Sussex councils are losing recycling race

The statistics, put together by national recycling and waste management company SITA UK, are displayed on an online interactive map, which ranks 326 councils in Britain.

Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) came in 302nd out of 326, recycling only 26.8% of its waste.

And Lewes District Council not only fares the worst in Sussex but is also among the worst in the country, coming 320th out of 326 (22.3%).

Crawley Borough Council came 305th, recycling 26.1% of its waste, while Hastings Borough Council came 314th, recycling 23.7%.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, Horsham District Council is the best- performing in Sussex, coming 42nd out of 326, with 52.5% of waste recycled.

BHCC’s Green administration made a promise in its election manifesto in 2011 that 70% of all domestic waste would be recycled in the city by the end of its current term in office – May 2015.

And there is the prospect of BHCC’s rating becoming worse. In an annual performance update for 2013/14, the council’s recycling figure was 25.6%.

This new national data is based on 2012/13 figures. BHCC’s score in this case is 26.8%, so it may slide down the national rankings when the 2013/14 figures are released at the end of this year.

Councillor Gill Mitchell, deputy leader of the Labour group on the city council, opposing the Greens, believes residents are losing trust in the city’s recycling service.

She said: “Recycling rates are dropping because the communal recycling service is not working, with ordinary refuse being put into communal recycling bins when refuse bins are full and uncollected.

“This means the whole contents of the recycling bin has to be treated as waste because it has become contaminated with non-recyclable items.”

Coun Mitchell, who is also environment spokeswoman, added: “The Greens have failed to invest in a regular household information service as to what people can and can’t recycle and have not got to grips with the constant disruptions to the collection service. People are losing heart and giving up.”

Green councillor Pete West, chair of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee, responded: “Recycling rates have been falling for some years, particularly since the Tories introduced big communal waste bins without similar recycling facilities.

“By introducing communal recycling, we’re making it as easy to recycle as get rid of other waste.

“We are also looking to trial wheelie recycling bins outside of the city centre so our suburban residents don’t have to deal with so many black boxes.

“Kitchen waste makes up about a third of what we throw away – but there is no easy way to collect residents’ food waste across our city.

“We bid for external funding to develop a food waste collection trial – but it was unfortunately unsuccessful, and neither Labour nor Tories support it. With massive government cuts to our funding, we can’t afford to fund a new scheme.

“A full service redesign is being looked at by officers to make CityClean the modern, flexible and responsive service that residents rightly expect.

“We’re continuing to expand community food waste composting projects in the city – use of which has risen to more than 500 households – and we support local community waste projects in the city, such as the Hollingdean and Stanmer ‘Off the Ground’ project.”

In July, the Greens blamed last summer’s bin strike as well as a national loss of interest, which has seen recycling rates across the country drop marginally in the past year.

Before this, a council- commissioned City Tracker survey found nearly half of residents in Brighton and Hove thought the council was wasteful with money, as reported in The Argus on June 26.

Conservative group leader Geoffrey Theobald told The Argus recently that recycling levels in Brighton and Hove were higher under the previous (Tory-run) administration than they were now.

He wants the council to consider other measures, such as garden waste collection, that could significantly boost the recycling levels.

Getting it right Getting it right HORSHAM councillor Andrew Baldwin, cabinet member for the environment for Horsham District Council (HDC), praised the public for being “excellent at recycling and composting”.

He said: “It’s great news we are so high in the recycling league table.”

That said, HDC recently put out a press release calling on its residents to keep recyclables clean to continue to improve recycling rates.

Beyond the figures, there is a key signifier in why some authorities fare better than others – weight.

Like other high-scoring authorities, HDC includes recycling and composting from garden waste bins in its collections.

Dry recycling Garden waste – branches, bush cuttings and grass trimmings – can weigh heavier than dry recycling, beefing up the percentage.

One view is that a free garden waste collection service might be operated to “chase tonnage”.

Spokesmen for both Hastings and Crawley said their towns’ low scores were because they did not collect garden waste.

Kevin Boorman, head of communications and marketing for Hastings Borough Council (HBC), defended recycling rates in Hastings.

He said: “If garden waste is taken out of the total recycling calculation, our recycling rate for dry recyclates is very good compared with many other authorities.

“It is dry recyclates such as paper, cans and plastics that most people think of as recycling, not garden waste, which in most cases can be more sustainably composted in residents’ own gardens.

He said HBC operated a kerbside glass collection and that residents were able to recycle most common types of plastic.

In West Sussex, a Crawley spokesman drew comparisons between Crawley Borough Council (CBC) and other authorities.

A council spokesman said: “As Crawley is primarily urban, residents don’t produce large quantities of garden waste.

“In addition, we promote home composting ahead of recycling. Consequently, we do not offer a free garden waste collection service as this would discourage the better environmental option of home composting.”

Crawley’s 26.1% score includes only 3.36% green waste.

By comparison, Horsham’s high score of 52.5% is comprised of 26.75% green waste – more than Crawley’s total recycling level.

The CBC spokesman added that a new collection contract signed in February “includes measures that will, over the next few years, help to further improve the quantity and quality of recycling collected”.

The spokesman also said the measure of performance across authorities needs to be considered in light of geographical and demographic differences between authorities.

Nationally, other big cities struggle with their recycling levels: Sheffield City Council recorded a 27.7% score while Liverpool City Council scored 24.7% with various councils in London also struggling.

Experts are reluctant to draw a social divide and, in any case, the fact that Rochford in Essex topped the national table dashes any north/south divide theories.

What is certain from the figures is that the South East, and Britain, lags behind Europe, where in some countries the Green dream of 70% is close to reality.

Recent figures put Germany as the Continent’s top recycler at 65%. This is a rate that the EU reportedly wants every resident in the union to exceed in years to come, though Britain’s 50% target by 2020 seems more realistic, given SITA UK’s data.

David Palmer Jones, chief executive of SITA UK, said of the results: “There is a greater need than ever for local authorities and the recycling industry to engage with local communities if the country is to make any significant progress towards reaching the UK’s 50% recycling rate target for 2020.

“We support the principle of Keep Britain Tidy’s ten-point action plan which, among other actions, suggests a food waste collection for all households by the end of 2016.”

Understanding the waste map The colour coding of the map aims to group local authorities relative to the national average recycling rate and Britain’s EU 2020 target of 50%.

Based on the most recent, officially-reported annual statistics, local authorities in England achieved an average recycling performance of about 44%, while Wales achieved 52% and Scotland achieved around 42%.

Basing the average national recycling rate in the middle of the scale, local authorities falling below 30% have been coloured red, those between 30-40% coloured amber, 40-50% yellow, 50-60% green and those achieving 60%+ have been coloured dark green.

SITA UK gets its information from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for recycling rates, along with data from the Office for National Statistics and other agencies.

The release of the map – which allows users to click on individual local authorities to view information about recycling services, materials collected and collection frequency – comes in response to recommendations made in a report by Keep Britain Tidy, launched earlier this month.

The map covering the whole of Britain is viewable at www.ukrecyclingmap.co.uk.