EU’s plan to increase recycling? More bins!
EVERY household in Britain should be forced to sort its recycling into an array of separate bins, says an EU report.
Many councils currently allow families to lump all of their reusable waste in a single container.
But the European Commission report calls for mandatory separate collection systems for paper, glass and metal as well as food.
Brussels says it will ensure ‘high municipal waste recycling levels’.
However, proposals to increase the number of recycling bins are likely to prove unpopular with British households.
Residents in areas where councils insist on sorting rubbish are already faced with a cluster of receptacles on their doorsteps – and the inconvenience of sorting different materials.
The UK is under pressure from eurocrats to increase the amount of waste recycled to 50 per cent by 2020 or face heavy fines.
The report, compiled by Danish and German experts, examined the collection systems of all 28 EU states and found that countries which sort waste have higher recycling rates.
It said separating rubbish was a ‘pre-condition for fostering highquality recycling and high recycling rates’. At present, EU rules encourage waste to be sorted.
But it also allows so- called mixed or ‘ commingled’ waste recycling – undertaken by the majority of councils in the UK. Most recycling – around 66 per cent – in England is collected as commingled, according to a sur- vey of 283 of 321 local authorities by the Environment Agency.
The EU report said it reduces ‘contamination’ – in which shards of glass could end up mixed with paper, making it difficult to recycle. But where town halls have opted for waste separation systems, households have faced a bewildering set of recycling bins.
Families in Newcastle-underLyme in Staffordshire have to sort waste in nine containers for items including clothing, garden waste, bottles, tins and food.
A survey by the Taxpayers’ Alliance found that 21 councils insist on seven bins. Recycling in England is seen as unlikely to meet the 50 per cent target by 2020.
It reached 44.7 per cent by March last year – but has risen by just 0.5 per cent since 2013. Councils are advised to separate paper, metal, plastic and glass under rules introduced on January 1 but can ignore it if it is ‘not technically, environmentally or economically practicable’ to do so.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs welcomed the EU report.
‘Bewildering set of containers’