better recycling

Carl Holmes made this Freedom of Information request to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The request was successful.

From: Carl Holmes

11 January 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

our recycling is a mess, and is at the moment a complete waist of
tax payers money

every household needs separate boxes one for cardboard and paper,
one for plastics, one for glass e.t.c so too reduce the risk of
contamination

we either need to bring in the facilities to enable us to recycle
more types of plastics or get supermarkets to only use the one type
of plastic which can be recycled through government collections

we need to make sure that people who recycle are rewarded as
penalising the non recyclers doesn't work as it encourages fly
tipping e.t.c

instead of taking our rubbish all the way to china we must start
processing our rubbish here in the uk creating new jobs

we need to ensure that our recycled rubbish doent get contaminated
by careless people who cant be bothered

if recycling our rubbish is going to work we must provide a better
sevice to the public as at the moment its not working at all

for example : we as a family always recycle all the rubbish we can
which is a great thing to do but we get very disappointed as most
plastics and other materials have to be thrown away ready for the
rubbish tips which is a shame
and to know that when we fill our recycling bin it could and up in
landfill anyway because of careless naibours who could contaminate
the lot by throwing other waste in it so whats the point and we
shouldn't have to pay through our taxes for a service that isn't
working a waste of money

please change our act on dealing with our rubbish lets make
recycling a big priority for 2009 and future years

Yours faithfully,

Carl Holmes

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From: Helpline, Defra (CCU)
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

11 January 2009

Thank you for your email.

We have a target of replying to all emails within 15 working days.

If you need a reply before then, please call the Defra Helpline on 08459
33 55 77.

If your enquiry seeks advice on Irish pork, please follow the link to the
food standards agency [1]www.food.gov.uk who are responsible

for this issue.

Many thanks,

Customer Contact Unit

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

This email and any attachments is intended for the named recipient only.
If you have received it in error you have no authority to use, disclose,
store or copy any of its contents and you should destroy it and inform
the sender.
Whilst this email and associated attachments will have been checked
for known viruses whilst within Defra systems we can accept no
responsibility once it has left our systems.
Communications on Defra's computer systems may be monitored and/or
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References

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Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

28 January 2009

Dear Carl,

Thank you for your email of 11 January regarding your views on recycling.
I have been asked to reply.

I would like to thank you for your views and comments although I must
inform you that the Government believes local authorities (LA) are best
placed to make decisions on the waste management strategy for their
communities. Therefore, Defra does not intervene in these matters.

The Government has put strong drivers in place to encourage councils to
minimise waste and divert it from landfill ? for example the Landfill
Allowance Trading Scheme and the Landfill Tax escalator. These will help
to achieve the challenging targets set in the Waste Strategy 2007 for
recycling and composting of household waste, which are set at 40 per cent
by 2010 and 50 per cent by 2020.

This means that all local authorities will have to turn their attention to
some of the more difficult types of materials like plastics. The Strategy
focuses action on key waste materials which have a greater scope for
improving environmental and economic outcomes - recycling plastics shows
significant potential for carbon and energy savings by reducing the use of
raw materials.

Recycling and composting targets for household waste were set for each
local authority for 2003/04, 2005/06 and 2007/08. The Government-funded
Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is also working to expand markets
for recyclables and the Waste Infrastructure Development Programme (WIDP)
works with authorities to deliver on the UK Landfill Directive and helps
LAs with procurement so that they can develop the infrastructure to manage
their waste more sustainably.

It may be useful for you to forward your suggestions to the WRAP directly
for assistance as they help individuals, businesses and local authorities
to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of the resources they
have. They can provide you with information on what is being done to
improve recycling facilities across the country.

They can be contacted at:

WRAP
The Old Academy
21 Horse Fair
Banbury
OX16 0AH

Tel: 01295 819 900

The WRAP website below contains useful information about recycling and
waste strategies at: [1]http://www.wrap.org.uk/

In the last four years, our recycling rates have more than doubled across
the country. Countries like India and China have expanding manufacturing
sectors and consequently a high demand for secondary resources such as
recyclable paper and plastics. Waste managers can generally get higher
prices for their recyclables overseas compared to the UK. Also, it is not
possible for all the recyclables that arise in the UK to be recycled here
and using waste instead of a primary resource (whether here or abroad)
contributes to the wider objectives of sustainable development.

To give the full picture it should be noted that a great deal of recycling
is carried out in this country including 74% of paper and card packaging
waste and 84% of glass waste.

I can assure you that we recognise the challenges in securing markets of
sufficient capacity to meet the steadily increasing level of recycling in
this country.

I hope that you find this information useful.

Yours sincerely,

Customer Contact Unit
Defra

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

This email and any attachments is intended for the named recipient only.
If you have received it in error you have no authority to use, disclose,
store or copy any of its contents and you should destroy it and inform
the sender.
Whilst this email and associated attachments will have been checked
for known viruses whilst within Defra systems we can accept no
responsibility once it has left our systems.
Communications on Defra's computer systems may be monitored and/or
recorded to secure the effective operation of the system and for other
lawful purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.wrap.org.uk/

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