Confusion drives up South Tyneside recycling reject rates

Figures from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs show an estimated 1,735 tonnes of waste in the area could not be reused in the year to April 2022 – up from 1,433 tonnes the year before and on the 803 tonnes in 2014-15, when local records of rejects began.

The year's rejects in South Tyneside accounted for 7.4% of the 23,376 tonnes of household waste sent for recycling.

For England as a whole, 6.4% of rubbish sent to be recycled in 2021-22 was rejected.

The figures show 21,641 tonnes of household waste from South Tyneside were recycled – 32.4% of all rubbish – which was up from a recycling rate of 30.8% in 2020-21.

Local government chiefs say households and councils have worked hard to increase the amount of waste being recycled, but are being held back by manufacturers using unrecyclable packaging.

An LGA spokesperson said households have made a "real shift" to ensure they are recycling as much as possible while councils work hard to share information on what can be recycled.

They said: “However, manufacturers of plastic packaging products are still continuing to create and sell packaging that cannot be recycled and will be put in the recycling bin by people in good faith.

"The burden then falls on councils to not only collect it and dispose of it, but to pay the extra cost of disposing of it."

They said this means councils are trying to achieve net zero with “one hand tied behind their back".

A Defra spokesperson said, “There was an increase in rejected material reported by local authorities in the wake of the pandemic but we have since set a suite of targets to reduce different types of waste, including plastic, glass, metal, paper and food by 2028 through our Environmental Improvement Plan."

The plan aims to ban the supply of single-use plastics later this year, make some businesses pay to recycle their own packaging, and introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic and metal drinks containers.