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New plan to boost recycling rates would see all councils able to collect most dry materials in just one bin and mix garden and food waste together
Plans to simplify and better standardise waste and recycling collections have been unveiled by the government today, in a bid to help boost flat-lining recycling rates by "ending the confusing patchwork of different approaches across England".
The government said the new "common-sense approach" would see the same materials collected from homes, workplaces, and schools across the country, enabling councils to collect plastic, metal, glass, paper, and card in just one bin "in all circumstances".
Similarly, food and garden waste will also be allowed to be collected in the same bin, while councils will also be required to collect black bag waste at least weekly and food waste at least fortnightly.
UK household recycling rates have barely improved for more than a decade, and continue to hover around the 45 per cent mark. Prior to Brexit, the UK had signed up to a legally binding EU target to achieve a 50 per cent recycling rate by 2020 - a goal which remains far from being met.
However, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the new Simpler Recycling Regulations would help to reduce confusion over what items can be recycling, and curb the number of bins required on streets on collection days, as people will no longer have to check what materials their specific council accepts for recycling and which boxes and bins materials should be sorted into.
The government said the new rules would also reduce complexity for councils and other private waste collectors, while ensuring they retain the flexibility to collect recyclable waste in the most appropriate way for their local areas.
"We all want to do our bit to increase recycling and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill - but a patchwork of different bin collections across England means it can be hard to know what your council will accept," said Recycling Minister Robbie Moore. "Our plans for Simpler Recycling will end that confusion: ensuring that the same set of materials will be collected regardless of where you live."
In addition, the government has today announced plans to establish a "minimum backstop" ensuring councils are expected to collect black bin waste at least fortnightly and collect food waste at least weekly. It said it would also encourage councils to collect waste and recycling even more frequently "to prevent smelly waste from building up outside homes".
Defra said the aim was to stop the "trend" towards waste being collected every three or four weeks in parts of the UK outside England, as a number of cash-strapped councils have sought to cut costs and encourage less wasteful household behaviours by collecting waste less frequently.
The so-called Simpler Recycling regulations are set to apply to all homes in England, including flats. Similar measures will apply to non-household municipal premises, including businesses, hospitals, schools, and universities, according to Defra.
The list of premises covered by the nbew requirements has been expanded to also include places of worship, penal institutes, charity shops, hostels, and public meeting places, it said.
There has long been agreement across the UK's waste and recycling sector that the patchwork of different approaches to household waste and recycling collections whereby different materials are either collected separately and at different frequencies in different council areas has added to confusion among householders and hampered efforts to ramp up recycling rates.
In response, the government has been considering how best to simplify recycling collections nationwide for more than a decade.
However, there have been widespread disagreements across the sector as to the most optimal way that waste and recycling should be separated and collected. While simplifying collections into fewer bins can encourage high levels of material intake, there remain concerns that mixing all recycling materials together in one or two boxes - paper, plastic and glass, for example - can drive up costs and lead to contamination that makes it harder for recycling companies to reprocess materials for secondary use.
Moreover, many councils have their own individual geographic differences that has made it difficult to develop a standardised approach. For example, rural authorities collect more garden waste, for example, while urban areas with higher numbers of flats have less space for keeping multiple bins on streets.
Further complicating matters is the fact most councils have their own individual contracts of varying lengths with different waste and recycling companies to collect and reprocess material collected from households, making it difficult to impose a nationwide, top-down collection framework.
All of these challenges have been compounded by steep funding cuts for local authorities over the past decade, which has forced many councils to reduce the number of bin collections.
However, Paul Vanston, CEO of the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (INCPEN), welcomed the latest plan to try and simplify and standardise waste and recycling collections nationwide.
"Householders can take this government announcement as a pledge that, wherever we live across the nation, our local councils will all speedily implement recycling collections of the full range of materials that will match on-pack recycling labels citizens rely on for guidance," he said.
"Those paying the very substantial costs for councils' local packaging recycling services - especially citizens, brands and retailers - can rightly set high benchmarks of great customer service, superb packaging recycling performance and demonstrable value-for-money being achieved everywhere."
But while the government is set to require councils to collect waste and recycling more frequently, today's announcement makes no mention of any additional funding to enable weekly and fortnightly collections.
Lee Marshall, director of innovation and technical services, at the Chartered Institute for Waste Management (CIWM) welcomed the plans to simplify collections, but questioned the cost implications of mandating the number of collections they have to provide. He also urged the government to provide more clarity on when the new rules will be finalised.
"Any progress on Simpler Recycling is welcome, and so another step forward is important," he said. "We hope that the relevant statutory instrument gets the Parliamentary time it needs so we can maintain momentum. Ideally, though, we need the detail of the statutory guidance for local authorities to have the clarity they require to help them in planning and implementing the changes that are needed.
"The stance on restricting options of residual frequency is, however, baffling given the overwhelming evidence that exists about how restricting residual reduces costs and increases recycling. That is a point of contention and a missed opportunity to give local authorities a real behaviour change tool that is shown to increase recycling levels."
The Local Government Association (LGA) - which represents hundreds of councils across England and Wales - was considering a request for comment at the time of going to press.
But Patrick Brighty, head of recycling policy at waste and recycling trade body the Environmental Services Association (ESA), welcomed today's announcement from the government.
"Today's announcement will make life easier for householders by reducing confusion over what can and cannot be recycled while also preserving flexibility for councils over the way they collect recyclable materials at the kerbside," he said.
"The ESA supports measures that provide local authorities with the flexibility to determine their own collection model based on their own individual circumstances but, whatever the chosen solution, councils will need to demonstrate that their service choices deliver the efficient and effective recycling performance required by the new packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regime. Appropriate commingling of materials – which must be done carefully to avoid contamination and preserve quality – would minimise the number of bins required for householders and businesses and maintain an efficient collection service. The details of today's announcement should be viewed as the minimum baseline requirement and kerbside recycling services must meet the right levels of separation and recycling required by the EPR regime – which will ultimately fund them."
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