Should councils be forced to reveal where their recycling goes?

Published by phil hurst for Campaign for Real Recycling in Environment and also in Local Government

Newspaper headlines like “Recycling Fiasco” and “The big recycling con” are at best unhelpful; at worst may actually discourage people from recycling.

Revealing the final location of materials collected is one way some councils are trying to ensure their populations “keep the faith” in recycling terms. In part it may be a response to the increasingly asked question “where does my recycling go”, or even worse, “is it really recycled?”

A quick random (and I readily admit unscientific) search of twenty local authorities found no information whatsoever on where the materials recycled end up – not a good start.

If you want to see how it could be done, however, then follow the links below. With varying degrees of detail and success, these councils (and I am sure many others do), provide an answer to the question “where does it go”? But even the most thorough final use register (Somerset), although excellent, took a lot of finding.

But should this final destination disclosure be a legal requirement? These councils clearly feel it important enough to warrant publishing a register – so why shouldn’t everybody?

Towards the end of last year a Waste Recycling (End Use Register) Bill was tabled in Parliament. With a general election around the corner it’s highly unlikely to become law this time round, but there was significant interest from a cross section of MPs.

What do 24Dash.com readers think? Recycling End Use Register legislation; reassurance for an increasingly sceptical public or simply more paperwork?

Barnet LB click here – good, thorough and easy to find.
Chiltern District council click here – thorough and fairly easy to find.
Ealing LB click here – easy to find but a little vague.
Dudley click here –easy to find, clear and simple – could expand range of materials covered.
Somerset click here – extremely thorough – perhaps best of the lot - but quite hard to find!

Apologies to all those other authorities who disclose similar information – we don’t have the resources to research you all.