The Welsh Government has today (22 March) released a report identifying the primary destinations of dry recyclables collected from households.

‘Dry Recycling End Destinations: a Report for Local Authorities in Wales’ identifies where the plastic, glass, metal, wood, paper and card collected from households between April 2011 to March 2012 were sent, information that new Minister for Natural Resources Alun Davies, says people have a ‘right’ to know about.

The report is the first of its kind to examine the destinations of Welsh recyclables over a 12-month period and collates data submitted by Welsh local authorities to WasteDataFlow. It follows on from a Welsh Government report published last March, which detailed similar information from Quarters 3 and 4 of 2010/11.

It covers recyclable materials collected through recycling collections but excludes recyclable materials recovered from the residual waste stream. However, the report states that this data ‘may be included in future reports’.

Report findings

According to the report,between April 2011 and March 2012, the amount of waste reused or recycled (around 800,000 tonnes) overtook the amount of waste landfilled (700,000 tonnes) for the first time.

Further, the report found that of the 341,000 tonnes of dry recyclables sent to facilities for recycling, the largest proportion (between 25,001 and 30,000 tonnes) was sent to UPM’s waste facilities in Shotton.

Although 82 per cent of the materials targeted by the report were identified as being recycled (with 18 per cent marked as ‘other/exempt’), it is unclear as to the true ‘end destinations’ of some of the materials – as some recyclables were tracked only as far as the waste transfer stations they were sent to, and not the destinations they were sent to for reprocessing. The report says, however, that: ‘Further detail on the ‘Other/Exempt’ location or locations will be available in the comments submitted by each local authority with their WasteDataFlow quarterly returns.’

“People have the right to know how their recycling is used”

Speaking on the release of the report, Minister for Natural Resources Alun Davies, said: “There has been a great deal of discussion across the UK about where our recycling is sent, with many people believing that their carefully sorted recycling ends up in landfill. Today’s report shows that this is not the case in Wales.

“Wales is the only country in the UK which recycles more than it sends to landfill.”

Adding that recycling benefits the environment and the economy “through the creation of jobs in the waste and resource management industry”, Davies went on to say that the collection of “high-quality recyclate is central to our plans as it can be reprocessed here in Wales – retaining our resources, creating local employment and stimulating Welsh markets”.

The minister added: “I appreciate that separating out and recycling our waste takes a little longer than simply throwing everything into the bin and this is why the Welsh Government believes people have the right to know how their recycling is used.

“I hope the report, which shows that our waste is being used as a valuable resource that can be recycled or remanufactured here in Wales, encourages people to continue recycling and even start recycling more materials more often.”

This is the second installment of Wales’s ‘Dry Recycling End Destinations’ report, and results from the Welsh Governments requirement that, from April of last year, all Welsh local authorities answer Question 100 in WasteDataFlow, which reads: “Q100: This question should be used to record waste sent for treatment or disposal. The end of each route must be the point the waste becomes a resource, or landfill. The question can be used for all waste streams, but usage differs by country.” Welsh councils must also report reject rates in their figures.

Action has also been taken by the Resource Association to urge English and Northern Irish local authorities to publish the end destinations of collected recyclables. The push came following a findings from a survey undertaken by the Resource Association and YouGov plc between April and May 2012 that showed that 73 per cent of people did not know the exact end locations of their recyclables, and 32 per cent would be ‘much more likely or more likely to recycle’ if more information about end destinations was made available to them.

Read theDry Recycling End Destinations report.

Image taken from the report.