WRAP’s Liz Goodwin says that reaching a 50 percent recycling rate is not going to be easy.
Figures published last week show that the annual rate of recycling is slow moving as “waste from households” in England was 44.2 percent in 2013, only a slight increase from 44.1 percent in 2012.
In her blog Goodwin said the following:
“The recycling rates published this week are disappointing,”
“They support the view that many in the sector have been worrying about for some time – that we look increasingly likely to miss the 50 percent recycling rate in 2020.”
She also revealed that in order to reach the 50 percent recycling rate needed by 2020, WRAP estimates that England needs to recycle another 1.7m tonnes.
She added:
“It means everyone needs to do more – central government, local authorities, waste management companies, reprocessors, the retailers and brands, organisations like WRAP and all of us as householders,”
Acknowledging the budgetary pressure local authorities and central government are under, Goodwin said that something needs to change in order to give recycling more of a boost and help it pick up momentum.
She added that England needs more consistency in collection infrastructure.
“We all know that the current system leads to confusion and must reduce the quality of material collected as a result, she said. “We need more investment in infrastructure – including more separate weekly food waste collections.”
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