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Cylch responds to the Wales Audit Office report on Public Participation in Recycling (16.02.12)
Cylch welcomes the Auditor General’s report, Public Participation in Recycling and completely agrees with its implicit conclusion that progress in recycling rates in Wales will stall unless things change.
The fact is that the Welsh Government has been a “very reasonable parent” in delivering what has been asked of it under the requirements of European Legislation - in particular the Directives that effectively outlaw the creation of waste with the intention of building a “European recycling society”.
Early-on, Local Authorities in Wales were at sixes-and-sevens as to how to address the need to change to a recycling society and demanded two things – more resources to pay for the investment needed to change and better researched guidance on what to invest in.
The Welsh Assembly Government responded by carrying out the most extensive research, which provided a bank of evidence to support the revision of its Waste Strategy. It used that evidence to guide the investment as requested. The findings demonstrate what everyone knows almost instinctively; that changing from wasting to recycling requires a change of habit and practice by every individual man, woman and child in their daily lives. So it’s an investment in social engineering, not mechanical engineering, which is the key to success in this area.
The auditor general’s report, therefore, has the right title, with its focus on Public Participation. It goes on to explain that there are differences of opinion about the engineering solutions proposed. This so-called co-mingled collection versus kerbside sort debate is, of course, a hot topic in the recycling/resource recovery industry at the moment. It is also the subject of a current Judicial Review. However, the Welsh government and WRAP research clearly demonstrates that kerbside sort is more effective and cheaper into the bargain.
This advice is hotly contested by the Local Authorities that have invested in expensive collection systems. Systems that enable them to continue using the old, familiar waste-collection methods using huge expensive trucks designed to collect mixed materials. The consequences to the UK reprocessing industry are dire and a significant proportion of the collected tonnage is exported overseas, to markets in the Far East because it is unfit to be used in the UK. The working conditions in those Eastern markets are becoming well-documented and causing a quite-understandable outcry from citizens in the UK.
Mal Williams, Cylch’s CEO, says:
I am sure that we will get to those 80% and 90% recycling rates, which are currently being achieved in many places around the globe. However, in all those places, very powerful “waste” interests have had to be overturned to enable that to happen. Basically, everyone must start to see these resources as being valuable and view discarding them as the equivalent to throwing £20 notes away. When that happens the “problem” of waste becomes a regeneration opportunity for every community on the planet – and one that we must seize as enthusiastically as possible.