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Committee criticises waste recycling plans

The Communities & Local Government Committee have commented that recent plans to encourage household waste recycling have become too complicated and unlikely to have effect.
Their suggestions to introduce a £50 incentive for successfully recycling households however, have not been taken as an acceptable solution.

MPs rejected the idea of a monetary reinbursement, saying that householders will see this as an additional cost on top of their tax-money, and the positive outcomes will not sufficiently outweigh the negative effect of some households being penalised for not recycling.

The Committee also criticised the move to reduce collections to fortnightly periods, with refuse being taken one week and recycleable materials the next. Although this may be applicable in some rural areas, it is unlikely to be beneficial in packed and built-up urban areas where storage space for rubbish is low and there are increased populations of pest animals and vermin.

The Committee instead felt that a focus needed to be put on food waste collection, and the recycling of food waste, which currently counts for a large percentage of all the rubbish in our bins. They called for food waste to be collected seperately, and at least once a week,

“In the long term there should be a move towards a national strategy to encourage householders and retailers to cut down on food waste. At present a third of all food bought is subsequently thrown away, wasting households on average £400 a year and adding to refuse collection costs.”

They also highlighted the importance of waste recycling plans being tailored to the area of application, rather than sweeping actions being made that suit one region and not another.