The State of Recycling in the UK

15 min readSep 9, 2024

The other day, I was on a hike with some friends and we started to talk about our passion projects and what was holding us back in pursuing them. For a while now, I have been fed up with the state of recycling in the UK, the materials that are accepted across councils are inconsistent which leads to confusion. This was further heightened now that I have temporarily moved back home to Reading from Cambridge to have a break before pursuing my master’s at Imperial College London. Cambridge, in my opinion, has some of the best recycling in the UK, it can accept pretty much anything from glass to plastic film. However, Reading is not so great, plastic film is not accepted and neither is glass. Since becoming more passionate about recycling, I also experienced the habits of my family members with a new eye. Yoghurt pots are not washed out and often recyclables are placed in the bin. This is by no means a criticism of my family, recycling is confusing and in coming back to Reading I often accidentally placed glass and plastic film in recycling out of habit.

In previous blogs, I have looked at a machine-learning solution to improve the ease of recycling. I paused this project due to difficulties in collecting a dataset. However, based on our conversation on the hike, I wanted to get back into this project. To start I decided to do a deep dive into the state of the recycling in the UK. Is it as bad as I thought and if so, what can be done about it?

The Current Stats on Recycling

Recycling is an established norm; nine in ten households (90%) say that they regularly recycle in contrast to 8% who recycle occasionally and 3% who rarely or never. However, there is room for improvement. 53% of UK citizens dispose of items in waste that could be collected for recycling. The biggest offender for this is foil. This increases to 80% if glass perfume/aftershave bottles are included [1].

Unfortunately, the recycling rate for UK households has been declining. In 2017, the recycling rate was 45.7% [3] and in 2022/2023 it dropped to 43.3% [5].

To put this in perspective, the top recycling rate for any country in the EU for 2021 was Germany [25] with a recycling rate of 67.8% [26].

Across the UK, there is considerable variation in recycling rate, for example, Wales has the highest recycling rate of 56.7% in 2021. Scotland was 41.7% in 2021 and Northern Ireland was 48.4% [2].

Previously, when the United Kingdom was a member of the European Union, the recycling target was set at 50% by 2020. For England, in 2018 a new recycling target was set at 65% by 2035. Based on the rates above, we can see that we failed to reach even the lower target set by the EU. Additional work is needed to improve our recycling rates if we are to hit our 65% target by 2035 [6].

What are the barriers to recycling?

It is important to note that the ‘recycling rate’ referred to above is the amount of waste collected for recycling as a percentage of the total waste collected. This is not the actual amount of waste recycled. As we will see, finding out this rate is more complicated due to two main factors. Nevertheless, we should investigate why the rate of waste collected for recycling is low. There are a few reasons why:

Physical Barriers

Residents who live in houses that have the space to store more recycling lead to a better recycling rate compared to residents who live in flats. We can see this correlation in the fact that councils that preside outside dense urban areas often see a higher recycling rate than councils that reside in dense urban areas [6].

Socio-Economic Barriers

Residents with a higher level of education are more aware of the environmental benefits of recycling, whereas residents with a lower level of education may not be in a position to understand the benefits. This leads to a higher recycling rate for those with higher levels of education [6].

In addition, residents in areas of deprived households, with a lower income may not allocate time or focus to recycling as they are more preoccupied with meeting essential needs. So, they have a lower recycling rate than those with a higher income. Of course, the level of education affects the level of income, so these two points are closely related. A lower income also affects the type of housing that can be afforded. Therefore, a lower income can mean a lack of storage for recycling and therefore contribute to lower recycling rates [6].

Waste Policy Constraints

Generally speaking, the public is not involved in the design of the recycling infrastructure and waste policies. The policies are mainly directed to manufacturers, superstores and waste companies, but not to the public who produce waste. This disconnect can lead to a lower recycling rate [6].

It is shown that fewer items are disposed of incorrectly by households that have a multi-stream recycling scheme (sorting materials into different containers) [2]. In some areas, the infrastructure does not exist to have this source segregation, which can lead to a lower recycling rate [6].

