Errors and fraud mean recycling could be a waste of time

Watchdog warns that a ‘tighter grip’ is needed to put the system right

CONSUMERS may be wasting their time on efforts to recycle plastics because of fraud and error, the spending watchdog has warned.

A study by the National Audit Office (NAO) found Britain’s official recycling rate could be exaggerated because it wrongly assumes all material which ends up at recycling plants is processed. In reality, around 10 per cent is contaminated and cannot be recycled, while an unknown quantity is shipped abroad to plants where there is a “high risk” that it will not be recycled.

The report brings into question the official figures from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, which estimates that the UK has exceeded its packaging recycling target every year since 1997, and recycled 64 per cent of all packaging in 2017.

Plastic recycling is the most vulnerable to fraud because the financial incentive for companies to falsely claim they have recycled it is higher than for any other material, the NAO said.

It calculated that if official plastic recycling rates were overstated by 24 percentage points in the first half of this year, the UK would have missed its target.

The extent of the potential fraud is as yet unknown but is currently under investigation by waste charity Wrap.

It is feared that an increasing proportion of waste set aside for recycling is now being dumped into the sea.

In addition, the NAO found that the Environment Agency, which polices the UK’S recycling system, had failed to notice that some of the UK’S biggest companies had not been paying into the system.

Convenience store chain Costcutter was wrongly excluded from the scheme between 1997 and 2014. It has now made a donation of £650,000 to Wrap to make up for the breach.

All large companies in the UK which produce or sell packaging are required to take part in the Packaging Recovery Note scheme to ensure a set proportion of waste is recycled.

They meet the obligation by buying recovery notes from recycling companies in the UK, or from companies that export waste for recycling abroad.

Amyas Morse, the head of the NAO, said: “If the UK wants to play its part in fully tackling the impacts of waste and pollution, a tighter grip on packaging recycling is needed.

“The Government should have a much better understanding of the difference this system makes and a better handle on the risks associated with so much packaging waste being recycled overseas.”

Mary Creagh MP, chair of the Environmental Audit committee, added: “Today’s report shows it has become a tick-box exercise.

“Waste is exported with no guarantee that it will be recycled, producers are not made to pay to recycle their packaging, and the system is open to fraud and error.

“The Government must fix this broken system in its upcoming resources and waste strategy.”