Hackney recycling efforts hit a brick wall
Green sacks were supposed to help boost the recycling rate. Image: Hackney Council
The recycling rate in Hackney has stalled, with little increase over the last five years, analysis of Council figures by the Hackney Citizen shows.
The figures come despite the introduction of ‘commingled’ recycling last March – which was supposed to boost the recycling rate.
The scheme saw boxes for recycling replaced by green sacks, which could be used for all dry recyclables.
When it was brought in last year, the Council said it was predicted to help achieve a recycling rate of 34 per cent recycling rate by 2020.
Council figures show that the rate has remained largely static, at around 25 per cent, since the middle of 2009, however.
In the period October to December 2013 – the last period for which figures are available – 25.8 per cent of all household waste was recycled. This was marginally above rates achieved in the last three years, but still below a high of slightly more than 26 per cent achieved in early 2010.
Councillor Feryal Demirci, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “The increase in recycling performance is slowing across the whole country. In England the annual rate of increase in recycling has slowed to 0.2% over the past three years. Our recycling rate for 2013/14 is estimated to have increased by at least 1%.”
The Council said that improving recycling was becoming increasingly difficult in inner London, with high density housing a barrier that urban areas faced.
“We have improved our recycling services to such an extent that we believe we now have one of the most comprehensive services in the country,” Councillor Demirci said.
“However, some residents are still putting lots of recyclable materials in their general rubbish bins. We are currently completing a participation survey so we can find out about the levels of recycling in different parts of the borough. We will use this information to target communications to encourage people to waste less and recycle more.”
I was under the impression the change to bags was to save money and hadn’t heard anything about it helping to increase the amount of recycling happening. Personally I think the new service is less user friendly so would assume it would do the opposite. From what I understand it is less environmentally friendly too so defeats the object.
I’m interested to know why you find the new service less user friendly. The move to sacks is saving money, but the aim is also to allow us to collect more recycling and reduce the amount of residual waste. Boxes limit the amount of recycling residents are able to leave out for collection whereas they can now put out as many green sacks as they want. The modelling we did when we looked at changing the collection method suggested that if we had kept the boxes our recycling rate would have gone down.
I find the sacks very easy to use. The ‘commingled’ recycling makes it far more convenient to recycle more stuff. Previously I only recycled glass and metals and I took these to streetside recycling banks myself.
I have defiantly find the new service much worse. Will the council staff who promised an increase in recycling now me sacked! I expect not. I cant see how its any cheaper as new sacks every week is really wasteful. Also apparently its really bad for the environment.
Separate collection using boxes enables higher quality recycling, better prices for materials and reduced environmental impacts. Co-mingled services can cost more, be worse for the environment and don’t necessarily mean higher recycling rates. If separate collections services are provided properly they are almost always preferable to co-mingling.
The boxes are simpler to use than the sacks.
Really outrageous propaganda from the council regarding these recycling bags and the need to commingle to increase the levels of recycling. No the truth is out, the officers lied! The service is terrible, bring back the boxes NOW please. apparently its not even legal to have commingle recycling from next year due to the fact it cant be recycled properly.
Priority should be on educating the public about recycling – reduce and reuse prior to recycling.
By providing plastic bags and more of them allows us to generate even more waste. It makes us feel better about ourselves, but recycled waste is still waste. The collection of it from our door simply removes it from our sight.
There should be separate containers for each material, which makes it easier to firstly understand sorting and which is more effective for the rest of the process of recycling.