In particular, the organisation has urged government to look at pouring the proceeds of landfill tax back to councils via Revenue Support Grants, to enable councils to decide locally how to invest in infrastructure to increase recycling rates.
Figures published on Thursday (May 7) showed that England is currently achieving a recycling rate of around 45%, having moved up fractionally from the same period 12 months earlier. This puts the UK in danger of not meeting its statutory EU target to recycle 50% of waste by 2020, with the government likely to be fined by the European Commission if it fails to meet the aim.
With flagging recycling rates of increasing concern for local authorities, the LGA has drafted a series of proposals that it believes could help to re-invigorate progress towards the 50% goal.
The full list of LGA recommendations includes:
- Redistribute landfill tax back to councils
- Better balanced costs with packaging producers
- Incentivise food waste collections
- Raised profile of recycling through national communications campaign
- Revised waste measurement criteria
- Better targeted support for rural and urban areas
Efforts to boost recycling rates toward the required 50% rate will be among the top priorities for any new cabinet minister with responsibility for waste policy and local government. Prime Minister David Cameron is today (May 11) appointing a new cabinet following the Conservative Party’s majority victory in last week’s General Election.
In its submission, which was published last week, the LGA has claimed that councils have had to double their spend on recycling over the last 15 years to around £3.28 billion in order to reach the current level of performance.
However, the organisation believes that progress has stalled with council budgets increasingly under pressure due to cuts in funding from central government.
Landfill tax
In order to address this loss of funding, the LGA instead is urging the government to make proceeds of landfill tax available for investment in infrastructure.
The organisation stated: “Local authorities paid approximately £570 million in landfill tax to the Treasury in 2013/14, which will rise to over £600 million in 2015/16 despite reducing landfill by over three quarters per household in a decade. These receipts could provide investment capital that would contribute towards increased recycling levels and help councils to deliver infrastructure that would not otherwise be affordable.
“This could include the costs of new receptacles, collection vehicles, sorting facilities, reuse storage capacity and organic treatment facilities. All of which could be delivered in time to influence recycling rates by 2020.”
Additionally, the organisation has also called for a greater proportion of the money from the packaging waste regime to be diverted toward the cost of collection. The LGA adds that currently the cost of collecting waste packaging costs local authorities around £550 million each year – with latest figures showing that PRN revenue contributed to around £17.4 million of the cost of collection in 2014.
Elsewhere, the LGA has called for greater incentives for the treatment of food waste in order to encourage more councils to collect the waste stream. LGA believes that half of English local authorities collect food waste, with more likely to be needed for the 2020 target to be met. It has argued that broadening the producer responsibility regime to include a food waste element could be a catalyst to help increase this.
National communications campaign
A central communications initiative is also among the Association’s key recommendations, with a joint campaign headed by the government and the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) –with input from the LGA – suggested.
The Association adds: “Local Authorities and their contractors continue to carry out communications campaigns in their areas with tailored messages, which have been successful to date in increasing resident recycling. However, one of the consequences of reduced local authority budgets has been a squeeze on the number of dedicated officers and resources for recycling and communication activity.
“Following the roll out of extensive kerbside recycling services the overwhelming majority of councils now collect all the core materials recycling. This now provides sufficient coverage to justify a national awareness campaign to increase recycling rates.”
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