The poll, which was undertaken yesterday (June 16) at the Futuresource conference and exhibition in London's Docklands, identified the issue as the most significant one facing the bodies behind proposed projects, with a lack of incentives for local communities also seen as being a particular barrier.
Just 2% of respondents believed there were no real barriers, while 7% gave alternative responses.
Commenting on the results, Anthony Durston, spokesman for SITA UK, linked them to the responses received to the survey carried out by the company on the first day of the Futuresource event, which identified education as the key to improving recycling rates (see letsrecycle.com story).
“Today's survey reinforces the view that education is considered to be a key driver for change. Yesterday's view was that more education is needed to improve recycling levels and in today's survey 32% of respondents said that the biggest barrier to developing new recycling and waste management facilities is a lack of understanding about the need.”
Yesterday's survey also saw just 2% of respondents state that they had ever protested against the development of a waste or recycling facility near, with 98% saying they had not done so.
Snapshot
In light of this, Mr Durston said: “This survey provides an interesting snapshot of opinion. People connected to the recycling and waste management industry clearly appreciate the need to work more closely with members of the community if the industry's long term ambitions are to be achieved.
“And they clearly feel that a lot more education needs to be done to help bring members of the community along with them.”
In total, 43 people responded to the SITA UK survey yesterday, and a further survey is set to be carried out at today's event.
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