Campaigners call for simpler recycling bin collections to combat current ‘confusing’ system

Council recycling schemes in England are too confusing for households and should be simplified, according to campaigners.

Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) claim that the average recycling rate in the country is 42% – with one council’s sitting at just 15%.

They are now calling on the government to create a national “recycling blueprint” to fix the more than 300 systems currently in use.

KBT’s deputy chief executive Richard McIlwain, said: “It’s very difficult to have a national conversation about what we can recycle and what should be recycled when everyone is doing something different.”

Local authorities across the UK mist hit a recycling target of at least half of all waste by 2022 to meet the EU’s Waste Frame Directive.

However, NONE of London’s borough councils are currently hitting the 50% mark, while Liverpool and Hyndburn councils only reaching 28% in the year ending April 2016.

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Mr McIlwain said English local authorities should take tips from Wales, where the average recycling rate is 60%.

He added: “They’ve also got a system where every household in Wales has a food waste collection and that’s incredibly important because we waste seven million tonnes of food in this country every year,” he explained.

“It’s really important to capture it because otherwise it goes straight to landfill. What we can do is collect that food and put it through a process where we can [extract]gas [from it] and put that back into the national grid.”

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) insisted some councils had excellent recycling rates, despite the poor figures in certain parts of the country.

A Defra spokesperson said: “We are recycling four times as much as we were in 2000 and only one fifth of council waste went to landfill last year, down significantly in recent years, but more clearly needs to be done.

“There are some excellent examples of councils improving recycling rates and we are working with local authorities and industry to build on these successes and encourage best practice across the nation as part of our commitment to protect the environment for future generations.”

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