‘Consistent recycling collections’ reform rebranded ‘Simpler recycling’ by Defra

Yesterday the Prime Minister announced the scaling back of various Net Zero policies, including the announcement that he was scrapping ‘seven bins per household’ to improve recycling.

In a newsletter released shortly after the speech, Defra communicated their plans to amend the policy proposals formerly known as ‘Consistent recycling collections’ to ‘Simpler recycling’.

The former policy, which outlined plans for consistent household and business recycling collections in England, has been publicly consulted on twice since 2019. It proposed that all local authorities should be obliged to separately collect a suite of eight waste materials, including food and drink cartons and aerosol cans by 2026, with films and flexible plastics a year later.

Whilst there is not much detail yet about how the existing plans have changed, the newsletter sent by Defra yesterday evening states that ‘simpler recycling’ is a “new pragmatic approach to boost recycling rates and put the long-term interests of our country first…[it is] a plan which scraps the top-down approach, ensures a requirement to recycle with seven bins will not happen and brings forward a smarter approach that responds to feedback and forges a new path on reuse and recycling.”

The announcement goes on to state that homes in England will still have a consistent set of materials collected from the kerbside, to alleviate issues resulting from the ‘postcode lottery’ and householder confusion surrounding recyclable and non-recyclable waste. However, these materials won’t need to be sorted at the home.

Simpler recycling plans unclear

How government will ‘ensure all homes in England recycle the same materials’ under the new simpler recycling plan is currently unclear until further announcements are made by Defra, and local authorities will be waiting to hear if, and what, new obligations will be placed on their collection and sorting services.

Consistent recycling collection nationwide is an important piece of the suite of policies known as the packaging reforms, which also includes Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging starting this year, and  in 2025.