Recycling confusion not fault of ’hard pressed’ councils

An environmental blog has reported that councils shoulder an unfair share of the responsibility and cost for waste and recycling.

Inside Track, a blog hosted by the the independent think tank Green Alliance, has argued that local authorities should not receive the blame for the confusion currently surrounding recycling in the UK, and instead argues that companies should do more to improve packaging on their products.

Councils spend approximately £300 million annually to deal with waste packaging and manufacturers are equally angered by an inconsistent supply of recycled materials.

To combat this, the blog says that structural problems need to be addressed, ‘starting with standardising what and how items are collected for recycling’.

Four positive steps to solve the problem, as highlighted in the latest report from the Circular Economy Task Force, Recycling reset: how England can stop subsidising waste, highlights standardised recycling collections, redirected producer responsibility payments, lower producer responsibility fees for responsible companies, and powers for councils to charge households who do not recycle properly as incentives to take the blame away from councils and produce a more efficient system.