Waste and recycling charges may have to be introduced

New research has revealed that the majority of local councillors believe waste and recycling charges will have to be introduced to meet proposed standardised collections.

Commissioned by BECG and Cavendish Advocacy, the research found that alongside the financial implications around household waste collections, the findings also identified councillors’ top concerns to be resident confusion and how to manage housing differences.

One key proposal under the Environment Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, is to standardise waste and recycling collections across England. The government hopes that by making these nationally consistent, it will be easier for everyone to know what can and cannot be recycled. By doing so, it will drive up the quantity and quality of what can be recycled, and reduce the amount of waste that cannot be recycled.

The research found that while councillors were positive overall about the waste and recycling proposals a significant minority (27 per cent) did not believe that standardising collections would boost recycling. Just over half (52 per cent) of councillors said they believed standardising collections would increase recycling rates in their area, while almost three quarters (73 per cent) were confident that their local authority would meet government targets of recycling 65 per cent of municipal waste by 2035.

Julius Duncan, BECG Board Director, said: “What is clear from these results is that while councillors are on balance positive about the changes the Environment Bill will bring, there will be challenges on the road to achieving government’s targets.

“With the significant majority preparing for additional costs or chargeable services around standardised collections, government will have to consider this additional burden for cash-strapped local authorities whose budgets have been squeezed even further during the pandemic.”