Recycling rates rise but urgent action still needed

“It is very encouraging to see people doing their bit to help the environment and help keep council tax down by recycling more. People and their local councils deserve great credit for drastically improving our performance on waste and recycling over recent years.

“While recycling rates are moving in the right direction, there is an urgent need to do even more. There is an increasing risk that councils will fail to meet tough EU targets for cutting waste going to landfill by 2013. Failing to meet EU bin targets will hit councils and council taxpayers with potentially crippling fines.

“The government needs to make good on its undertaking to return to councils the tax they pay for throwing rubbish in the ground. Councils could use landfill tax to invest in better facilities to make recycling even easier and cut further the amount of rubbish we throw in the ground.”