Action Briefing June 2004 - July 2004
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

City urged to lose waste for Environment Day

To mark World Environment Day on 5th June 2004, Birmingham Friends of the Earth were out demonstrating the benefits of recycling to the City as well as giving visitors to New Street's Environmental Village an opportunity to have their say on the City Council's recycling performance and policy.

That day, Friends of the Earth groups in 61 locations across the country were urging their local authorities to improve recycling facilities. Just one in four households in England, Wales and Northern Ireland currently receives a “best practice” (defined as one collecting five or more materials from every household) recycling service, with national recycling levels still hovering at 14.5%, a long way short of the Government’s target of 25% by 2005.

Chancellor Gordon Brown must provide more direct funding to local authorities from landfill tax revenues, and from the reform of the landfill tax credit scheme, if recycling targets are to be met. Friends of the Earth's figures reveal that an increase of £200 million a year would ensure a decent recycling and compost service for every household. Government grants have enabled some local authorities to dramatically improve their recycling service. Lichfield District Council was granted £410,000 in 2002 to provide a dry recyclables collection and succeeded in increasing their recycling from 33% to 43% during 2002-3, achieving one of the highest recycling rates in the country.

In a league table of UK local authority recycling performance published in the Spring 2004 issue of Resource magazine, Birmingham came in at 286th place, up from 299th last year. Birmingham's recycling target for 2004 is 14%, rising to 18%
next year. So far we've achieved 10%. In May, the Council announced a new pilot collection scheme for 60,000 households. The scheme will collect green waste and provide bags for glass but you will still have to take your glass to the bottle bank yourself.

Apathy?
The City Council blame householder apathy for Birmingham's poor recycling performance. In an email response (16th November 2003) to Birmingham Friends of the Earth's Practical Steps to a Greener Birmingham 2003 document, distributed to all Birmingham councillors, Cllr John Chapman wrote: "the main impediment to a satisfactory recycling rate in Birmingham is not the Council's policy . . . but indifference on the part of the majority of the population to the subject. For example, the City offers an adequate paper doorstep collection recycling service, and if all citizens used it we could easily achieve the recycling targets which you quote. Unfortunately, only around one-third (or less) of households can be bothered to make use of the service." However, nine out of ten people say they would recycle more if it was made easier for them to do so (Source: Environment Agency, May 2002).

Our disappointing record needs setting in its right context: Birmingham collects 450,000 tonnes of domestic waste each year, but has signed a contract to deliver over 90% of it to the Tyseley Incinerator. Incineration generates more energy than dumping waste, but much less than would be saved by recycling, and it releases toxic fumes into the air. Birmingham Friends of the Earth wants the Council to: seek an open renegotiation of the Tyseley contract; provide a doorstep recycling service for at least five recyclable materials for all households in the City by 2005; and support the development of regional recycling processing facilities, thereby ensuring the growth and jobs created by recycling are delivered locally. Only then will we at last get Birmingham's waste strategy on a sustainable footing.

James Botham and Andy Pryke

Waste and Recycling: Facts and Figures

• Around 80% of household waste could be either recycled or composted, dramatically reducing the need for landfill.
  
• The average household produces about a tonne of waste a year.
  
• The amount of waste produced in the UK is rising by more than 3% per annum.
  
• In April this year, the Environment Agency warned that space for burying rubbish in the South East could run out within seven years. Northern Ireland has already exported some of its household waste to Scotland for landfill.
  
• Incineration is deeply unpopular owing to concerns about the environmental impact and risk to health. Once built, incinerators need more and more waste, which could otherwise be recycled, to make them economically viable.
  
• By 2020 the amount of UK municipal waste is set to double (Source: Government Strategy Unit).
  
• The UK uses over 6 billion glass containers each year, amounting to over 2 million tonnes of glass. Less than a quarter (22%) were recycled in 1998. The European average is 50%, with some countries recycling 80%. Up to 90% of new glass could be made from reclaimed scrap glass (Source: British Glass).
  
• Recycling aluminium can bring energy savings of up to 95% and produce 95% less greenhouse gas emissions than when it is produced from raw materials (Source: Alupro).
  
• Approx. 20,000 tonnes of aluminium foil packaging (worth £8 million) is wasted each year. Only 3,000 tonnes is recycled.
  
• Packaging is typically 25-35 % by weight of dustbin waste.
  
• Plastic bags sent to landfill take around 500 years to decay. The UK uses 500 million of these each week.
  
• In Ireland, a tax on plastic bags introduced in March 2004 has reduced their consumption by 90%. Shoppers are now charged about 10p for each bag they take from supermarkets and other shopping outlets. More than 9 million euros (£5.73 million) were raised during the first four months of the scheme. The money will be used to fund new waste management and other environmental initiatives. Before the legislation was enacted, an estimated 1.2 billion bags were handed out free to Irish shoppers each year.

Take Action!
Birmingham's waste management strategy is up for review until 1st July with the new strategy expected in December 2004. Complete the enclosed form Have your say! Call for better recycling in Birmingham in this copy of Action Briefing and send it to us. If your copy doesn't have a form then call James on 0121 632 6909 or email info@birminghamfoe.org.uk.