There is no direct charge to householders for the production of waste, instead, it is collected via council tax. This has been shown to fuel negative incentives for the majority of householders to improve their recycling habits [6].

As hinted in the introduction, there is confusion about recycling schemes. I.e. which items should be deposited in each bin. This of course reduces the recycling rate [6].

Effective Communication and Public Engagement

The public has a lack of awareness of the benefits of recycling, which does not encourage recycling to take place. If there is a heightened awareness of the benefits, one would hope that this would lead to a higher dedication to recycling, increasing the rate [6].

As well, if there is a high proportion of non-English speakers within a particular community, the language of communication used when speaking on the benefits of recycling could be discriminative and the communication itself fails to engage with the non-English speaking population. This further reduces the rate of recycling [6].

The Actual Rate of Recycling

As written above, the rates mentioned are the rates of waste that is collected for recycling. The amount of this waste actually being recycled is harder to measure due to two issues:

The Export of Recyclable Waste

Nearly two-thirds of plastic waste in the UK is sent overseas to be recycled, partly to reduce costs [3]. In 2023, 568,000 tonnes of plastic waste was exported from the UK [7]. In 2020 the main export destinations were Turkey (38%), Poland (7%), and Netherlands (7%) [8]. Thus, it is hard actually to know how much is being recycled.

Waste is exported for a few reasons [9]:

Lack of capacity; the UK does not have enough infrastructure to recycle all its plastic waste domestically.
It is often cheaper to recycle in other countries.
The UK is good at recycling some plastics (such as PET and HDPE) but lacks the technology to process the harder-to-recycle plastics (e.g. PVC, polystyrene).

Contamination Issues

Collected recycling can be contaminated, leading to the waste not being recycled and sent to landfill or incinerated [10].

When we say “contamination” we mean the presence of non-recyclable materials that end up in the recycling system [11]. This includes [12]:

Non-recyclable waste material mixed in with recyclables e.g. non-recyclable plastics
Target materials contaminated with unwanted items e.g. food contaminated cardboard or plastic bottles containing liquids.
Wrong recyclable materials mixed with target materials e.g. paper in a plastics recyclable bin.

Nearly 17% of recycling waste in England and Wales cannot be recycled due to contamination, and this is increasing with time. For example, in 2016 the contamination rate was 13.4% and in 2020 it rose to 17% [13].

Breaking it down, recyclable items placed in the wrong bin made up 6.5% of contaminated waste in 2020 whereas non-recyclables (items that cannot be recycled or are too contaminated) made up 10.4% of contaminated waste [13].

A Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) survey revealed that over 81% of UK households add one or more items to their recycling collection that is not accepted locally [12]. Specifically in Leicestershire, 6250 tonnes of material had to be disposed of in 2020 due to contamination [27].

Why do we have contamination issues for recycling in the UK?

The evidence points to the contamination of recyclables being a large-scale problem [12]. It is caused by a few factors:

Incorrect disposal: Recyclable items are disposed of in the wrong bins [12].
Lack of cleaning: Items have not been rinsed before being recycled (e.g. yoghurt pots) [12].
Wishcycling: This refers to when people assume that items are recyclable when they are not or are not accepted locally [12]. The top ten items that are put in recycling (in 2023) that shouldn’t be are [1]:

Drinking glasses (33%)
Toothpaste tubes (27%)
Foil pouches (25%)
Glass cookware (23%)
Plastic film lids (22%)
Tissues & Paper towels (20%)
Cartons (20%)
Plastic film (18%)
Plastic toys (17%)
Frozen veg bags (17%)

Contamination means that recyclable resources are lost and cannot be reused, if contamination levels are too high, then entire loads of recyclables can be rejected — leading them to go to landfills [14]. In some extreme cases, a single householder including the wrong materials may mean that a whole load needs to be rejected or sent to landfill [12].

