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<p>The Government works with local authorities and the Waste and Resources Action
Programme (WRAP) to provide advice and promote best practice on waste and recycling.
The UK Recycling rate has increased from 11% at the turn of the century, to 44.9%
in 2014. This progress is thanks in large part to the hard work of local authorities
and householders towards recycling more.</p><p> </p><p>For 2015/16, local authority
spend on waste services was approximately £3.5 billion, of which nearly £600 million
was spent on recycling. In addition the Government, through the Waste Infrastructure
Delivery Programme, has allocated some £3 billion in grant funding to a number of
local authority waste infrastructure projects. This funding has helped authorities
to build waste treatment infrastructure including energy from waste, mechanical biological
treatment, anaerobic digestion and material recovery facilities, as well as to implement
household recycling collection services and communal recycling centres for plastics
and other recyclable materials.</p><p> </p><p>Local authorities are best placed to
decide on their waste recycling services and the range of materials collected, taking
into account local circumstances such as geography and population. WRAP’s best understanding
of collections being operated by local authorities in England as of June 2016 shows
us that 99% of English local authorities offer a collection of plastic bottles while
72% offer collection of plastic packaging, pots, tubs and trays.</p><p> </p><p>I have
asked WRAP to work with the waste sector, to look at the benefits and opportunities
there are from having more consistency in the materials collected for recycling and
in collection systems. This will help local authorities to identify value for money
and to help householders recycle more and put the right materials in the right bin.
This not only includes opportunities for local authorities, but also what others can
do to support greater consistency and increased recycling.</p><p> </p><p>I am expecting
WRAP to publish a framework for greater consistency in the summer.</p>
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