Some councils already pass on recycling credits to community recycling groups representing the amount of material they divert from landfill.
But, in a response to Defra's consultation on possible changes to the recycling credits scheme, the community sector representative body said that the government should make paying recycling credits to non-profit third parties mandatory.
The CRN UK said it believes that recycling credits have the potential to be a “very powerful financial instrument matched to the Landfill Tax” in diverting material away from landfill.
Andy Moore, co-ordinator of the CRN UK, said: “When the recycling credits scheme was introduced in the early 1990s, our sector saw it as a sound and simple environmental instrument, designed to operate at a community level.
Recycling credits can help empower local actors to realise value from the wastestream in the form of jobs and local economic multipliers, he said. “In short, they’re a good thing for the environment and the economy.”
Referring to the community sector, Mr Moore said: “This is the very field where this recycling credit mechanism has the greatest potential to breathe life into truly sustainable solutions.”
Re-use
The CRN UK also welcomed the government’s proposal to introduce specific re-use credits, which could operate on the same principles as the recycling credits scheme. “The credit will, we feel, not only incentivise re-use activity, but also ensure good data capture,” Mr Moore said.
But, the organisation said it was disappointed that the government is not to consider introducing waste minimisation credits. Mr Moore explained: “The members of the community sector, particularly those promoting home composting, have some ideas on how waste minimisation credits might work. The CRN UK would like to have discussed this more fully prior to the consultation, and we can’t help feeling that an opportunity might have been missed here.”
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