Thousands of tonnes of Suffolk recycling ends up overseas each year
Ever wondered where the stuff you recycle in Suffolk actually ends up?
Last updated 23rd Jun 2021
The final destinations for Suffolk’s recycling waste have been revealed – with global spots like India and Vietnam among those to take thousands of tonnes of card and paper waste.
Data published on the Suffolk Recycling website provides a breakdown of the top nations to take in Suffolk’s recycling waste for 2019/20, the most recent year available.
For steel and aluminium cans, the overwhelming majority – 3,470 tonnes out of the 3,605 collected last year, or 96% – were processed in the UK, with 121 tonnes going to Germany.
For plastic, 5,628 tonnes of the total 8,635 collected last year were re-processed in the UK, while other nations included Turkey (1,307 tonnes), Romania (509 tonnes), Netherlands (429 tonnes) and Germany (274 tonnes) took on our waste.
But for paper and card, thousands of tonnes of Suffolk’s waste was being exported abroad.
A quarter of all Suffolk’s 6,856 tonnes of card collected annually was shipped to Vietnam, while India took 23.4%, China 17.7% and Indonesia 15.1%. Just 0.7% remained in the UK for processing.
Meanwhile, for the 24,530 tonnes of paper from Suffolk, the UK processed only slightly more (28.5% or 6,980 tonnes) than it shipped to India (23.4% or 6,500 tonnes). Indonesia was another to receive large amounts at 4,270 tonnes or 17.4%.
Suffolk County Council Green councillor Andrew Stringer feared there could be a carbon debt from shipping vast amounts abroad, and said he would like to see more investment to close off the loop and process recycling waste in the UK.
A spokesman from Suffolk Waste Partnership said: “Exporting materials for recycling is still a far better environmental option than not recycling. One of the reasons is because exports are often taken in shipping containers which would otherwise travel back empty on their return journeys.
“As with many other modern industries, the recycling industry is global. Many of the manufactured products we use come from overseas, in particular Asia, therefore there is a higher demand for certain types of materials in these countries and they often have a far larger capacity for recycling certain materials than in the UK. Paper and card make up the majority of exported materials, whereas 96% of metal and 65% of plastic collected from Suffolk was recycled in the UK in 2019/20.”
The team said that the UK currently does not have the capacity to process and recycle all its own waste, which the government was looking to address with a new resource and waste strategy. That was first published in December 2018, and it is understood consultation on those proposals is still ongoing.
The team has also given assurances that the waste is actually recycled when it leaves the UK, explaining: “Exported materials will go to Environment Agency accredited and licensed processing facilities where they are transformed into ready to use materials e.g. plastic pellets/flakes and are therefore no longer a waste product.
Where Suffolk’s recycling waste goes:
Metal
Destination Tonnes Percentage
UK 3,470 96.3%
Germany 121 3.4%
Greece 14 0.4%
Total 3,605
Card
Destination Tonnes Percentage
Vietnam 1,756 25.6%
India 1,603 23.4%
China 1,216 17.7%
Indonesia 1,038 15.1%
Taiwan 633 9.2%
Thailand 235 3.4%
Pakistan 182 2.7%
Turkey 148 2.2%
UK 45 0.7%
Total 6,856
Paper
Destination Tonnes Percentage
UK 6,980 28.5%
India 6,500 26.5%
Indonesia 4,270 17.4%
China 2,139 8.7%
Vietnam 1,924 7.8%
Germany 1,435 5.9%
Thailand 966 3.9%
Netherlands 244 1%
Turkey 40 <1%
South Korea 30 <1%
Malaysia 2 <1%
Belgium <1 <1%
Total 24,530
Plastics
Destination Tonnes Percentage
UK 5,628 65.2%
Turkey 1,307 15.1%
Romania 509 5.9%
Netherlands 429 5%
Germany 274 3.2%
Spain 143 1.7%
France 113 1.3%
Ukraine 78 <1%
Italy 52 <1%
Thailand 31 <1%
Russia 25 <1%
Portugal 20 <1%
Taiwan 12 <1%
Slovenia 10 <1%
Greece 2 <1%
Slovakia 2 <1%
Contaminants 8,921 17%
Total 8,635