Contamination also increases the cost of recycling as now extra work needs to be done in the recycling stream to remove it [14]. Contaminated materials can take longer to sort at the facilities and can need additional sorting, there is also the additional cost of disposing of contaminants. They also can damage equipment, for example, the cost needed to shut down a paper mill, which could be required to repair or replace machinery affected by contamination is up to £100,000 per hour. Also, collection vehicles fill up more quickly if contaminants are present, meaning more trips and possibly more vehicles to service a round, further increasing the cost [12].

The bottom line is that increased collection and reprocessing costs are accrued due to contamination. This is passed back to local authorities, and in some cases, they pay back tens of thousands of pounds a year in additional fees [12].

Interestingly, some contamination behaviour is carried out knowingly, with container inspections finding waste hidden under recycling. Another interesting point is that committed recyclers are some of the worst contamination offenders and are often driven by guilt about waste. People generally, do not understand how their behaviours impact the system nor how the system works [12].

As local authority spending has decreased, communication about what can and cannot be recycled has reduced. More and more people are putting the wrong items into recycling collections over time. However, correlation does not equal causation and it is difficult to prove that a lack of communication has caused this [12].

What can be done to improve the rate of recycling in the UK?

How to reduce contamination:

There are several ways to reduce contamination of recyclables:

Clear signage showing what can or cannot be recycled should be displayed. This could be placing stickers on recycling bins, these remind the householders what can and cannot be recycled every time they use the bin [12].

The signage and information provided must be positive and clear. The main reasons why householders contaminate are [12]:

A lack of understanding of what can and cannot be recycled.
Confusion in regards to specific materials e.g. plastic film.
Service changes

WRAP’s recycling tracker in 2020 indicated that a leaflet from the council is the most prominent source of information compared to the council website or social media [12].

Communications also need to result in a bin not being collected if contaminants are present, effective communications are proactive and disruptive. If a bin is collected, even if it contains contaminants, the householder will not realise that there is something in the container that should not be there. If the container is unemptied and marked unemptied due to contaminants, this will encourage the householder to act [12].

Collection crews play a key role in establishing if contamination is an issue. They can report back where it is the worst and the types of contamination commonly found [12].

Encourage source segregation. As seen above, schemes that have multiple bins for different types of recycling increase the recycling rates. This would also reduce contamination but relies on additional infrastructure i.e. extra bins and collection systems for each bin are needed [6].

Introduce education systems to inform the public on how to properly recycle, this could be done at a school level, rather than having non-mandatory courses for adults. This also has the benefit of preparing the youth for future sustainable living.

Make recycling easy. If recycling is a complex task, most people are likely to put it in waste or put it in a recycling bin when it cannot be recycled.

Pre-cycling: Encourage people to properly prepare their recyclables for recycling by separating the materials and cleaning them, e.g. rinsing food containers [14].

Keeping recycling bins and systems consistent across areas can reduce confusion.

The UK has 39 different bin collection regimes across 391 local authorities [15], leading to confusion about what can be recycled at home. If the systems and infrastructures were consistent across the country, this would have a knock-on effect where the recyclable labelling on packing would become consistent and clearer. This would make it far easier for households to know what can and cannot be recycled [15].
However, we should still tailor or modify the systems in line with local characteristics, as it has been found that harmonising the collection system across the board may also create other issues [6].

What about the recycling systems and infrastructure?

We can upgrade our recycling solutions and technologies.

This should be applied in two areas, first in the way we advertise and explain what can be recycled. The US, for example, have interactive fridge magnets and keychains that let the public know what can and cannot be recycled [16].
Secondly, we need to upgrade our recycling infrastructure to accept different materials, particularly plastic. This has a knock-on effect of reducing our exported recycling. For example, Cambridge City Council can recycle plastic food wrapping, which most councils (80%) cannot [17].

Simpler recycling:

There is an idea for a one-bin solution. Named “One Bin to Rule Them All” [18], this system proposed would make it easy for households to recycle by having one bin for all plastic items. This along with better recycling infrastructure would enable more plastic to be recycled and fed back into the system. This also shifts the sorting onto the council or to whoever processes the recycling. However, if we move from a multi-bin system to this, it is key that we have the sorting facilities at the recycling centre to prevent contamination.

