Recycling on the rise in the UK…but slowly

A new study compiled by Valpak, a packaging compliance regulator, shows UK households and businesses are recycling one third of all their packaging in 2004 - an increase from around one quarter in 2002 more waste packaging.

The Valpak packaging recycling report also found that approximately 2 billion aluminum cans and 2.5 billion steel cans, 3.5 billion glass bottles and glass jars, 1 billion plastic bottles were recycled by British households in 2004. This brings the total recycled weight of packaging, including cardboard containers, to 1.25 million tons. UK business generated 5.6m tons of packaging in 2004 of which 66% of which were recycled.

The British government wants 30% of British waste to be recycled by 2010 but their current rate of recycling is rate said to be at around 14.5%. Despite nearly 60% of household waste being recyclable, Britain has one of the worst records in Europe when it comes to recycling with some parts of the country councils only manage to recycle 10% or less. Compare this to countries such as Austria whose people recycle 60% of their trash while Switzerland and the Netherlands which are also recycling at 50% plus.

In the next part we will discuss Recycle Now, the British recycling and educational initiative.