering our communities with plastic
they know cannot be disposed of sustainably.
“We will be working with government and the waste industry as
part of the Environment Bill to ensure this issue is addressed
and to understand the impact of the ban on exports of plastic
waste to non-OECD countries. While exporting our waste was never
a suitable solution, the sudden additional responsibility and
cost for councils is clearly a concern.”
Case studies
- Oxford City Council’s latest figures show that the annual
weight of recycling collected has increased over the last three
years and is now at an all-time high, despite the COVID-19
pandemic. The recycling rate for 2020/21 is 53.02 per cent, but
6.5 per cent of recycled material collected since April 2020
was rejected due to contamination. The council is calling on
residents to check their website to ensure non-recyclable
materials aren’t placed in the recycling bin.
- City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council has reported a
15 per
cent rise in recycling contamination in some areas during
the pandemic. A report shows that the additional costs for
collecting and processing this waste in comparison to pre-covid
levels is around £208,000 per month. This sharp rise in
contamination has resulted in an extra £800k forecasted
cost.
- Broxbourne Council is reminding residents of plastic
packaging that cannot be recycled in a bid to curb a
significant increase in contaminated recycling material in
both kerbside recycling boxes and bins at recycling points.
- Three Rivers District Council is the highest
performing local authority in England when it comes to
household recycling. It achieved a 64.1 per cent rate for the
amount of waste recycled, composted or reused in 2019/20.
Notes to editors
- 525,000 tonnes of household recycling collected was rejected
at the point of sorting in 2019/20 according to Local
Authority Collected Waste Management
- WRAP’s UK
Plastics Pact Annual Report 2019/20 shows that some
progress is being made against four targets set, but
significant challenges still remain. It shows that 36 per cent
of plastic packaging placed on the market at the time was
non-recyclable. Despite a commitment from the members of the UK
Plastics Pact to eliminate the use of plastic cutlery, straws
and polystyrene, 20 per cent of the remaining plastic packaging
on the market is not recyclable.
- The UK
Plastics Pact is a collaboration, bringing together
businesses from across the plastics value chain to generate a
fundamental change in the way plastics are designed, used,
re-used, disposed of and reprocessed.
- The cost per tonne of sorting collected recycling through a
Material Recovery Facility is around £45, and the cost of
disposing of a tonne of waste in an energy from waste plant is
around £93 as per WRAP’s
latest gate fee report. The exact amount will vary slightly
depending on the individual contracts.
- In 2019/20, councils in England achieved their highest
combined recycling rate of 45.5 per cent by weight, despite
containers such as glass and plastic bottles, jars, plastic tubs
and trays getting
lighter, and newspapers and magazines reducing in favour of
digital media.
