In this season of wrapping and unwrapping, when every gadget bought online comes in a cardboard box and almost every piece of fish comes in a plastic tray, it may not be surprising that Britain is getting worse, not better, at recycling. That does not make it acceptable. Slipping backwards on recycling is expensive, dirty, dismaying and avoidable.
Last year, for the first time since comparable statistics were introduced, Britons recycled less of their household waste than the year before: 44.3 per cent compared with 44.9 per cent. Improvements over the previous four years were steady and impressive, but they started from a low base by European standards.
Recycling cannot be allowed to plateau at its present level, which equates to nearly 12 million tonnes of waste recycled out of 26.6 million tonnes produced. That is a long way off a target of 50 per cent by 2020 and even further behind Europe’s best recyclers in Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Britain sends significantly less waste to landfill than a decade ago, but the total of 15 million tonnes last year is still unsustainable. Landfill wastes land, pollutes soil, air and water and leaches toxic methane into the atmosphere. It also accounts for a large share of the estimated £3 billion the country’s hard-pressed councils spend each year collecting and sorting waste.
The reasons for the stalled progress on recycling are not complicated. Householders are cutting corners in the kitchen. Councils are getting better at spotting “contaminated” rubbish at waste-processing plants. Whole lorry loads are being rejected for a single poorly sorted bag. In addition, the national recycling map is an absurd patchwork of more than 300 often incompatible systems.
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Within that patchwork some municipalities are recycling as successfully as anywhere in Europe. South Oxfordshire, recycling 66.6 per cent of its household waste, is England’s top performer. The whole of Wales is doing nearly as well. The rest of the country should be learning from them. Instead, many councils are close to giving up and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is letting them.
The South Oxfordshire system has four main features, some but not all of which may be familiar elsewhere. All its bins are wheeled, making them quick to move from curb to lorry. Those intended for recycling are bigger than those for “residual” rubbish, a differential proven to nudge householders into more careful sorting. Both bins are collected every two weeks while a separate, weekly, food waste collection ensures the other two are not tainted with rotting perishables.
The systems in Wales are more harmonised than those in England and its tonnage of recycled waste rose sharply last year when a giant incinerator capable of turning 350,000 tonnes of rubbish a year into energy went into operation in Cardiff.
Waste collection has long been the preserve of local government. Even so, Defra should be ensuring that what works in the best-performing councils is introduced everywhere. In 2014 less than 1 per cent of all waste was turned into energy. Britain needs more incinerators like Cardiff’s. England in particular needs more harmonisation between councils. As things stand, while South Oxfordshire recycles as much as Germany, many councils recycle 30 per cent of household waste or less. The worst offenders should expect fines, as they would for illegal parking.
David Cameron once set out to make Britain the most civilised country on earth. That remains a worthy goal, and solid, practical endeavours such as limiting the detritus we leave behind are part of civilisation. In the newspaper industry we try to practise what we preach. If you are reading this on paper, it is recycled and recyclable. That should be the rule, not the exception.