Plummeting material costs becomes national news

The Times and Daily Telegraph have reported that councils and recycling companies are looking for storage options to store the thousands of tonnes of recyclable materials that they are unable to sell.

Recycled steel has been valued at zero by Corus, while waste plastic and paper prices have also fallen dramatically.

Local authorities are calling on the government to relax rules on where recyclable materials can be stores, allowing them to keep it in sealed warehouses, former military bases and airfields.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is expected to announce new guidelines on waste storage next week.

Meanwhile Defra statistics released today have revealed that 90% of all English local authorities met or exceeded their recycling targets in 2007/08 and 90% of LAs had less residual rubbish to collect than in 2006/07.

It found that 94% if authorities recycled and composted more of their household waste than in 2006/07 and 72% sent a lower percentage of their municipal waste to landfill.

Environment minister Jane Kennedy said: “Recycling is now part of everyday life in this country and the way we think about waste has changed.

“Putting local councils in the driving seat is delivering results. The government remains committed to supporting local authorities in continuing this revolution in recycling.”

More information on the ONS statistics can be found here.

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