OPINION: UK domestic recycling rates are up but only marginally so. There is a great deal more to be done to drive UK-wide circularity after a decade of flatlining recycling rates.
Domestic recycling rates have, Wales aside, been languishing since 2015 at around 44% at best, after 10 years of straight-line growth before that when the stick of landfill tax escalator took effect.
Now more than ever if we are to move to greater circularity to underpin more sustainable UK wide economic growth, we need the incentive trio of positive recycling regulations that this government has backed to take effect.
This starts with simpler recycling – underway now for business and next year for households – and then over the next couple of years the deposit return scheme (DRS) and extended producer responsibility for packaging (pEPR), which in time may need to encompass a wider range products if we as a nation are serious about giving waste a second life.
The government is already seeing the potential of furthering the use of EPR in tandem with a more enlightened approach to the decarbonisation of residual waste. The plans for extending the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) from 2028 to include Energy from Waste (EfW) plants would have resulted in an extra cost burden to local authorities for fossil-based packaging contained in the domestic waste stream.
The government’s intelligent focus on the segregation of materials at the kerbside will lead to better decarbonisation of the domestic waste stream, which in turn will allow for a greater collection of recyclable products before they are treated at an EfW plant, whilst helping to protect local authority costs.
The positive indication that the UK is ready for a drive to greater circularity is to be found in the improving levels of packaging recycling. This shows the strength of positive regulatory reform for driving behavioural change in the way we produce and consume packaging.
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