In 2015, 43.5% of the United Kingdom's municipal waste was recycled, composted or broken down by anaerobic digestion. [1] The majority of recycling undertaken in the United Kingdom is done by statutory authorities, although commercial and industrial waste is chiefly processed by private companies. Local Authorities are responsible for the collection of municipal waste and operate contracts which are usually kerbside collection schemes. The Household Waste Recycling Act 2003 required local authorities in England to provide every household with a separate collection of at least two types of recyclable materials by 2010. [2] Recycling policy is devolved to the administrations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales who set their own targets, but all statistics are reported to Eurostat. [3]
Local Authorities are given incentives towards meeting recycling targets set by European, national and regional Government by the imposition of financial penalties for failing to recycle. For example, levies are imposed on the proportion of waste material going to landfill under a landfill tax, which currently stands at £94.15 per tonne. [4]
Unlike other European countries, there are very few deposit-refund schemes in operation. The Defra Packaging Strategy of 2009 supported reward-based programmes, but other than some trials in Scotland, they have received almost no public or political attention. This may be due to the lack of evidence that they improve the recycling rate in a UK context. [5] In December 2018, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (DEFRA) has announced plans for a pledge of up to £60m towards innovative new packaging. One initiative in this is to assess the viability of household food waste being "transformed into environmentally-friendly plastic bags and cups." [6] Scottish Parliament passed legislation to create a deposit return scheme including glass in May 2020 and later that year the UK Parliament passed the United Kingdom Internal Market Act. The UK Government refused to grant an exemption to the Act, forcing the Scottish Government to announce in 2023 that it would delay the scheme until October 2025 earliest, when a UK-wide deposit scheme is hoped to be implemented: Circular Economy Minister at the time, Lorna Slater, claimed the "UK Government ... has sadly seemed so far more intent on sabotaging this parliament than protecting our environment". [7]
The establishment of the government body Waste & Resources Action Programme has increased the country's recycling capacity. It is a registered charity. It works with businesses, individuals and communities to achieve a circular economy through helping them reduce waste, develop sustainable products and use resources in an efficient way. WRAP was established in 2000 as a company limited by guarantee. [8] and receives funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Northern Ireland Executive, Zero Waste Scotland, the Welsh Government and the European Union.
UK domestic recycling policy is geared towards encouraging individuals to recycle in their own homes, through regulation and public awareness campaigns. These include fines for people who don't cut their household waste and a greater emphasis on separating waste into different recyclable materials, with each council applying different rules. Their focus is shifting toward encouraging recycling, rather than punishing households for non-recycled waste.
Recycling is most efficient when items are reused around the home rather than discarded. Other approaches include taking glass items to bottle banks at supermarkets and composting biodegradable waste, making landfill unnecessary.
According to the latest figures from Defra:
A 2018 survey by the Ball Corporation studied the publics concerns and thoughts on recycling in the UK:
Commercial and industrial (C&I) waste makes up a large proportion of the UK's waste. According to DEFRA, 48 million tonnes of C&I waste was generated in England in 2009, down from 67.9 million tonnes 6 years earlier. Furthermore, 52% of C&I waste was reused or recycled, compared to just 42% in 2002/03. This figure is also greater than the household recycling rate. The industrial and service sectors generate roughly equal amounts of waste with similar recycling rates, even though the service sector is economically larger. [13] The reporting of C&I waste statistics has not always met the European Commission's standards, with local councils using different methodologies for their statistics. There has also been no comprehensive survey of C&I waste since 2003. [3]
The EU has introduced a number of directives which determine the targets of UK domestic recycling policy:
The 1999 Landfill Directive is one of the most important of these, which demands a reduction in the amount of waste being sent to landfill from 11.2 million tonnes in 2010 to 7.46 million tonnes in 2013 [14] [15]
In 2010, Defra claimed that the UK would meet its first landfill diversion target, which was 75% on 1995 levels, and that it is ‘on track’ to meet the next targets in 2013 (50% on 1995 levels) and 2020 (35% on 1995 levels). [16]
The EU Waste Framework Directive states that the UK must recycle 50% of household waste by 2020, which includes composting and reusing waste. It also stipulates a 70% minimum recycling target for construction and demolition waste by 2020. [17] The British government is highly confident in meeting the 2020 recycling target, but there is a lower level of certainty with the 2020 Landfill Directive target. There may not be enough time to construct the necessary facilities for organic waste. [3]
UK recycling policy aims to improve recycling methods and levels across the UK, focusing on glass, paper, plastic and metal cans.
