Elections can change everything – and nothing

The upcoming general election in the UK in July is likely to mean another delay in the country’s snail-like progress to a coherent recycling policy.

This year, after 14 years in office, the Conservative Government came up with a strategy called ‘Simpler Recycling’. When the scheme was announced in 2023, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced he was scrapping proposals for ‘seven bins in every household’.

What was remarkable was that there had never been any proposals for seven bins. It summed up the recent history of UK policy in this area: little application from the politicians responsible for recycling (who rarely stay in post for more than a year) and a preference for headlines ahead of addressing the real issues.

In truth, I’m being unfair to the UK nations. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have significant autonomy in this area and a long-term approach from the Welsh Government, for example, has ensured Wales has one of the best household recycling rates in the world, well above the targets previously by the EU, for example.

Dead weight

But England’s performance has been a dead weight on the overall UK recycling rate throughout the years. England accounts for about 85% of the UK population so the overall rate was always short of EU targets.

‘Simpler Recycling’ is unlikely to turn the UK tide but does offer nationwide consistency to a system that was largely dictated by individual local authorities. If implemented, it will ensure all homes in England recycle the same materials.

There will be two bins: one for residual waste (‘black bins’) and one for six core recyclates (paper, glass, plastic etc). The system will also apply to smaller businesses whose waste is similar to households.

Let’s be positive while we can: weekly collections of food waste will be introduced across the country by 2026, replacing the current piecemeal approach.

Smelly waste

Curiously, while the relevant Government department Defra says this will end ‘the threat of smelly waste waiting weeks for collection and cutting food waste heading to landfill’, it claims this will stop a trend towards three- or four-weekly bin collections.

This is curious logic because weekly food collections are almost always offered by councils with three- or four-week bin regimes and doubly curious because their recycling rates are typically significantly higher (and more cost-effective) than those with more frequent regimes.

And if something can be triply curious, Mr Sunak’s intervention follows two detailed and lengthy consultations by Defra with the recycling and waste management sector.

One of those consulted said it felt like ‘valuable knowledge has been ridden roughshod over’.

Backward step

It’s a backward step not to collect paper and glass separately, especially when UK households already understand this aspect of recycling. It’s co-mingling by another name and all the best recycling countries ditched the practice a long time ago.

Greater contamination of recyclates feedstock will be inevitable. Defra’s own figures indicate that contamination rates for paper and card in in mixed collections is 15.5% and 12% respectively, compared to only 1.1% and 4% for separate collection.

It doesn’t make sense at any level. Everything takes such a long time.

I used to edit a magazine in the waste management sector. When I left in 2018, the industry was poised to set off on a strategic path towards a range of sustainable goals with a detailed timeline. But most milestones have either been put back or disappeared altogether as different ministers have come and gone.

Most observers expect Mr Sunak to lose when the UK goes to the polls on 4 July. Whatever else that will mean, it’s likely to end up in further delays to a national recycling strategy, ‘simpler’ or otherwise.