This week’s election manifestos all contained environmental pledges of varying degrees, but other than Labour’s broad commitment to a circular economy, pledgesaround recycling or tackling plastics are notably absent from the major parties’ plans.
They are missing a trick. Recycling our online delivery packages, milk cartons, and plastic bottles is one of the things we all have in common. Collectively scratching our heads about how best to recycle at home, is perhaps another.
What we can be certain of, is that in the current recycling system, too little of that material is being properly repurposed and if things aren’t changed, billions of pounds will continue to be lost from the UK economy.
A thriving recycling industry is critical to moving towards a circular economy and will drive growth, contributing billions to GDP as well as supporting thousands of green jobs. What to do about waste has been on the political agenda for years, but still no party has a clear and urgent plan to fix the UK’s broken recycling system.
Without a concrete plan for change, we risk falling further behind our international and domestic neighbours, who are making quicker and better progress on developing their recycling infrastructures. We can learn from effective approaches in Austria, Germany, or as close to home as Wales – each is reaping the benefits ofwell-structured recycling systems.
Any government that wants a stronger and greener economy must look at finding solutions – it is no exaggeration to say that we face a systemicissue that the UK needs to confront head on.
The UK’s paper and card recycling rate has been in decline for the past five years and is on course to miss its long-term recycling target by up to 13 years. Despite the UK being the third-largest producer of paper and card in Europe, it ranks 25th out of 30 European nations for the recycling of paper andcardboard packaging.
If declining recycling rates are not reversed,the UK stands to send £2.8 billion of paper and cardboard packaging to landfill or incineration by 2030. Leaving this amount of money on the table is madness.
One solution is to make recycling more consistent across all local authorities. Currently, there is a staggering myriad of different systems operated by different councils. This is unhelpful for those recycling at home, and a serious blocker to businesses trying to conserve valuable resources. A more streamlined setup would enable consistent separation of glass, paper or card, which in turn would create a more reliable source of materials for businesses to deploy.
We also can’t ignore single-use plastic in this matter. While plastic can be recycled in theory, in practice it is a different story. As it stands, the UK has set atarget of 2042 to phase out single-use plastics that have been deemed avoidable.This is too late, and frankly unambitious – if we want to be taken seriously on the world stage (and not remain awash with plastics) we should at the very least match our neighbours in Europe, who are working successfully to a timeline of 2030.
A new government will also need to turn its attention to incentives, to encourage businesses to use alternative, renewable, materials to plastic. A good set of proposed policies for this already exists and has been on the current government’s back burner for too long. The time is right to revitalize and implement it, to support greater use of readily recyclable materials.
Recycling is more than just the cardboard box or milk carton we sort for the bins, it’s an ecosystem that needs to be invested in to support the growth of circularity, boost the economy and bring jobs. Put simply, if the UK fails to make recycling a priority, it’s not just the environment that will suffer, but the British economy too. The sooner a government realises this, the better it will be for the UK.Miles Roberts is Group Chief Executive, DS Smith