Consider making recycling mandatory. I.e. make it a legal obligation for households to separate recyclable materials from landfill waste and ensure that recyclable materials are placed in the designated bins. Failure to comply with this could result in fines.

Expand the collection systems so that more recyclable materials are collected for more households. This ties into the first point, we could collect more recyclable materials across areas and simply export them to countries that can process the newly collected materials. However, ensuring that we have the local systems to recycle these is a bonus as it means that we no longer rely on exports.

Consider having incentive programs for proper recycling. E.g. credits on utility bills, a plastic deposit scheme or public transport tickets.

For example, each plastic bottle in Germany has a deposit (Pfand) attached to it. Returning the bottle gives the deposit back [19].
This is widely called a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). In this scheme, consumers are charged an additional deposit fee when they purchase a drink in a single-use container. This is meant to act as an incentive to support recycling and is redeemed when the consumer returns the empty container [20].
For example, in EU countries with DRS, there was between 82% and 98% return rate of bottles and cans in 2011 [6].
Bracknell Forest Council in the UK has a reward system that applies points every time a bin is emptied. Points can then be spent in libraries, parks and the leisure centre [21].

Involve households in the creation of waste collection and disposal schemes. Currently, there is public distrust in the recycling systems and householders are not sure if the recycled waste is actually recycled or not. Householder’s compliance with recycling is key to increasing the recycling rate. Therefore, involving householders in the design of waste collection schemes can build trust and increase the rate of recycling. Providing tours around recycling facilities also demonstrates to householders that their efforts to separate recyclables from non-recyclables are worthwhile [6].

Finally, create storage for recycling in smaller houses and flats. This could take the form of shared bin sheds for flats for example [6].

Recycling at Large Supermarkets

This last section is more for my education than anything else. Often, some packaging will have a sticker to recycle it at a supermarket, rather than at home. Some examples include salad bags, crisp packets and fruit and vegetable packaging. I’ve wondered why this is the case, this is because, often these items cannot be recycled at home and often go to waste [22]. As seen above, plastic film wrappers found on fruit or vegetables can only be recycled in 20% of councils.

Supermarkets can use their delivery trucks to transport collected recyclables back to distribution centres or specialised recycling facilities to handle flexible plastics [23].

The idea is that it is not too much effort to drop off your flexible plastics at the supermarket whilst you do your shopping. It offers a one-stop solution.

There are other motives to this as well. Providing recycling facilities can be used as a marketing tool to enhance a supermarket’s reputation. However, it is important to note that recycling is not as impactful as we might like to think. It takes energy to recycle and not everything we recycle magically turns back into the item we used. For example, the quality of plastic degrades as we recycle it, reducing its uses for it [24].

This can lead to some confusion though. In the 20% of councils that do recycle plastic film, labels on packaging that state to bring it to a supermarket are no longer needed. This highlights the need for consistent recycling facilities across councils which would bring the benefit of correct and consistent recycling labels across packaging too.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the state of recycling is pretty dire in my opinion. Whilst I know that recycling is not the magic solution to our environmental problems, it is clear that there is a large inefficiency in our recycling system in the UK that should be addressed. In my experience, the confusion and general lack of education on what can or cannot be recycled leads to a reduction in the recycling rate. If we want to increase the recycling rate, we need to make recycling easy and accessible.

My ideal solution to this involves a one-bin system that would clean and separate recyclables from non-recyclables. It could also sort recyclables into separate bins which would take the burden off the council. This would remove any confusion from households in terms of what can be recycled as all the sorting takes place in the bins. These separate bins could then be emptied into separate wheelie bins for collection.

This bin system would ideally be placed in every household and also scattered around the cities and towns. Whilst this would require a significant investment, it would reduce costs associated with education about the recycling system in the council and reduce costs associated with dealing with contaminated recycling.

I would love to hear other people’s opinions on recycling in the UK and elsewhere. Feel free to reach out to me at nathanbaileyw@gmail.com if you have any experiences or suggestions about how to improve the recycling systems across the globe.

References

The State of Recycling in the UK

Written by Nathan Bailey