Recycling in the United Kingdom
[1] The majority of recycling undertaken in the United Kingdom is done by statutory authorities, although commercial and industrial waste is chiefly processed by private companies.
[2] Recycling policy is devolved to the administrations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales who set their own targets, but all statistics are reported to Eurostat.
The Defra Packaging Strategy of 2009 supported reward-based programmes, but other than some trials in Scotland, they have received almost no public or political attention.
[5] In December 2018, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (DEFRA) has announced plans for a pledge of up to £60m towards innovative new packaging.
One initiative in this is to assess the viability of household food waste being "transformed into environmentally-friendly plastic bags and cups.
[7] The establishment of the government body Waste & Resources Action Programme has increased the country's recycling capacity.
It works with businesses, individuals and communities to achieve a circular economy through helping them reduce waste, develop sustainable products and use resources in an efficient way.
[8] and receives funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Northern Ireland Executive, Zero Waste Scotland, the Welsh Government and the European Union.
Other approaches include taking glass items to bottle banks at supermarkets and composting biodegradable waste, making landfill unnecessary.
The main difficulty with recycling glass is the need to remove the unwanted materials that contaminate it and avoiding the mixing of different colours.
Glass collection points, known as Bottle Banks are very common near shopping centres, at civic amenity sites and in local neighbourhoods in the United Kingdom.
Bottle Banks commonly stand beside collection points for other recyclable waste like paper, metals and plastics.
The UK imports much more green glass in the form of Wine bottles than it uses, leading to a surplus amount for recycling.
Prior to this, recycling was limited because of the high shipping costs for export, but the new plant processes 40 per cent of the country's carton waste.
However, recycling of ex corporate Computer Hardware and associated electronic equipment falls outside the Producer Compliance Scheme (Known as non-obligated).
There has been criticism from residents of Newcastle-under-Lyme after the council spent £2.4 million to improve its recycling in the borough, however the fleet of new vehicles are too wide to fit down some narrow roads.
[30] However research conducted by Cranfield University and Enviros in 2007, found that there is unlikely to be significantly greater health issues relating to fortnightly collections against weekly.
[32] The Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) questioned “whether the focus of the £250 million fund will deliver the best environmental and economic outcomes” and suggested that the money could better be spent on alternative options.
In economic terms, with so many constraints on council budgets, it is important to ensure that this policy initiative does not lock local councils into significantly higher waste collection costs, for which we will all have to foot the bill long after the Weekly Collections Support Scheme funding has run dry'.
