Commissioned by SITA UK, ‘The Ur[Bin] Issue’ – which was launched at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Westminster – looks at ways to bolster poor recycling performance in cities and towns in England, where rates remains ‘frustratingly low’.
It follows an inquiry undertaken by Keep Britain Tidy in conjunction with consultancy BritainThinks in which ‘citizens’ juries’ spent two days learning and collaborating on recycling measures with a variety of experts in spring 2014.
The two London and Manchester-based juries included 12 local residents recruited at random and screened to ensure each group was fairly representative of their areas.
In addition, the charity organisation conducted an online poll of 1,000 people to supplement the ‘outcomes and insights’ of the juries in order to enhance its findings.
Findings from the survey have now been outlined in the SITA UK report – with ‘Engagement’, ‘Motivation’ and ‘Infrastructure provision’ identified as the three areas where improvement is most needed.
Trust
Participants felt there was a ‘lack of trust’ in their local councils to spend money generated by recycling efficiently, as well as a ‘lack of feedback’ thanking residents in the area for their recycling efforts. A lack of understanding about the wider benefits of recycling was also a prevalent theme.
The report also notes that ‘easier wins’ in recycling relate to collections in ‘rural and semi-rural environments’ where there is more space and populations are stable.
It reads: “It is no accident that local authority recycling rates above 60% are dominated by rural authorities, with the lowest recycling performance band (14-30%) dominated by urban authorities.”
In response to the findings, Keep Britain Tidy has proposed 10 actions to boost recycling in urban areas, which include;
- Improve public awareness of waste as a resource;
- Continue to invest in communication;
- Provide food waste collections for all households by 2016;
- A central government framework for infrastructure provision;
- An obligation on town planners to account for household and flats recycling.
Disillusion
Commenting on the report, SITA UK director of external affairs Dr Gev Eduljee said the scope of householder disillusion in urban areas provided ‘food for thought’.
He said: “From listening to our ‘jurors’ at the events, it is evident that much work remains to be done to help people living in urban environments to engage with recycling.
“We saw from the citizens’ juries that once householders are engaged, this empowers them to make their own positive choices and adjust their behaviours accordingly.
“The report provides food for thought for all sectors involved in recycling. We hope it encourages further discussion on the subject.”
Phil Barton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, added: “It is clear that there is much work to do in order to enable England to meet and surpass recycling targets and that central to this is a need to engage householders and communities more deeply in understanding how recycling works, why it is important and the value of our finite resources.
“We welcome discussion from the wider sector about the recommendations in this report and how we can work together to develop informed and enabled communities, actively recycling across England.”
Related Links:
SITA UK
Keep Britain Tidy
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