Firms ‘inflating recycling figures’ after China ban
BUSINESSES are overstating how much plastic, paper and cardboard they recycle following a ban on sending it to China, MPS fear.
Concerns are mounting that more waste set aside for recycling is being dumped in the sea because it can no longer be shipped abroad. China, formerly the world’s biggest importer of recycling waste, closed its doors to exported waste in January, resulting in rubbish building up at UK ports.
As much as 100 per cent of businesses and councils’ “recycling waste” may end up not being recycled, sources said, with a million extra tons of waste a year remaining on UK shores.
Large UK firms handling packaging must take part in a Packaging Recovery Note (PRN) scheme, which ensures that a proportion of packaging waste is recycled. Each PRN is evidence that one ton has been recycled. But despite the apparent cut in recycling, companies are still receiving the PRNS, and are being rewarded for meeting environmental targets on the assumption that most of their waste is recycled.
Today MPS on the Environmental Audit Committee warn that the system is open to “fraud and non-compliance”, and have asked the National Audit Office to conduct an urgent review.
An industry source said: “For 10 years or so recycling rates have been going up but it was all under the guise of how much was being handed over, not what was actually being recycled.
“Now that China won’t accept any, it’s possible that for some smaller companies up to 100 per cent of recyclable waste isn’t being recycled.”
Mary Creagh, committee chairman, said: “Packaging waste is contributing to the ever-growing levels of plastic pollution in the UK and abroad. PRNS are intended to make companies do their bit for recycling, but there is significant concern that they are distorting the market in favour of exports rather than reprocessing in the UK.”
Businesses are accused of exaggerating the amount of plastic that is actually recycled, which would be one more blow to those that make the effort. If the Government is urging us to help clean up the planet, the average Briton is no doubt willing to help. But we’ve had bad news before. Last week it was revealed that recycling rates have fallen in half of local authorities because councils increasingly throw everything into incinerators to save money. London’s Westminster and Lewisham councils now incinerate 82 per cent of collected rubbish.
The good news is that, where institutions fail, the individual steps in. The last year has witnessed a revolution in shopping culture, as the charge for plastic bags led to a dramatic decline in use. Reusable mugs for tea and coffee were next; the campaign against plastic straws will follow. Other countries show what can be achieved: Norway boasts a 97 per cent return rate on its beverage containers, such as plastic bottles, thanks to a proper deposit system. A balance, however, has to be struck. Food wrapped in plastic might be irritating, but it can also help it last longer by preserving the shelf-life. It thus, in its own way, reduces waste. And many Britons were shocked to discover that the plastic “bags for life” on sale in supermarkets require more carbon to produce and take longer to degrade than the flimsy alternatives. The key is honesty.
Most of us want to do the right thing and need straight-forward advice about what does and doesn’t help the environment. And when we have spent precious time sorting our waste into various bags and bins, we have a right to know that it will be disposed of in the way we were promised.