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Recyclate is currently unsorted in Camden, which means it must be sent overseas for processing |
The dirty secret of where your recycling really goes
The contents of your ‘green’ box are being sent to the Far East by a council that can’t cope
SHIPLOADS of recycling conscientiously sorted on Camden residents’ doorsteps are still sent to China, India and the Far East despite criticism of the practice by leading councillors when they were in opposition.
Every item of paper placed in Camden’s recycling bins is sent to Malaysia, Indonesia, India or China, according to figures released to the New Journal this week under Freedom of Information rules.
All of the borough’s waste plastic goes to China.
The Town Hall’s official “eco-champion”, Belsize councillor Alexis Rowell, called the revelations “a scandal” and said the policies overseen by his Lib Dem colleagues and their Tory partners in the cabinet were “probably the least environmentally responsible thing”.
Blaming the council’s cost-cutting policy of lumping all types of waste together for the fact that the contaminated recycling can only be processed abroad, he said: “This is the worst possible thing we could do for the environment. If we took it to landfill we’d do less damage to the environment. And unless they [the waste authorities] can show you data proving that it is recycled in the Far East, it is perfectly possible that it isn’t used in industrial processes at all, just dumped in landfill anyway.”
Residents could be forgiven for believing that the council’s record on waste management is exemplary. The recycling pages of the council’s website give a detailed account of how the waste is collected and sorted but make no mention of the fact that any of the recyclate goes abroad. The page entitled “What happens to my recycling after it’s collected?”, states only that: “The final baled recycling is sent to manufacturers who make it into new products.”
In fact, the material is only beginning a journey that takes it thousands of miles.
Of newspapers and pamphlets collected in Camden, 10 per cent are sent to Malaysia and 90 per cent are sent to Indonesia, while a fifth of mixed papers are sent to China with the remaining 80 per cent ending up in India. Only steel, aluminium and glass are recycled in UK processing plants.
The council is locked into a seven-year, £16 million a year contract with waste company Veolia, as well as having many of its waste services dealt with through the North London Waste Authority (NLWA), a partnership of seven boroughs.
Veolia takes most of Camden’s – and the NLWA’s – recycling to its depot at Greenwich, where much of it is loaded onto ships bound for the Far East. Many recycling experts hold that this is no bad thing. The ships that bring China’s vast number of imports to the UK would return home empty were it not for the fact they are stuffed to the gunwales with used British plastics, which in turn make the next generation of plastic goods. Fortunes have been made in India and Indonesia by lucratively recycling discarded British paper to feed Asia’s roaring manufacturing economy.
A Friends of the Earth spokeswoman said: “It is important to recycle as much as we can in the UK. But we recognise that a global market exists for the most-in-demand materials.”
Leading Lib Dem councillors, however, criticised the previous Labour administration in 2005 for the fact recycling was sent abroad and demanded a full audit of the recycling process when they came to power in partnership with the Conservatives in 2006.
The council set aside £10,000 for that investigation last February but on Monday, Town Hall officials said that the final report was an internal document which could not be released yet.
Lib Dem council leader Keith Moffitt led criticisms of the previous regime’s policy of exporting recyclate and admitted on Tuesday that he was “still very concerned” about the policy’s continuation under his administration.
He said: “I have concerns about co-mingling and about the final destination of our recycling, but you have to bear in mind that we are operating under some long-term contracts... and targets under which we are penalised for landfill.
“I called for the audit and I do want firm evidence on which to base our actions.”
Conservative environment chief Councillor Mike Greene, declined to comment on the figures when the New Journal contacted him on Monday, referring questions to the council’s press office.
A Town Hall press official said: “Most UK waste contractors use facilities in Asia to reprocess some materials – for example, plastic into other products – and half of all recyclable material produced in the UK is sent overseas for reprocessing. This is because there are not currently enough facilities in the UK to reprocess and re-manufacture all of the materials that people in the UK recycle.”
NLWA, Camden Council’s disposal authority, said it was a signatory to the Recycling Registration Scheme, whose members have to make sure that materials shipped abroad are in line with international rules.
A spokesman added: “Under the scheme recyclable material going abroad must be sent to recovery facilities operating to standards broadly equivalent to those set down by EU regulations.” |
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