The Drivers and Constraints to Recycling in Lancashire

Abstract

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution the amount of waste being
created in the UK has risen at a rate greater than natural resources and the
environment can handle.
As waste arisings kept growing and the true effects of the landfill gases, carbon
dioxide and methane, created when the biodegradable fraction of the waste is
decomposed, became apparent the need to extract resources began to evolve.
The biggest resource in a landfill is recyclables, therefore the simplest way of
reducing waste being landfilled is their removal.
As a consequence to collect and divert recyclables from landfill Local
Authorities (LAs) have been required to expand on the tonnages collected at
'bring sites', a local collection point for recyclables, through the introduction of
convenient kerbside collection regimes. Throughout the UK the type of
materials collected from the householder at the kerbside vary owing to the
infrastructure chosen by the local authority. They also differ between co-mingled
and source separated collections depending on the requirements of the
merchants and associated end markets. However, the best regime would not
work without understanding public attitudes towards the separation of waste by
the householder. Therefore, to understand the constraints and drivers that are
holding back Lancashire from achieving high levels of quality recyclate this
dissertation looks to establish if it is not so much attitudes, but the type and
number of containers in conjunction with how the waste must be presented at
the kerbside and the frequency of collections that is deterring residents from
recycling.