New regulations for recycling in the UK are being called for by the Local Government Association (LGA) after an ITV programme exposed that locally-collected waste meant for recycling was being dumped in rural India.
The LGA is demanding a system that is transparent and accountable, encouraging residents to continue recycling efforts.
All council leaders in both England and Wales have received letters from the association stressing the necessity of providing residents with reliable information about the sale of recycled materials.
The ITV programme tracked down mail – that had been recycled - originally sent to residents of Leicestershire County Council and Tendring, Wellingborough and Wakefield District Councils.
These local authorities had collected and mingled recyclable materials and sent them on to a sorting facility which was supposed to sell the material to factories to be recycled. The contractors are licensed, according to authorities, and they indicated that they would be conducting an investigation into the situation.
According to the programme, none of the 46 local authorities knew what happens to their recyclable waste after it was sent on to the sorting facilities.
A spokesman for the LGA, Paul Bettison, commented: “Certainly from the indications that we have a local authority should be attempting to find out what happens to their recyclates and simply knowing that you’ve sent them to the sorting facility does not guarantee that it’s then going to be recycled.”
The co-ordinator of the Community Recycling Network, Andy Moore, stressed that local authorities are responsible for knowing what happens to their recyclable waste, and to ensure that the recycling is occurring.
Thanks to packagingnews.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.
www.lga.gov.uk
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