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Shop NowRecycling Roundup 20th March
Recycling Roundup 20th March
The government has set stricter targets for the recycling of aluminium, paper, steel, and wood from 2017-2020. By the end of 2020, the target for recycling aluminium will be 64%, targets for paper will rise to 75%, steel targets will be 85%, and for wood, 48%. The 2020 targets for plastic will be 57% and 80% respectively.
Those in the paper industry feel confident that they will meet the new targets, and say that they are already ahead of the 2020 target. Some in the plastic industry feel that while there has been an increase in the overall recycling of plastic, that the government have failed to raise the landfill tax which would boost recycling rates even more.
The packaging industry has welcomed extra investment in science education, and hope that this will translate into the development of new technologies to boost recycling in the future.
Image courtesy of WRAP UK
A recycling centre in Carmarthenshire is set to close after the council failed to negotiate a contract with the site owners All Waste Services. All Waste Services have managed the facility for several years on behalf of the council and now services are set to come to an end after both parties failed to agree on the terms of a new contract for service provision.
Residents now have to take their recycling to a recycling bank which has been set up at a local rugby club or to the nearest alternative recycling centre until alternative arrangements can be made for the longer term. The council have stated that they hope to get new arrangements finalised as soon as possible, because they want to continue with their impressive recycling rate, which is currently 64%. They aim to achieve 74% by 2024.
Statistics have shown a fall in recycling for one of the UK’s hardest to recycle products, mattresses. Since 2014, mattress recycling rates have consistently fallen and now they’re only at around 13%. The rise has been put down to increased mattress sales, a lack of capacity for recycling them, and difficulties in ensuring that recycling companies comply with regulations. Local authorities are responsible for the majority of mattress recycling and with most councils facing financial pressures, mattresses may not be getting recycled correctly. Mattresses are bulky and aren’t easy to transport over long distances which makes them difficult to recycle. But there is some good news, retailers are increasingly offering to recycle mattresses when they need to be replaced.
The Welsh government ran a competition for local business to come up with ways to recycle every part of a mattress and in London, £140,000 was awarded to 2 recycling companies so they could work to increase the reuse and recycling of mattresses.
