Britain’s rising recycling contamination levels could be pulled back on track thanks to a new set of guidelines developed by the waste management industry which detail exactly what can and cannot be accepted for recycling at the kerbside. The National Recycling Guidelines, developed by WRAP along with the a number of other organisations and trade bodies, have been designed to聽better inform householders across England, Scotland and Wales as to what can be included in recycling bins and how these materials should be presented.
The Guidelines cover paper, card, cartons, metal, plastic, food waste and glass. They go into detail about whether or not certain materials need to be rinsed off; if lids should be left on or taken off; and why certain items still cannot be accepted for recycling in particular areas.
Collaborative effort
WRAP鈥檚 head of resource management Linda Crichton said: 鈥淔or as long as I have been at WRAP, there has been a desire to have clarity across the country on what can be recycled and how items should be presented for recycling. We now have that 鈥� labels and tops can be left on bottles, envelopes can be recycled, trigger sprays don鈥檛 need to be removed. 鈥淲e wish to thank all those involved for coming together to enable this ground-breaking work to happen. It has been a truly collaborative effort without which, the guidelines would not have been produced. We all have an interest in increasing recycling and making it less confusing for people.
鈥淎s such we encourage all organisations to consider the guidelines and adopt the information and messages that are relevant to them.聽WRAP will keep the guidelines under review and incorporate additional materials and advice as practices and technology develops.鈥�
Key information and messages included in the Guidelines can be incorporated in targeted and strategic communications to help increase recycling, reduce contamination, and ultimately realize savings across the whole supply chain. The Guidelines will be embedded in resources applied by campaign group Recycle Now, with related communications materials being made available to local authorities and other partners to download and localize.
Contamination levels
This is the first action that has been delivered in support of greater consistency in household recycling, following the publication of the industry鈥檚 Framework for England in September. A month prior to that, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request聽carried out by BBC Breakfast had revealed that the quantity of rejected recyclable waste in England had increased by 84% over the past four years. The reason for this increase in rejected recyclable waste is contamination, caused by the wrong materials being placed in the wrong bins, or containers still holding聽the remnants of unconsumed food or liquids -as recently brought to light with coffee cups in the Hugh’s War on Waste TV programme.
WRAP designed the new Guidelines in light of its latest聽Recycling Tracker Survey, which revealed that two-thirds of UK households are uncertain how to dispose of at least one common waste聽item – including foil, plastic toiletry bottles and aerosols –聽and almost (49%) admitted to disposing of聽recyclable food items into the residual waste bin, predominantly聽due to the belief these items would attract foxes, vermin and flies. But initial testing of the new Guidelines has already demonstrated the potential positive effective: 94% of initial respondents have learned something new, with more people learning about items that cannot be recycled than items that can be.
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