Rochford set to top English recycling league table

Rochford district council in Essex looks set to reclaim first place in the recycling, composting and reuse league table for England in 2012/13, pulling ahead of last years top performer, Vale of White Horse.

Rochfords success comes even though its recycling and composting rate fell by a few percentage points last year, as did that for a number of other top performers.

‘Many local authorities have maintained their outstanding recycling rates which is great news and proof that households are cutting down on their waste and recycling more.’

Lord de Mauley, resource management minister

Data gathered by letsrecycle.com from the best performing waste collection authorities for the last financial year has indicated that Rochford district council achieved a dry recycling and composting rate totalling 66.78%.

The district previously topped the table in 2010/11 and is now back in first place after coming third in 2011/12.

The letsrecycle.com data comes prior to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) official figures, which will be published in November.

Commenting on the findings, resource management minister Lord de Mauley congratulated the high performers, and hoped other councils would follow suit.

Lord de Mauley said: Many local authorities have maintained their outstanding recycling rates which is great news and proof that households are cutting down on their waste and recycling more.

Id like to see this trend continue and would encourage local authorities and communities to work together to help us meet our target of recycling 50% of all household waste by 2020.

Rochford

Rochford district council runs a three bin system for residual, garden and food waste and dry recycling which includes tins, plastic, newspaper, magazines and cardboard. Contractor SITA UK collects the garden and food waste weekly, whereas the other two bins are emptied on alternate weeks.

Noting the achievement, councillor Keith Gordon, portfolio holder for the environment, leisure, arts and culture told letsrecycle.com: Rochford district council is still amongst the top recycling authorities across the whole country, and this is testament to the efforts of residents who are continuing their efforts to recycle and compost as much as possible.

I am really proud of our achievements and I am confident that we can continue to maintain our levels of recycling and composting year upon year.

However, despite reclaiming the top spot, Rochfords combined predicted rate is notably less than its official 67.4% recorded last year.

Packaging

Explaining the drop, the council said while there had been no change in the service provided, but reductions in packaging and the economic downturn were factors behind the decline. It went on to suggest its recycling scheme had plateaued and incentives were now being considered to improve rates in 2013/14 which could be implemented at no extra cost.

A trend also commonly observed among the majority of local authorities interviewed by letsrecycle.com, was a decline in green waste volumes collected. Green waste recycling was down by as much as 20-30% earlier this year following a cold winter and the coldest March in four decades with fewer households carrying out gardening as a result (see letsrecycle.com story).

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South Cambridgeshire district council, which saw its predicted rate fall by 2.45% to 55.85%, blamed the decline on the decrease in green waste collected, as the material was simply too wet for compost. As a result, some green waste was sent to landfill.

The slump in recycling rates has largely been observed across last years top performers, as Vale of White Horse came third with a provisional combined recycling total of 65.13%, down on its 68.7% rate in 2011/12. Likewise South Oxfordshire, which runs a joint waste collection service with Vale of White Horse and came second this year, saw its combined predicted rate fall from 67.9% to 65.32%.

Oxfordshire

However despite the fall, Oxfordshire maintained its hold on the top ten with three collection authorities including West Oxfordshire all achieving combined predicted totals of 61% or more. Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire joint waste manager Ian Matten said: South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse have performed exceptionally well once again this year and residents should be congratulated on their efforts to recycle as much as they do.

Unfortunately there has been a slight drop in the figure mainly due to road sweepings having to go to landfill rather than being composted as a result of the Environment Agencys new guidelines issued last year.

Overall, recycling rates still appear to be rising. According to provisional data published by Defra earlier this month (August 8), local authorities achieved a combined recycling and composting rate of 43.6% over the 2012 calendar year, 0.6% up on the previous 12 months (see letsrecycle.com story).

Stratford-on-Avon

Meanwhile, Three Rivers, Stratford-on-Avon, Cotswold and Epping Forest are all likely to achieve top ten places, despite missing out in 2011/12.

Stratford-on-Avon, which last year recorded a combined total of 57.3%, is now expected to jump 11 places with a total of 60.33%, a 3.03% increase in the amount collected.

The authority, which achieved the fifth best rate in the country in 2009/10 with 58.62%, said the introduction of kerbside collections for small waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), as well as textiles and batteries, and street sweeping collections sent to SITAs recycling plant in Walsall, factored in its return to the table.

Stratford-on-Avon recycling officer Chris Dobson said: We are very pleased to be back in the top ten councils for recycling and composting. This achievement is only possible due to our residents supporting our recycling schemes.

At the moment we are nibbling at the edge of the sixties, so its a case of trying to get those extra bits for recycling. We know the material is out there but how do we capture it? It is more and more difficult when youre at that stage.

Stockport

Elsewhere, Stockport looked set to maintain its position as the top metropolitan borough council with a predicted rate of 61%, down on 62.6% last year. Based in Greater Manchester, the council-owned provider Solutions SK operates a four- bin system, with food and garden waste collected weekly, and residual waste and paper, card and cartons collected fortnightly.

Commenting on the estimate, councillor Stuart Bodsworth said: Stockport council has one of the best recycling rates in the country. This is thanks to residents and their commitment and support for recycling, composting and reusing their waste.

Thanks to these excellent recycling efforts we have reduced the amount of waste being sent to landfill by tens of thousands of tonnes which has helped us avoid disposal costs of 12 million since we started our changes back in 2007. However, we remain committed to encouraging our residents to recycle even more in the future.