You’d be forgiven for thinking that as far as recycling goes in the United Kingdom, the only way is up. After all, there have been such enormous national campaigns over recent years to drive the importance of recycling – not to mention massive investment in recycling facilities and general infrastructure.
Which is precisely why over the past decade, pretty much every year brought about a significant increase in household recycling across the country. That is, until it flatlined in 2012. But even more worryingly, the latest figures show that England’s recycling rate actually fell for the first time ever in 2015.
Having come out at 44.8% in 2014, the recycling rate fell to 43.9% in 2015.
Suffice to say, this is the exact opposite of what ministers would be hoping to see – a return to recycling levels closer to those of 2012. All of which means that it will now be almost impossible for the United Kingdom to reach the 2020 EU recycling target of 50% of total household waste.
Interestingly, both Scotland and Wales performed significantly better than England, with recycling rates of 44.2% and 61% respectively.
In terms of responsibility, some have pointed the finger of blame directly at the kinds of manufacturers who take things to extremes when it comes to packaging. In turn, they would like to see additional taxes and levies payable on certain types of packaging, in order to encourage manufacturers to be more frugal and thoughtful.
As for others, they believe that the answer lies in intensifying efforts to incentivise both industries and the public in general to do the right thing.
“The government must act now to reverse this worrying decline. We urgently need better incentives to boost recycling and end Britain’s throwaway culture,” said Kate Parminter, the Liberal Democrat and environment secretary.
But what’s interesting is the way in which any number of surveys have found that pretty much 100% of the entire British population would be more likely to pay more attention to recycling, if the process wasn’t made complicated or difficult. There are far too many stories of those making the effort to recycle, only to either be turned away at recycling centres or basically told they’ve gone about things all wrong.
And of course, those who have to travel long distances to recycling centres are inherently less likely to bother.
Many believe that the decline in recycling rate in 2015 came off the back of a multitude of complimentary issues.
“2015 was a perfect storm for recycling, combining cuts to local authority budgets with declining commodity markets for recycled materials. ESA warned at the time that, without policy intervention, England in particular would see a drop in the recycling rate,” commented Jakob Rindegren, recycling policy advisor for the Environmental Services Association (ESA).
Whatever the explanation, it’s pretty clear that something needs to be done before things are allowed to decline further.
