Wales reliant on sending recyclables to rest of UK

A report showing the extent to which Welsh local authorities are sending recovered materials for recycling outside Wales has been published by the Welsh Government.

The Dry Recycling End Destinations report produced by consultancy SKM Enviros provides a detailed breakdown of where each of the 22 local authorities in Wales send their waste for recycling. The Welsh Government committed to publishing the end destination information in its Municipal Sector Plan and it is the first UK government to do so.

The study covers the six months from October 2010 to March 2011 and reveals the end destinations forrecovered paper, card, mixed paper and card, glass, plastics and cans.

It shows that, whilemuch material was sent to Welsh recycling companies such as steel recycling firm Corus and glass recycler Nationwide Recycling, a significant proportion of material was sent to parts of the UK which are much further afield. For instance, some paper was sent to the Aylesford Newsprint paper mill in Kent, glass was sent to Berrymans glass recycling facility in West Yorkshire and a mixture of materials were going to the Salvation Army at Brechin, near Dundee in Scotland. This is notwithstanding material which is listed as being sent to third parties or brokers for export.

Capacity

The Welsh Government is hoping the study will encourage councils to send their recovered materials to local reprocessors, but it has acknowledged that some needs to be sent further afield because of a lack of capacity in Wales.

Only two months ago, the operators of Wales largest plastic bottle sorting facility, Plastics Sorting Ltd, went into administration despite a hefty grant from the Welsh Government (see letsrecycle.com story). And, since the report, Nationwide Recycling near Swansea was placed into liquidation (see letsrecycle.com story).

The end destinations report includes the tonnage of material which councils collect for recycling but is rejected by recycling facilities. As this is typically higher for commingled collections than kerbside sort, because unsuitable material is not typically accepted in kerbside sort collections, the Welsh Government is hoping this will encourage councils to move to kerbside sort, which is its favoured collection method.

A Welsh Government spokesperson told letsrecycle.com: “We believe the public has a right to know the results of their recycling efforts. The report may also be used to inform local authority choices on the type of collection systems they use.

WasteDataFlow

Councilsacross the UKreport their recycling performance using the governments WasteDataFlow database. Question 100 on the database has been developed for councils to record the flow of waste including end destinations, which all local authorities must use as of April 1 2012. The Welsh Government is planning to publish further reports using this information covering the full year.

As of the first of this month, all local authorities in Wales also have statutory recycling targets to meet. These require them to recycle 52% of waste in 2012/13, rising to 70% in 2024/25.

Welsh environment minister, John Griffiths, said: Wales has the highest recycling rate of any UK country and publication of a report like this shows people what happens to their waste. Next year (2012/13) local authorities will have to recycle 52% of waste to comply with new Welsh Government statutory targets.

During the six months under review in the report, almost 60,000 tonnes of waste was processed into new materials or products and nearly 50,000 tonnes composted. Just less than 10,000 tonnes of waste was recycled and nearly 10,000 sent to landfill.

The Welsh Government said that it would work with the Welsh Local Government Association and local authorities to make future reports more informative for local authorities and householders.