Charity calls for greater transparency over recycled material

A charity has launched a charter to improve public information about end destinations of recovered materials.

A new professional advocacy body for the reprocessing and recycling industries has launched a charter designed to provide the public with a clearer picture of where their recycling ends up.

The Resource Association said the public needs greater transparency over recycled material and waste management.

The initiative, supported by the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) was welcomed by the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The scheme's organisers hope that greater transparency about the end destination for household waste will improve public confidence in recycling and encourage greater use of recycling schemes.

Those signing up to the voluntary scheme will commit to providing the public with accessible information by publishing, at least once a year, a Register of End Destinations of Recyclates that covers the materials collected and provides the names and locations of the final reprocessing points, whether in the UK or abroad.

The initiative is aimed at councils in England and Northern Ireland, private sector contractors, materials reprocessors and waste brokers.

Research shows the public supports recycling but wants more information about what happens beyond the point of collection.

Figures from Defra and DoE in Northern Ireland, for example, show that household recycling rates have more than quadrupled in ten years.

However, a recent poll commissioned by the Resource Association found 73 per cent of respondents said that they don't know the exact location of where the materials they put out for recycling go and 65 per cent don’t know what these materials will be made into.

"Everyone knows that recycling their rubbish is the right thing to do, but most people are completely unaware of what happens to their recycling after they put it out for collection," said Defra waste minister Lord Taylor of Holbeach.

"This new charter developed by the Resource Association and LARAC provides people with the answers and will hopefully provide an extra incentive for people to recycle more."

Posted by Claire Manning