CIPFA, the only professional accountancy body to specialise in the public services, carried out a study of local authority spending on household waste recycling in England and Wales over the period 2001-02.
 The CIPFA report calls for more funding for recycling |
While 2.2 billion was spent by councils on the provision of all waste services in England and Wales during that period, the study found that councils spent 52.7 million on the separate kerbside collection of recyclables. This was in itself an increase of 17.9% on the previous year.
Based on responses from 74% of councils in England and Wales, the study found that of the 2.2 billion spent on waste, 25% was spent on sending material to landfill while around half was spent on household refuse collections and street cleaning. Spending on recycling made up just 6% of the total with a further 6% spent on civic amenity sites, while incineration came to about 2%.
Commenting on the report, CIPFA principle statistician Nicholas Campbell said: “This is the first time we've really looked at recycling in our waste collection and statistics report – recycling is the big issue at the moment in local government and there's a lot of interest in this area. The study shows that a lot of extra funding will be needed for councils to reach their targets.”
Trends
England's national waste strategy has set household waste recycling targets of 25% by 2005, 30% by 2010 and 33% by 2015. The recycling rate in 2001-02 was 11.3%, and in 2002-3 it had reached only 12.4%. Based on funding trends up until 2001-02, CIPFA said that “nearly a threefold increase in expenditure on recycling over the next three years will be necessary to achieve the desired recycling target of 25%”.
The CIPFA study said that an increase in the levels of funding specifically for recycling would be needed from the government and from other sources.
The report said: “Although local authorities represent the front line in collecting, recycling and disposing of our household, commercial and industrial waste, the responsibility needs to be shouldered equally by central government, producers, manufacturers and not least the public as consumers, taxpayers and environmentalists.”
Since 2001-02, the government has distributed extra recycling funds in the form of a 140 million waste minimisation and recycling grant, with a further 135 million soon to be made available to authorities. Mr Campbell told letsrecycle.com that CIPFA was now looking into the effects of this extra funding, which will be presented in next year's waste report.
For more information on the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, visit www.cipfa.org.uk.
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