Minister repeats consistency call in wake of recycling results

Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday (December 17), Mr Stewart was grilled over England’s lack of progress towards meeting the 50% recycling target set by the EU for 2020.

Last year, England achieved an overall municipal recycling rate of 44.8% – an incremental rise of 0.8% when compared to 2013 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Commenting on the figures, Jeff Smith – Labour MP for Manchester, Whittington – said it looked as if England would now miss its household and municipal recycling targets and asked whether a “proper strategy” should be considered to meet requirements.

Vision

Mr Stewart responded that recycling is “local authority-led” but was working to boost rates via landfill tax and his harmonisation vision. He added that at 44%, England’s recycling rate was at “its highest level ever”.

He said: “I believe we are on track, and the thing that will keep us on track is more harmonisation. One of the problems in England particularly—this is not a problem in Wales or Scotland—is that we have over 300 different types of recycling system, so we are working hard on a voluntary basis with local councils to harmonise that.

“If we can reduce it to four or five systems, we will drive up recycling rates and reduce costs for councils and ratepayers.”

Since his appointment to recycling minister in June, Mr Stewart has advocated harmonisation of recycling collections – while also setting up a taskforce to see how it can be achieved. WRAP is expected to publish its preliminary findings in the coming weeks.

However, the move has not been universally welcomed. Earlier this month, the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) – which represents recycling officers across the country – branded the work ‘unhelpful’ at a time when government is pushing further austerity on councils.

And, early indications from WRAP suggest that rolling out “four or five” collection types across England could be problematic. The charity has said it will present a ‘menu’ of collection types for councils to consider which will depend largely on local circumstances (see letsrecycle.com story).

Kettering

Also speaking in Parliament yesterday, Philip Hollobone, Conservative MP for Kettering, asked the minister to congratulate the Midlands town for its recycling and refuse service – which has been voted the “best in the country” in the Association for Public Service Excellence awards.

Kettering borough council, which achieved a 48% recycling rate in 2014/15, operates a twin-stream fortnightly recycling system with a red box for paper and a blue bin for plastic bottles, glass and cans.

Residents receive a grey bin for garden waste and black bin for refuse – which is also collected every other week. Kettering does not operate a food waste collection service.

Mr Stewart added: “I pay tribute to Kettering, and I invite Kettering please to join us in a taskforce to communicate that best practice to other councils. There is a great deal we can all learn from Kettering.”