Increasing recycling in Brighton & Hove
More people are recycling successfully in Brighton & Hove and we have one of the lowest rates of waste going to landfill in the UK.
Following a number of changes to our services over the last few years, our figures for the year ending March 2022 show recycling rates increased to 30.1%.
Our collection rate is still lower than many other areas and we need to do more. One of our key priorities is to continue to increase recycling rates in the city, as well as further reducing waste and increasing reuse – and we need your help.
The theme for this year’s national Recycle Week, running from 17 to 23 October is ‘Let's Get Real about Recycling.’
It’s about acknowledging real lives sometimes get in the way. Forgot to rinse after a long day? We’ve all been there. And everyone chucks without checking once in a while.
But the reality is that wrong items can spoil the bunch, and make whole lorry loads un-recyclable.
And that’s why this year, we’re getting real about recycling. If everyone plays their part to get recycling right, progress will keep happening all round. It won’t take much to make a real difference.
In Brighton & Hove, we know the vast majority of our recycling is dealt with here in the UK. Our focus is on collecting the materials we’re sure will be recycled.
Since 2010, we’ve also reduced the amount of domestic waste going to landfill in Brighton & Hove by almost half, with only around 1% of the domestic waste collected now going to landfill. We’re continuing to look at all our options to reduce this further.
Waste collected in Brighton & Hove that cannot be recycled is taken to the energy recovery plant, which provides enough energy to power 25,000 homes in Sussex
We need your help!
By recycling more, you’re helping to protect natural resources, save energy, and reduce air and water pollution. And reducing your waste as much as possible and reusing what you can is even better.
According to WRAP, the reduction in energy and emissions from recycling rather than making things from scratch saves a total of 18 million tonnes of CO2 a year in the UK.
One of the easiest ways to increase our recycling is to make sure we recycle everything we can and avoid our collections getting contaminated. So please…
- Put all clean cardboard and paper, cans and tins, aerosols, metal jar lids and plastic bottles loose and separate in the mixed recycling – no plastic bags or anything else please!
- Recycle all glass in the separate containers so it doesn’t contaminate the other materials.
- Reuse plastic bags and recycle at large supermarket recycling points or put in your general waste when no longer usable.
- Recycle clothes and shoes at 60 textile banks at most of the city’s recycling points and our the two household recycling sites.
- Recycle used electrical items at a number of recycling points, the two household recycling sites or through Tech Takeback.
- Recycle batteries at supermarkets or the two household recycling sites. Batteries and electrical items are a fire hazard, so do not put them in your household recycling or rubbish.
Recycling hard plastics
We’ve recently introduced recycling hard plastics at our household waste recycling sites to increase the amount of plastic we can recycle.
You can now take larger hard plastics such as buckets and bins, water butts, plastic patio furniture, large children’s toys, guttering and downpipes, and large plastic containers to the city’s recycling sites off Old Shoreham Road in Hove and in Wilson Avenue, Brighton.
Similar to plastic bottles, these are made of a higher quality plastic that have a market with companies able to turn them into other products.
For information on what to do with more materials, visit our A-Z guide to recycling.
Wiping out waste
Councillor Amy Heley, Co-chair of the Environment, Transport & Sustainability committee said: “Everyday millions of things that could be reused or recycled end up being thrown away.
“Waste is everyone’s problem, and we need everyone’s to play a part in the solution.
“By working together, we can move towards a circular economy – where we share, reuse, repair, refurbish and recycle existing materials and products for as long as possible - and meet our collective goal of being Carbon Neutral by 2030.
“The little things we can all do will, together, make a big difference.”
Low grade plastics
We’ve been looking into the possibility of collecting other types of plastic, such as plastic pots, tubs and trays (PPTs), as they can be difficult to recycle.
This material can sometimes be collected as recycling but disposed of as rubbish due to the complexity of the materials and low grade of the plastic.
The lack of markets can mean a lot of the low-grade plastics collected in the UK are sent abroad to countries without the infrastructure to recycle them. A Greenpeace study from 2021 indicates that well over half of the household plastic packaging collected for recycling in the UK is sent abroad.
This material can then be incinerated or be sent to landfill in uncontrolled conditions, causing more damage to the environment than disposing of it in the UK.
We currently only collect plastics we know are recycled in the UK.
The indications of our study show we would need a multi-million investment to make major infrastructure changes to our facilities for sorting and collecting lower grade plastics.
The government has indicated there will be funding available to councils who need to make changes to meet the requirements of the Environment Act, and we’re waiting for announcements around what that funding will be.
In the meantime, we’re continuing to develop our plans so that we’re in the best position to secure funding.
You can help reduce low grade plastics in the waste system by reusing containers or bottles to stock up at refill stations.
You can also try shopping plastic-free – for information on where to buy plastic-free in Brighton & Hove, visit the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership website.
