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THE GUARDIAN |
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Councils
raise rubbish recycling rate
to 14.5% Paul
Brown, environment
correspondent The
Guardian Household rubbish
recycling rates in England for
2003 were the highest ever at
14.5%, and for the first time
the total amount of household
waste sent to landfill sites
went down, the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs said yesterday. Despite this the
government was still well
below its target of 17% for
this year and 25% for 2005,
with the environment minister,
Elliot Morley, complaining
that some councils failed to
take legal targets seriously,
and threatening that the
government would take over
their responsibilities. His comment is borne
out by local authority league
tables showing that, where
there is the political will,
recycling rates of 25% are
attainable by many councils. Daventry district
council in Northamptonshire
comes top with a 44% recycling
rate, and is next door to
Corby borough council, which
has a 4% rate. Sedgefield, in the
prime minister's constituency,
last year came bottom of the
recycling league but managed
this year to get out of the
bottom 10 by reaching 5%. The City of London
came bottom with 1%; the
department accepted there were
"special
circumstances", but made
no excuses for Liverpool and
Manchester, which registered
2%. Mr Morley said: "Most
councils are working hard to
improve recycling rates,
providing kerbside boxes and
expanding the range of waste
materials collected, for
example. "But a
significant minority are still
not doing enough - in some
places the national minimum
target of 10% has not been
reached. But those who do not
show a commitment to improve
their recycling levels risk
intervention by the government
to make it happen." Many councils now
provide boxes for paper,
glass, plastic bottles and
containers and tin cans. Many
are providing recycled plastic
bins free to households to
compost kitchen and garden
waste that would otherwise go
in general rubbish. The result
has been a spectacular
increase in recycling. In other areas, where
householders are given no
help, the amount of recycling
dropped, and one in 10
councils is still below a 5%
recycling rate. Jim Harker,
vice-chair of the Local
Government Association's
environment board, said some
councils were making excellent
progress but others were being
squeezed for funds for
environmental services and
"a host of new national
and EU waste targets".
Gordon Brown's squeeze on
council funding came "at
precisely the time councils
need more funding to divert
waste away from landfill to
meet government targets -
meaning many councils will
have to spend before they can
start to save. The inevitable
result will be either
increases in council tax, cuts
in other services, or failure
to meet national and EU
targets." The
best local authorities... ·
Local authority - % recycled
material 1) Daventry - 44% 2) Lichfield - 43% 3) Melton - 31% 4) Eastleigh - 29%, 6) Forest Heath -
28%, 8) Dorset county -
27%, ...and
the worst 1) City of London -
1% 2) Liverpool - 2%, 5)
Barking & Dagenham - 3%, |