Glass can be recycled in the form of bottles and jars which are crushed down and then melted. Glass can be recycled infinitely because it does not lose any of its quality. It uses a lot less energy, fewer raw materials and produces less CO2 than manufacturing glass from scratch. The main difficulty with recycling glass is the need to remove the unwanted materials that contaminate it and avoiding the mixing of different colours.
Glass collection points, known as Bottle Banks are very common near shopping centres, at civic amenity sites and in local neighbourhoods in the United Kingdom. Bottle Banks commonly stand beside collection points for other recyclable waste like paper, metals and plastics. Local, municipal waste collectors usually have one central point for all types of waste in which large glass containers are located. There are now over 50,000 bottle banks in the United Kingdom, [18] and 752,000 tons of glass are now recycled annually. [18]
The waste recycling industry in the UK cannot consume all of the recycled container glass that will become available over the coming years, mainly due to the colour imbalance between that which is manufactured and that which is consumed. The UK imports much more green glass in the form of Wine bottles than it uses, leading to a surplus amount for recycling. The resulting surplus of green glass from imported bottles may be exported to producing countries, or used locally in the growing diversity of secondary end uses for recycled glass. [19]
All types of waste paper are recyclable, and recycled paper requires a lot less energy and fewer raw materials to produce than manufacturing it from scratch. However, paper cannot be recycled indefinitely, and the normal number of times it can be recycled is about six. [20] 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard are used annually in England.
In the UK, the amount of post-consumer plastic being recycled is relatively low, [21] due in part to a lack of recycling facilities. The challenge with recycling plastic lies in sorting differing types of plastic, often by hand, which slows the process. The Plastics 2020 Challenge was founded in 2009 by the plastics industry with the aim of engaging the British public in a nationwide debate about the use, reuse and disposal of plastics, and hosts a series of debates on its website framed around the waste hierarchy.
There is a high recycling rate for metal cans in the UK, with aluminium recycling and steel cans being the most common items. Metal can be recycled indefinitely, and aluminium cans use just 5% of the energy needed to produce them from scratch and only release 5% of the amount of greenhouse gases.[ citation needed ] In addition, it is the easiest material to extract and separate from the other recyclables, using magnets for steel cans and special magnets (eddy currents) it guarantees recycling of every can.
In 2013, the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment and Sonoco Alcore opened the UK's first carton recycling facility in Halifax. Prior to this, recycling was limited because of the high shipping costs for export, but the new plant processes 40 per cent of the country's carton waste. Problems also arise because cartons cannot use recycled fibre, so they are converted into cardboard instead. [22]
The European Union implemented the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive, 2002/96/EC) in February 2003. [23] It requires manufacturers to shoulder the burden of recycling by reimbursing the recyclers' costs. It also set a minimum quota of 4 kg per capita of e-waste per head by 2009.
The United Kingdom was the final member state to pass it into law. The success of the WEEE directive has varied significantly from state to state, with collection rates varying between 13 kilograms per capita per annum to as little as 1 kg per capita per annum. Computers & electronic wastes collected from households within Europe are treated under the WEEE directive via Producer Compliance Schemes (whereby manufacturers of Electronics pay into a scheme that funds its recovery from household waste recycling centres (HWRCs)) and nominated Waste Treatment Facilities (known as Obligated WEEE).
However, recycling of ex corporate Computer Hardware and associated electronic equipment falls outside the Producer Compliance Scheme (Known as non-obligated). In the UK, Waste or obsolete corporate related computer hardware is treated via third party Authorized Treatment Facilities, who normally impose a charge for its collection and treatment.
Although recycling is required right across the UK, recycling rules differ depending on the local council. Some local councils have implemented a one-box system for separating household waste, whereas others have provided many more boxes, and this recyclable waste is often collected at different times from standard landfill waste collections.
There are also different schemes in place across the country to determine where the waste goes and how it is used.
In England, the local authorities are given targets by Defra. It is these local targets which help the government to achieve its national targets. However, local authorities are given flexibility in deciding how to best meet these targets, hence the number of different schemes in place.
