Be not deceived by government denials: waste management performance in England has hit a wall. While elsewhere the devolved administrations continue to reap benefits from ambition and some investment, the trend of year-on-year increased recycling rates looks to be over.

Once again, Resource’s compilation of both national and individual councils’ waste management performance throws a focus on residual arisings per capita, as well as recycling rates and the total waste arisings. We continue to hold the view that residual waste per capita is the single best measure of how well we are doing in pursuit of the ideal state of zero waste, though other measures are also important in establishing the most efficient flow of resources.

Our table of national performance in the UK covers the year 2013 to ensure fair comparison between all countries, given SEPA’s decision to report Scotland’s figures for the calendar year, putting it out of step with the rest of the UK (more on this shortly). In doing this, it is important to recognise that the winter of 2013 was considerably drier than normal, and according to Defra, green waste arisings for Quarter 1 of this year were 27 per cent lower than in 2012.

In part due to this, for the first time since Resource began scrutinising the UK’s waste data (in 2002), the overall UK recycling rate fell in a calendar year. This fact has gone largely unnoticed by the industry, as Scotland has been reporting on a different schedule to the rest of the UK, and the focus for reporting elsewhere is on the year April to March. However, regardless of the climatic adjustment, the warning bells really ought to be going off at Defra.

That being said, the news is not all bad. Total waste arising per capita fell from 442.6 kilogrammes (kg) to 425.5kg and, as a result, residual waste per capita fell from 249.9kg to 240.8kg, though (again) this is largely influenced by the variation in green waste arisings. It remains the case that total waste arising per capita is lower in England than elsewhere in the UK, which probably reflects that a higher proportion of trade or commercial waste is collected alongside household waste in the devolved countries. Whether this is matched by revenue from businesses may be a matter that warrants further investigation, especially at a time that local authorities are encouraged to be more enterprising. Regardless, those fears that the UK might not achieve its obligations under the Landfill Directive have long since disappeared; instead, concern will surely turn to the 50 per cent recycling targets from the revised Waste Framework Directive (rWFD).

Praise should continue to be heaped on Wales, which has maintained its significant progress, despite consensus that the task will become ever more challenging with each gain. Our data varies slightly with the Welsh Government’s own measure of municipal recycling as we use the National Indicator 192 for household rather than municipal waste arisings for comparability. However, both Scotland and Northern Ireland have now shown similar levels of improvement in their overall recycling rates, suggesting each has a reasonable chance of making the rWFD 2020 targets.

If we look at the year 2013/14, England’s overall recycling rate did improve by 0.3 per cent on the previous reporting year, in part due to organic recycling returning to more typical levels in January to March 2014. Given this, it seems reasonable to conclude that the underlying trend for the overall recycling rate in England is (at best) flat. Furthermore, if the Materials Facility (MF) Regulations result in improved rejection and contamination data from materials recovery facilities (MRFs), then England’s overall rate is likely to go into reverse in the coming years. However, it remains to be seen how MRF operators will take to recording the data, and how effective the Environment Agency will be at monitoring this. While the regulations have been in force since October, the Environment Agency has yet to do a single inspection as it waits for Defra to confirm the charging scheme for MRF operators.

Local authority performance

Overall in the UK, excluding Scotland, 51 per cent of waste disposal authorities’ (WDAs) and unitary authorities’ (UAs) recycling rates improved, while 46 per cent went backwards. It’s clear that a lack of funding is having an impact. In England, where waste management departments have felt the sharpest squeeze, 53 per cent of WDAs’ and UAs’ recycling rates declined in 2013/14; over half of WCAs (51 per cent) similarly experienced worsening recycling rates during this time. While our analysis does not extend to how this correlates to the level of public spending on recycling in each local authority, the ongoing DCLG cuts must be a main contender when looking for an explanation.

That’s not to say there haven’t been notable success stories where recycling is still going up and waste going down. Ashford District Council in Kent was comfortably the most improved waste collection authority (WCA), ditching its tag as England’s worst recycler. In 2013/14, its recycling rate jumped an impressive 30 per cent to 41.9 per cent, exceeding the publicly-stated expectation of the council; as a result, residual per capita fell by 110kg. This achievement was due to a significant service change rolled out by Biffa, notably involving alternate weekly collections of residual waste, a weekly collection of food waste, and collection of a wide range of co-mingled dry recyclables (with an exceptionally low MRF reject rate of 2.7 per cent).

