Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 16th January 2025 Issue no. 1145
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Simpler Recycling in England: policy update
The UK Government recently issued a policy statement that aims to deliver ‘Simpler Recycling’ in England, subject to spending review outcomes. The idea is to facilitate consistent, more streamlined collections from all households, businesses and relevant non-domestic premises, such as schools and hospitals.
Local authorities and other waste collectors will be able to co-collect some waste streams by default - meaning that they will no longer need to collect seven separate waste streams. Further, the same set of materials are collected throughout England.
The new default requirement for most households and workplaces will be four containers; one each for:
* residual (non-recyclable) waste
* food waste (mixed with garden waste if appropriate)
* paper and card
* all other dry recyclable materials (plastic, metal and glass)
This is the Government's maximum default requirement and is not expected to increase in the future. However, councils and other waste collectors will still have the flexibility to make the best choices to suit local need.
“This is a sensible, pragmatic approach to the collection of materials for every household and business in England,” says the statement. “We will make recycling easier: citizens will be able to recycle the same materials across England whether at home, work or school, and will no longer need to check what is accepted for recycling in their local area. A universal standard will ensure that everything that can be collected for household recycling is collected in every region.
“Simpler Recycling will also end the 'postcode lottery' of bin collections in England whereby councils collect different materials for recycling, causing confusion for households. We will maintain flexibility for local authorities to deliver these changes in the most appropriate way for their area. We have published guidance for local authorities and other waste collectors to support their decision-making regarding the co-collection of paper and card with other dry recyclable materials.
“All householders will receive a comprehensive and consistent set of waste and recycling services. This will enable them to recycle as much waste as possible and to frequently dispose of bad-smelling food waste, which will be collected from all households at least weekly.
“We recognise that as recycling services are expanded and improved, local authorities may want to review residual waste services to ensure they are providing best value for money in line with local need. The Government's priority is ensuring that households' needs are met, and we expect local authorities to continue to provide services to a reasonable standard, as they do now.
“Defra has published guidance on household waste collections to ensure that local authorities consider certain factors when they review services, to ensure that reasonable standards are maintained.”
The Government will progress the delivery of this policy, providing clarity to enable investment in UK recycling and a substantial contribution to emissions savings for the waste sector. The policy statement sets out the Government's position on several exemptions, which will be implemented by an affirmative statutory instrument (SI) in December 2024. The timing of this statement ahead of that SI is to provide more time for businesses and local authorities to prepare.
Alongside Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging and the Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers, Simpler Recycling will make a significant step towards meeting the nation’s ambition to recycle 65% of municipal waste by 2035, and deliver greenhouse gas emissions savings equivalent to £11.8 billion. It will also improve recycling rates - household recycling rates in England have flatlined at around 44% to 45% since 2015.
Simpler Recycling aims to ensure there is more recycled material in the products we buy, and that high quality recycled material can be sourced domestically, enabling packaging circularity in the UK. It will help to support more than £10 billion investment in the UK's recycling capability over the next decade.
The Government will deliver these reforms to previously announced timelines, subject to the outcomes of the forthcoming Spending Review. The implementation timelines are as previously announced:
* by 31st March 2025, businesses and relevant non-domestic premises in England will need to arrange for the collection of the core recyclable waste streams, with the exception of garden waste (glass, metal, plastic, paper and card, and food waste)
* micro-firms (businesses with fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees) will be temporarily exempt from this requirement. They will have until 31st March 2027 to arrange for recycling of core recyclable waste streams
* by 31st March 2026, local authorities will be required to collect the core recyclable waste streams from all households in England. This includes introducing weekly food waste collections for most homes, unless a transitional arrangement applies
* by 31st March 2027, kerbside plastic film collections from businesses and relevant non-domestic premises and households will be introduced
“To maximise flexibility for local authorities and households, we are introducing an exemption to allow the co-collection of food and garden waste,” continues the statement. “There is no evidence that this would affect their ability to be recycled or composted, since the materials can always be processed through in-vessel composting when mixed.”
The Government has received extensive stakeholder feedback and evidence about plans on the collection of dry materials. The Secretary of State for Defra has concluded, based on the evidence, that:
* there is some evidence to indicate that simplifying the number of bins can help increase participation in recycling, but evidence also suggests that fully co-collecting systems (with one mixed dry recycling bin) have the highest levels of contamination (for example, broken glass stuck on paper or soggy paper from the liquid from bottles and cans), which will affect the recycling rate
* contaminated materials may be rejected after collection if it is not economically viable to re-process them, reducing the amount of material recycled
* paper and card are particularly vulnerable to cross-contamination from food and liquid commonly found on other recycling, which can significantly reduce quality of collected material
Based on this evidence, the Secretary of State for Defra understands that co-collection of plastic, metal and glass presents a lower contamination and material quality risk, and has concluded that:
* by default, paper and card should be separately collected from all other dry materials so their potential to be recycled is not reduced. According to the latest data from the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), 121 local authorities reported that they already collect paper and card separately from other dry recycling across England
* all other dry materials may be co-collected, as the benefit of simplifying (and thereby potential to increase volumes), offsets the smaller contamination risk. According to the latest WRAP data, 95 local councils already co-collect plastic, metal and glass in this way across England
* local flexibility to co-collect paper and card with other dry materials remains where separate collection is technically or economically impracticable, or provides no significant environmental benefit. For example, this may be more appropriate for high-rise flats or houses with very limited outside space. Waste collectors will need to produce a short written assessment explaining their decision. Guidance for waste collectors and a template that can be used for this assessment has been published alongside this announcement
* if local authorities and other waste collectors want to offer more separate containers for different types of materials, they will be able to do so without completing a written assessment. In 2022 to 2023, around 41 local authorities in England reported that they currently choose to collect dry materials in more than two separate waste containers.
This draws on learning from best practice across the UK and internationally. For instance, in Wales, the Collections Blueprint sets out a default standard of three dry recycling containers.
The 2015 review concluded that the separate collections system results in 'higher-quality, less contaminated material', which 'results in a higher likelihood of material being appropriate for higher value-added closed-loop uses in the UK and Europe. England's household recycling rate was 44.1% in 2021, so there is significant room for improvement.
“Local authorities are already legally required to deliver waste collection services to all households in their area,” says the statement. “We have gone further by mandating weekly food waste collections under the Environment Act 2021. Waste collection authorities determine the appropriate approach to residual waste and dry recycling collections in their area.”
12th December 2024