Pressure group calls on DEFRA to increase recycling funding

The call came after DEFRA's Municipal Waste Management Survey 2001-02, showed that 106 out of 393 councils' had not improved on their previous year's recycling performance during that year.

The survey of English councils, published last week, showed that England's household recycling rate had increased by just 1% from 2000-01, from 11.2% to 12.4% in 2001-02 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Anna Watson, a waste campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: “A quarter of local areas are doing no more recycling than they were last year. The Government's recycling hopes are disappearing over the horizon. England is still falling behind the rest of Europe in recycling.”

Friends of the Earth also showed that only 20 councils had increased their recycling rate by more than 5% from last year's figures. From the survey results, the organisation estimated that a 25% recycling rate would not be accomplished until 2013 at the present rate of increase.

Ms Watson said: “We will never raise our game unless more local authorities start collecting recycling from the doorstep. Every household needs a reliable, weekly collection of at least four materials. Only then will recycling become as second-nature as throwing out the rubbish.”

Funding

Responding to the suggestions that local authorities would miss their targets, Andy Doran, chairman of the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee, told letsrecycle.com that DEFRA's statistics only provide retrospective information as they are now over a year old.

“The statistics do give us a picture of things but they are not current,” he said, “Future data recording should align more accurately waste awareness campaigns with actual targets.”

Mr Doran explained that since 2001-02 there has been the distribution of extra funding by the government and investment into recycling schemes by local authorities. He said that the government funding will make a significant difference: “I still remain optimistic that a lot of local authorities are on target to reach those targets.”

The next set of targets for local authorities to is in 2003-04. The national target set by the government for that point is 17%, and environment minister Elliot Morley said today that he believes the UK is now nearing 16%.