Overall, the most improved local authorities in this year’s tables have achieved success through service changes or enhancements. Conversely, it is clear that a service that makes no changes or enhancements actually tends to experience a decline in overall recycling capture over time. Clearly, this presents an issue for councils looking to reduce spending on waste management services.

Turning to the top spots in the WCA table, the Vale of White Horse once again leads the way with the lowest residual arisings per person, 114.2kg in 2013/14, which, though slightly higher than the year before, should be seen as progress given the increase in garden waste in this largely rural authority. Neighbouring South Oxfordshire runs it close, with a residual per capita of 123.7kg, but notably tops the recycling table with 65.7 per cent.

One issue our analysis found with both of these top performers was the reporting of MRF reject data: both councils send dry recyclables to as many as five different MRFs in each quarter, but the reject rate reported for all sites is identical in each quarter, suggesting they are not based on weighbridge data at each site.

This minor issue aside, it certainly appears to be the case that, across the board, councils in Oxfordshire are well ahead of other comparable demographics. Arguably, this is a result in long-term investment in waste awareness across the county, and whether the decision to terminate the Oxfordshire Waste Partnership will have an impact on this remains to be seen.

Other notable improvers in the WCA table include North Hertfordshire, which added 10 per cent to its recycling rate, reducing residual per capita by 40.5kg. Again, this was due to a service change, using the old residual bins for a new co-mingled recycling service and introducing a smaller bin for residual waste. Indeed, since Resource began compiling these annual tables and interrogating the data, the key driver of recycling rates continues to be the relative capacity of the residual and kerbside recycling service, and the range of materials offered for recycling. Eric Pickles’s ongoing crusade remains farcical in the face of the evidence here.

Elsewhere, Salford’s decision to roll out a new food waste service to 60,000 households played a key role in reducing residual arisings by 58.1kg and increasing the recycling rate by 10.6 per cent. Arguably, the single biggest reason why Wales’s recycling rate is currently 10 per cent better than the rest of the UK’s is the Welsh Government’s firm commitment to separate food waste collection. On this basis, we expect to see Scotland make significant gains based on its government commitment in this area.

Conversely, there are signs that the two-tier framework of WDAs and WCAs that characterises a significant proportion of England might hold back gains that might be achieved through separate food waste collection. Several WCAs have recently withdrawn this offering to households in order to save costs as they do not benefit adequately from the avoided disposal fees, but rather just pick up the bill for collecting kitchen waste. As many WDAs have now invested in substantial energy-from-waste facilities, it remains to be seen how motivated these will be to address the issue. Potentially, this issue warrants further evaluation at all levels.

Turning to the UK table (excluding Scotland), it’s notable that seven of the top 20 places are occupied by Welsh local authorities; given that there are only 22 councils in Wales, this is no mean feat. However, topping the list is the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in Yorkshire, which had a residual waste arising of 152kg per capita in 2013/14. This is the second year running that the Yorkshire authority has topped the table, though once again the figures for both Calderdale and high-flying Bradford appear to count compost-like output (CLO) from the residual waste stream as recycling, which should not be the case.

In Scotland, it’s notable that the residual waste arising per capita fell in 29 of the 32 local authorities, though, as noted, these figures cover the calendar year of 2013, which included a much lower arising of organic waste in January to March. In addition, waste data reporting methodology changed so that household waste figures did not include material originating from commercial premises.

Going forward, eyes will be on Scotland’s ability to deliver policy that has more in common with Wales than England. As those 2020 European targets are coming into view, we expect the devolved administrations to have achieved sufficient gains – Wales has already surpassed the mark. But, as things currently stand, the drag in English waste policy and investment means the UK is unlikely to meet the overall 50 per cent target. No doubt the UK government will have begun discussing the likely consequences of this with counterparts at the European Commission.

Click for the England WCA, Scotland, or United Countries league tables for 2013/14.