Committee looks to future of recycling in Wales

Publishing its findings in a report yesterday (December 18), the committee commended residents in Wales for their ‘outstanding’ commitment to recycling – with the country achieving an overall rate of 54% in 2013/14.

Under current targets, Wales must achieve a minimum recycling rate of 58% by March 2016 – rising to 70% of waste by 2024/25. Wales aims to become a ‘zero waste’ nation by 2050.

But, the committee warns that in 2012/13, nine of the 22 local authorities in Wales did not achieve the statutory target of 52% – with three councils still behind the target as of March 2014.

The inquiry also found that while there were 22 different approaches to waste collection in Wales – no single method of collecting household recyclables offered a clear lead in terms of performance, cost or efficiency.

In order to improve recycling rates, the committee has suggested a combination of communication and a reduction in residual waste collections. This strategy was officially adopted by Gwynedd council in October (see letsrecycle.com story).

Recommendations

The committee has also published a number of recommendations for the Welsh Government to encourage recycling among councils.

These include commissioning an independent review of the ‘collection blueprint’ to be completed by the end of March 2016, in order to help inform the approach taken by local authorities to achieving a 2019/20 target of 64%.

The blueprint was heralded as a ‘starting point’ to boost recycling by resource minister Car Sargeant in November (see letsrecycle.com story).

Other recommendations made included investigating whether Wales could use a national broker for the sale of recyclates from all councils in Wales – with findings to be published by the end of December 2015.

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And, the committee suggested researching the relationship between projections for waste reduction; local authority income from waste; and the ability of local authorities to meet their recycling targets in the period to 2019/20 and then to 2024/25. This, it adds, should also be completed by the end of March 2016.

‘Encouraged’

Commenting on the findings, Alun Ffred Jones, chair of the environment and sustainability committee, said: “Over 3,000 people responded to the inquiry, the largest response to any Assembly inquiry. We are encouraged and enthused by the level of engagement and passion that there is for continuing to recycle as much of our waste as possible.

“But we cannot be complacent about the challenge of meeting higher rates of recycling. More can be done by national and local government to encourage achievement of these higher rates.”

He added: “The fact that so many young people responded leaves us optimistic for the future and confident that, if the Welsh Government can get the infrastructure right, then Wales can continue to meet the challenge of creating less waste and recycling more.”