It seems as though the United Kingdom is one of the most developed and advanced countries in the world, but when it comes to recycling they are still in the dark ages. IN the 1990’s the UK was only recycling about five percent of its rubbish while countries like Germany were already requiring a fifty percent recycling rate from all of their citizens. This led to the UK signing the EC Landfill Directive in 1999, which should have signified the beginning of the era in which waste creators were held accountable for the rubbish they were making. However, while the rest of Europe managed to get recycling rates well over their targets, the UK is still lagging behind and many people are starting to ask why the UK is nearly a decade behind the rest of the European Union when it comes to recycling rates.
One of the things that held back recycling rates was the government itself. It took the UK over eight years to raise landfill fees, which most people believe is the number one motivating factor in keeping waste out of landfills. In 1996 businesses only had to pay seven pounds per tonne to dump rubbish in a landfill compared to today’s fee which stands at nearly fifty pounds per tonne. With the charge being applied to every district and council in the UK, it was very effective at getting people to recycle more, but it was just ten years too late.
Many have also criticized the government for putting the responsibility solely on the shoulders of local councils instead of instituting more national regulations.
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