Guide compiled by instant hot water tap and food waste disposer company, InSinkErator, using DEFRA data
It is clearly time for local councils in the UK to get tough on recycling. The amount of all local authority waste sent for recycling fell in 2017-18. In 2016-17, 11.3 million tonnes was sent for recycling, compared to 10.9 million tonnes in 2017-18.
Take a look at the map below. As you can see from this DEFRA data released in December 2018 - with an EU target of 50% recycling by 2020, the UK still has a long way to go. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is aiming for even higher targets than the EU, with the focus on achieving a municipal recycling rate of 65% by 2030.
You can also see that London stands out amongst the green shading on the map. London is bottom of the table compared to the rest of the UK, with under 35% of all household waste being recycled.
Click on the map above to see the recycling rates for each region
Looking to a future outside the EU, the government has launched a new strategy to increase recycling rates and improve the quality of what we recycle. It is set to be a fairer system where the onus will be on the companies producing the waste rather than on the UK taxpayer.
Currently, the difference between the worst and best-performing councils is shocking. Taking a look at the London borough recycling rates, Bexley recycles 52.1% of household waste - whereas nearby Newham recycles just 14%.
Click on the map above to see the recycling rates for each London Borough
One of the reasons that recycling has been so hard to manage in the UK is that district and borough councils have their own budgets and different recycling systems.
The systems can be so complicated with different colour bins for different items depending on where you live. There are also variations on what can and can’t be recycled.
Other factors also affect recycling rates. Newham is densely populated and has some deprivation. It also is a transient area with many people renting and moving on from flat to flat, rather than buying a property. If occupants aren’t staying in a property for long, they don’t have the incentive to understand a complicated recycling system.
Some areas of the UK have higher rates of waste because large amounts of garden refuse increase the amounts of waste significantly. In Newham, there is very limited gardening.
The government's new resources and waste strategy aims to simplify and bring consistency to the way households across the UK recycle. The government has to make it as easy as possible for people to recycle. With these changes, alongside the new legal onus on the companies producing the waste, the UK should see improvement.
As you can see from the map below, it is also interesting to note that some of the areas in London with the highest recycling rates, such as Bexley, also have the highest household waste per person. In a time when preventing waste is better than recycling, we can see that this message needs to be communicated to even the most conscientious recyclers. Newham has the lowest recycling rate, but also a comparatively low amount of household waste compared to other areas of London.
Click on the map above to see the household waste for each London Borough
These discrepancies aren’t just specific to London. Wherever you are in the UK, looking at the data collected by DEFRA you can see that there are huge differences in waste recycling rates:
Environmental campaigners are now beginning to target recyclers to reduce waste rather than recycle after some appalling disclosures in the media. Other countries are now refusing to take the UK's recycling and many items that had been sorted for recycling are being incinerated or ending up in landfill.
Preventing waste is more effective than recycling. There are many ways you can do this, including :
As supermarkets are being slow to reduce their plastic packaging around fruit and vegetables, shoppers need to be savvy. You can:
You can also make some eco-friendly swaps when buying household products such as soap instead of shower gel and bamboo toothbrushes instead of plastic - the list is endless.
As consumers give up plastic, Milk & More, which has approximately half of the milk delivery market in the UK says 90% of those are ordering milk in glass bottles.
In fact, the milkman model is actually such a good one that in New York and Paris you can now sign up to a zero waste platform called Loop, where big brands are supplying their products in reusable containers via a collection service.
One of the top reasons that people don’t recycle is that it isn’t convenient, so recycling needs to be as easy as throwing it away. A food waste disposer in the kitchen sink is a very convenient option as you simply turn the disposer on and place your food waste down the sink.
Many people avoid using the food caddies because they quickly become smelly and dirty and can attract flies - especially during the warmer summer months.
Not only do kitchen sink food waste disposers remove the need for fuel used for refuse collection service, but the waste can yield valuable biogas and other vital soil nutrients which can be recovered at the wastewater treatment plan. And in addition, there is no need for storing and cleaning out a foul-smelling and unhygienic food caddy.
If just one in ten of us refilled once a week, we’d have 340 million less plastic bottles a year in circulation.
Often people buy bottled water for convenience when they are out, or use bottled water in the home as they don’t like the taste of tap water. A filtered water tap will solve these issues. You can fill up a reusable bottle using a filtered water tap at home and take it with you wherever go. You will also have quick access to filtered water when making drinks in the home. This one-off cost will also save you money on buying bottles of water.
We also use 2.5 billion coffee cups a year. In order to make the paper coffee cup waterproof, the inside of the cup is lined with polyethylene which is tightly bonded to the paper. Due to this design, less than 1% of coffee cups are actually recycled, even though the cups have the universal recycling symbol on them.
By simply using reusable coffee cups and water bottles, we can stop this problem.
As we learn more about the limitations of recycling, it is empowering to know that as a individual there is a lot you can do to reduce waste. The London Mayor's strategy aims on London becoming a zero waste city by 2050 and this will take a combination of government strategy, producer responsibility and consumer choice.