The issue of waste management and recycling is acute in London - the capital produces 17 million tonnes of waste each year, forecast to rise to 26.5 million tonnes in 2020. [24] The Mayor's Greater London Authority sets the framework for dealing with waste within a London-wide Municipal Waste Management Strategy including recycling targets for the London Boroughs to meet, which are made statutory within the London Plan. The existing organisational arrangements however are complex with a number of waste disposal authorities at sub-regional and local levels.
Birmingham City Council have introduced three kerbside collection schemes.
These three schemes are now available to most of Birmingham's homes depending on whether they have a garden. The Paper & Garden Waste recycling facility is available to all houses in Birmingham. The Green Box scheme is going to be available to all houses later this year. Every year 3500 tonnes of paper and 8900 tonnes of wood are recycled. There are five household recycling centres and over 400 recycling banks across the whole of Birmingham.
Recycling banks normally include:
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council now has a six bin collection scheme.
There has been criticism from residents of Newcastle-under-Lyme after the council spent £2.4 million to improve its recycling in the borough, however the fleet of new vehicles are too wide to fit down some narrow roads. This has left some residents going for up to a fortnight without any waste collection service. [27]
There have been a number of controversies in recent years involving the recycling policies of various local councils:
One of the major problems for recycling at home has been the provision of multiple containers to sort the waste. This has been criticised for being too confusing for many residents, with one of the biggest offenders being the Newcastle-under-Lyme council which implemented a nine-bin system in 2010. [28] Other councils have provided up to seven bins, although some private contractors provide only one, and separate the recyclable material themselves. [29]
When fortnightly collections were brought in during 2007, they caused a lot of controversy. Many people were against them because it meant that they had to keep hold of their waste for longer and it was feared that this could be unhygienic, with fears arising in the press about health problems being caused as a result. [30] However research conducted by Cranfield University and Enviros in 2007, found that there is unlikely to be significantly greater health issues relating to fortnightly collections against weekly. [31]
In January 2014 the Secretary Of State for Communities and Local Government outlined guidance for how weekly collections could be achieved by local authorities. This was supported by a £250 million scheme made available to participating waste authorities. [32] The Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) questioned “whether the focus of the £250 million fund will deliver the best environmental and economic outcomes” and suggested that the money could better be spent on alternative options. It went on:
'the additional money could more usefully have been focused on delivering improvements in three key areas: supporting more recycling, either by expanding the range of materials collected or improving participation; supporting an expansion in food waste collections, which is the main area of householder concern regarding collection frequency; and supporting waste prevention initiatives... In economic terms, with so many constraints on council budgets, it is important to ensure that this policy initiative does not lock local councils into significantly higher waste collection costs, for which we will all have to foot the bill long after the Weekly Collections Support Scheme funding has run dry'. [33]
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the properties it had in its original state. It is an alternative to "conventional" waste disposal that can save material and help lower greenhouse gas emissions. It can also prevent the waste of potentially useful materials and reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reducing energy use, air pollution and water pollution.
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive is a European Community Directive, numbered 2012/19/EU, concerned with waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Together with the RoHS Directive 2011/65/EU, it became European Law in February 2003. The WEEE Directive set collection, recycling and recovery targets for all types of electrical goods, with a minimum rate of 4 kilograms (9 lb) per head of population per annum recovered for recycling by 2009. The RoHS Directive set restrictions upon European manufacturers as to the material content of new electronic equipment placed on the market.
Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, as in a garbage disposal; the two are sometimes collected separately. In the European Union, the semantic definition is 'mixed municipal waste,' given waste code 20 03 01 in the European Waste Catalog. Although the waste may originate from a number of sources that has nothing to do with a municipality, the traditional role of municipalities in collecting and managing these kinds of waste have produced the particular etymology 'municipal.'
Glass recycling is the processing of waste glass into usable products. Glass that is crushed or imploded and ready to be remelted is called cullet. There are two types of cullet: internal and external. Internal cullet is composed of defective products detected and rejected by a quality control process during the industrial process of glass manufacturing, transition phases of product changes and production offcuts. External cullet is waste glass that has been collected or reprocessed with the purpose of recycling. External cullet is classified as waste. The word "cullet", when used in the context of end-of-waste, will always refer to external cullet.
Kerbside collection or curbside collection is a service provided to households, typically in urban and suburban areas, of collecting and disposing of household waste and recyclables. It is usually accomplished by personnel using specially built vehicles to pick up household waste in containers that are acceptable to, or prescribed by, the municipality and are placed on the kerb.
