Britain’s largest waste and recycling groups said yesterday that local councils needed more money if they are to satisfy the demands of the Government’s new waste strategy.

The Energy Services Association, the industry’s trade body, said the Government should address the need for extra financing in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review, which will pinpoint spending priorities.

Local councils will play a pivotal role in ensuring that the ambitious targets are met. However, yesterday’s strategy document was silent on where extra funds will come from. Councils will not be allowed to profit from moves to fine “bad” recyclers and reward “good” recy-clers. Mike Averill, chief executive of Shanks, one of the largest waste and recycling companies, said councils would “without question” need to increase council taxes to pay for the increased amount of recycling, which is more costly than disposing of waste in landfill sites.

Waste firms have, in recent years, been preparing for a shift towards more environmentally friendly handling of household and business waste. However, new facilities are more expensive to develop than relative cheap landfill sites.

Industry estimates suggest bt-hat etween £15 billion and £30 billion will need to be spent on new waste treatment and reprocessing facilities over the next 15 years to meet requirements, depending on which technologies are used.

What happens to your rubbish

Plastic

World consumption has risen from 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to 100 million tonnes today. In Britain alone, 13 billion plastic carrier bags are used each year. Plastic can be recycled to make new plastic bags, bin-liners, takeaway food trays, flooring, window frames, building insulation boards, video cassette and compact disc cases, fencing, garden furniture, water butts, garden sheds, seed trays, fleeces, fibre filling for sleeping bags and duvets, office accessories

Glass

Britain uses 2.4 million tonnes of container glass every year and 1.2 million tonnes was recycled in 2005 to become what is known as “cullet”. Milk bottles are reused an average of 13 times before recycling. Green bottles contain 85 per cent of recycled glass but there is a shortage of clear glass because many of the bottles used for whisky and spirits are exported. Glass is also used in fibreglass insulation, bricks, as a filtration substance in effluent treatment works and for the sand in golf bunkers. Fourteen million bottles were crushed to resurface the M6 motorway with glassphalt

Paper

Britain uses 12.5 million tonnes every year – about 200kg per person. Most recycling is from newspapers, magazines, telephone directories, junk mail, office paper, cardboard and other packaging. Paper is pulped at a mill and screened and deinked. Recycled paper made up 80.6 per of the raw material for newspapers last year. It is also used for cardboard, toilet rolls, loft insulation, paint and even road surfaces

Textiles

Clothes banks are operating at just 25 per cent capacity. About half of textiles are resorted and sent for reuse to charities. About 40 per cent of clothes are then recycled. Worn or damaged textiles are used as wiping cloths for garages and cleaning firms. Other material is used for filling inside the doors and roofs of cars, to stuff mattresses and for home insulation. Some are unspun to produce new yarn that is used in weaving new clothes and blankets

Steel

Some 500,000 tonnes is used in food packaging – the equivalent of 12 billion cans or 600 per home. However, 9 billion go to landfill because households are not recycling them. In 2005, 50 per cent of steel packaging and 2.5 billion steel cans were recycled. All steel, chrome, stainless steel and steel alloys and their products can be recycled. It is easy to sort because it is magnetic. Waste steel is melted down with iron ore and limestone. Liquid metal is poured into moulds and cooled. The new steel is then chopped into blocks. It can be used in new cans, bicycle frames, pipes, train tracks and ship hulls

Aluminium

Is the most cost-effective material to recycle but insufficient household cans are collected. After collection it is shredded, melted in furnaces and the molten metal is chilled as ingots, each of which contains 1.4 million cans. About 75 per cent of all drink cans are made from aluminium; its other main use is for kitchen foil

Source: Water & Resources Action Programme, Textile Recycling Association

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