Seven to Three: Simpler Recycling?

On 21 October 2023, the Government published its long awaited response to the results of its consultation on ‘Consistency in household and business recycling in England’. Sally Stock and Natasha Barlow examine the detail.

It is worth noting that this is only a response to the consultation and not yet the anticipated statutory guidance or regulations.

Recycling Consistency

All local authorities in England will have to collect the same recyclable waste streams to ensure a consistent approach across the country. The recyclable waste streams include:

• paper and card;
• plastic (including plastic micro-film packaging, although note the later implementation date of 31 March 2027);
• glass (packaging including bottles and jars);
• metal (e.g. steel and aluminium tins and cans, aerosols, food trays etc.);
• food waste; and
• garden waste (this will continue to be chargeable).

The implementation of these requirements will be enforced from 31 March 2026 for households and 31 March 2025 for businesses and relevant non-domestic premises.

The introduction of set recyclable waste streams across the country is encouraging and will provide clarity to residents as to what they can and cannot recycle, hopefully resulting in higher recycling rates.

Containers

There has been some reluctance to separate all recyclable materials into separate streams, with critics lambasting the potential for households to have seven different bins. The government’s response states that this will no longer be required as it reports that there is little evidence for the benefits of separating recyclable waste streams. Instead, the intention is to have three containers (bins, boxes or sacks): for dry recycling, food waste and residual waste.

This has provoked criticism from the paper industry in particular, which has documented the benefits of separating paper and cardboard in producing higher quality outputs. There is concern that co-mingled recycling will lead to higher contamination rates and in turn higher processing prices and materials being too low quality to effectively recycle.

Residual Collection Frequency

The government intends to introduce statutory guidance (subject to further consultation) stating a minimum service standard of fortnightly residual waste collection from households, which is intended to act as a backstop alongside encouragement for more frequent collections. The impetus is stated to be the frequent disposal of odorous waste, but both the waste industry and local authorities have questioned whether these measures are in fact a backward step.

Where local authorities have implemented, or are considering, three or four-weekly residual collections to assist in their carbon reduction and financial goals, there will be questions as to whether the push for fortnightly residual collections as a minimum standard is driving the right environmental goals and incentivises residents to reduce residual waste in favour of food waste and recycling.

Food Waste

As anticipated by the Environment Act 2021, the government will impose weekly food collections from households by 31 March 2026, with new burdens funding to be made available to local authorities that do not currently collect food waste.

This requirement is much as expected, although there is a lack of clarity as to the extent of the burdens funding that local authorities can expect to receive. Letters are to be sent to local authorities containing the details of the funding they can expect.

For a more detailed exploration of food waste, keep an eye out for our upcoming article on food waste collection and disposal.

Conclusions

The government’s response, while not statutory guidance or legislation, indicates to local authorities and the waste industry the direction of travel. Local authorities will need to carefully consider the drafting in the statutory guidance once issued by the government, to decide if this helps to resolve the questions and inconsistencies posed above. Those in the midst of a procurement in particular will need to ensure that they have considered the implications of the response and proposed statutory guidance on their procurements.

Those local authorities and waste providers who have been invited by Defra can respond to the government’s “Consultation on exemptions and statutory guidance for Simpler Recycling in England” by 20 November 2023.

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