The warning came within a snap survey carried out by letsrecycle.com showing that the best English council for recycling in 2006/07 looks likely to be North Kesteven.
Among other top-performing councils in England, Huntingdonshire, Rushcliffe and South Cambridgeshire also look likely to confirm recycling rates for 2006/07 of above 50%.
However, the councils have said that as they approach the 60% mark they are running out of materials to collect, as well as infrastructure to collect more household waste for recycling.
The findings came as spending watchdogs last month warned councils not to get complacent about meeting their landfill diversion targets (see letsrecycle.com story).
“Upper limit”
In North Kesteven, Lincolnshire, the council already collects paper, card, glass, plastic and cans. It also collects commingled glass and this is accepted by a local materials recycling facility run by Mid UK Recycling in Caythorpe.
However, the council could only envisage a few measures to increase recycling further.
Mark Taylor, head of environmental services at North Kesteven council, said: “We have a very broad range of dry recyclables and it is difficult to envisage anything else we can divert from the residual stream. I expect there is an upper limit for recycling of around 60%.”
Mr Taylor added: “To hit the ceiling, we will introduce larger recycling bins and address the disparity between the best and the worst areas for recycling but we will soon be coming to the limit.”
Kevin Pickaver, project manager for Rushcliffe Borough Council's Recycling2go kerbside collection service, agreed there was a recycling ceiling of around 60%.
The Nottinghamshire borough already collects paper, plastic card and green waste at the kerbside and there are only two waste streams which it can realistically still capture.
Mr Pickaver said: “We hope to target glass with source separated kerbside collections and then kitchen waste and hit the magical 60%. But the problem with getting further than that is that, while 80% of waste is recyclable, there are not yet the facilities to get it out of the bin. Residents will probably not be interested unless, in recycling that much material, there is an added incentive.”
Technology
Keith Marley, head of environmental services at Forest Heath district council in Suffolk, said that in order to tackle the 60% ceiling, more technology would need to be developed to maximise recycling.
He said: “Future diversion will depend on what technologies are available and market drivers such as if packaging is replaced, so it is a moving target.”
Chris Jablonski, environmental team leader at Huntingdonshire district council, added that collecting different types of plastics and concentrating on residual waste treatment would be the way forward.
He said: “In Cambridgeshire we are looking at a PFI contract with an MBT plant, which is how we would address the residual waste.”
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