Recycling suffers in Wiltshire due to pandemic
Covid-19 has impact on waste collection across the county
Recycling rates took a hit in Wiltshire during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to latest figures, amid a drop in the amount of waste picked up by bin collectors.
Wiltshire Council collected 58,564 tonnes of waste between April and June last year, the latest Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs figures show.
That was down 3,763 tonnes (6%) from the amount recorded during the same period in 2019.
Of the rubbish collected over the period, 43% was sent for recycling – down from 50% a year before.
The figures count household and non-household waste, including recyclable and non-recyclable objects.
CAUTION OVER FIGURES
But Defra cautioned that some local authorities' collections were heavily disrupted by the first coronavirus lockdown, which could affect the data.
Across England, councils collected 6.2 million tonnes of waste in the three months to June last year – down around 576,000 tonnes (9%) from a year earlier.
Of that, 43% was sent for recycling - a decrease from 46% in 2019.
Environmental campaigners Greenpeace say we're still throwing away too much and have called on ministers to 'show some bottle' and fix the waste system.
WASTE: GREENPEACE REACTION
Greenpeace UK's political campaigner Sam Chetan-Welsh said:
"Covid has clearly impacted waste collection across the board, but it hasn't changed the fact that we're still producing too much rubbish and recycling too little of it. If we want to fix our waste system, we need to cut the amount of waste we produce in the first place and invest in better recycling infrastructure to capture what's left."
A recent report by Greenpeace revealed that more than half the plastic waste the Government counts as recycled ends up overseas in places like Turkey, where the group found evidence of it being dumped and burned illegally.
Mr Chetan-Welsh said the Government needs to stop exporting plastic waste and introduce an all-inclusive deposit return scheme for drinks containers. He also called for legally binding targets to slash single-use plastics in half by 2025.
The Local Government Association said councils have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to keep household waste and recycling centres open and collection services running as best as possible.
A Defra spokeswoman said less than 10% of household waste is now going to landfill, while the amount of food waste being recycled has increased by over 40% since 2015.