A landfill tax or levy is a form of tax that is applied in some countries to increase the cost of landfill. The tax is typically levied in units of currency per unit of weight or volume. The tax is in addition to the overall cost of landfill and forms a proportion of the gate fee.
The Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme, LATS, is an initiative by the UK government, through DEFRA to help reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) sent to landfill.
The term "bin bug" was coined in August 2006 by the British media to refer to the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips by some local councils to monitor the amount of domestic waste created by each household. The system works by having a unique RFID chip for each household's non-recycling wheelie bin. The chip is scanned by the dustbin lorry and, as it lifts the bin, records the weight of the contents. This is then stored in a central database that monitors the non-recycled waste output of each household.
This article outlines the position and trends of recycling in Canada. Since the 1980s, most mid to large municipalities in most provinces have recycling programs, relying on curbside collection with either bins, boxes, or bags. These systems are not standardized, and the specific process differs for each province. Certain provinces have container-deposit systems in place for bottles, cans, and other beverage containers.
There is no national law in the United States that mandates recycling. State and local governments often introduce their own recycling requirements. In 2014, the recycling/composting rate for municipal solid waste in the U.S. was 34.6%. A number of U.S. states, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont have passed laws that establish deposits or refund values on beverage containers while other jurisdictions rely on recycling goals or landfill bans of recyclable materials.
Rates of household recycling in Ireland have increased dramatically since the late 1990s. The Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the agency with overall responsibility for environmental protection in Ireland and monitors rates of recycling in Ireland along with other measures of environmental conditions in Ireland. The EPA, along with Repak, the principal organisation for packaging recycling in Ireland, report on recycling rates each year. In 2012 Ireland’s municipal solid waste (MSW) recycling rate was 34%, while the rate of packaging recycling reached 79%. The amount of municipal waste generated per person per year in Ireland has fallen significantly in recent years. This figure remains above the European Union annual municipal waste average of 503 kg per person, however. Each local council in Ireland has considerable control over recycling, so recycling practices vary to some extent across the country. Most waste that is not recycled is disposed of in landfill sites.
Recycling in the Netherlands is under the responsibility of local authorities. Different localities implement different systems, and also within a municipality there can be multiple regimes. Municipalities publish a yearly calendar of the pickup dates and the addresses of the waste separation and recycling stations.
The waste management in Switzerland is based on the polluter pays principle. Bin bags are taxed with pay-per-bag fees in three quarters of the communes. The recycling rate doubled in 20 years due to this strategy. The recycling rate for municipal solid waste exceeds 50 percent.
Recycling in Japan, an aspect of waste management in Japan, is based on the Japanese Container and Packaging Recycling Law. Plastic, paper, PET bottles, aluminium and glass are collected and recycled. Japan's country profile in Waste Atlas shows that in 2012 Recycling Rate was 20.8%.
The management of waste in New Zealand has become more regulated to reduce associated environmental issues. According to OECD data, New Zealand is the third most wasteful country in the OECD.
GreenBottle Ltd was the manufacturer of sustainable, paper-based liquids packaging. In 2017, Ecologic Brands Inc.,based in Manteca California, purchased the assets of the former GreenBottle.
Recycling in Australia is a widespread, and comprehensive part of waste management in Australia, with 60% of all waste collected being recycled. Recycling is collected from households, commercial businesses, industries and construction. Despite its prominence, household recycling makes up only a small part (13%) of Australia's total recycling. It generally occurs through kerbside recycling collections such as the commingled recycling bin and food/garden organics recycling bin, drop-off and take-back programs, and various other schemes. Collection and management of household recycling typically falls to local councils, with private contractors collecting commercial, industrial and construction recycling. In addition to local council regulations, legislation and overarching policies are implemented and managed by the state and federal governments.
Packaging waste, the part of the waste that consists of packaging and packaging material, is a major part of the total global waste, and the major part of the packaging waste consists of single-use plastic food packaging, a hallmark of throwaway culture. Notable examples for which the need for regulation was recognized early, are "containers of liquids for human consumption", i.e. plastic bottles and the like. In Europe, the Germans top the list of packaging waste producers with more than 220 kilos of packaging per capita.
In Germany and Austria, the term yellow bag refers to a thin, yellowish transparent plastic bag, in which, in the context of local waste disposal, any waste made of plastic, metal or composite materials can be handed in. Depending on the agreement with the cities and municipalities, it may also be possible to use a 'yellow bin'. Yellow bags or yellow bins are part of the Dual System in the German waste management industry.