Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to review and propose simplification of household waste and recycling collection across the UK.

Defra and the Waste and Resource Action Programme are working with local authorities and other waste management stakeholders to develop a vision and business case for greater consistency in the way materials are collected for recycling. This will set out the benefits that could be achieved for householders, local authorities, reprocessors and others. The vision is to be published in the summer and will include proposed models for more consistent arrangements for collection of recyclable materials.

The broad aims for this work are to help local authorities to reduce costs; improve the quality and quantity of materials collected and to improve householder engagement and participation in recycling through reducing confusion and inconsistency and providing opportunities to improve communications.