extiles are effectively only ever recycled once. Many forms of plastic recycling is performed to such low standards as competition in this market is so fierce that the secondary material will never be of sufficient quality to be recycled. It can also be stated that the most common form of household recycling and recycled product use, newspapers benefit greatly from the abundance of paper pulp, and therefore don’t work effectively managing their paper usage.
The rates and success of recycling across the UK is varied, with some districts still to introduce door stop collections. Data relating specifically to the analysis of textile recycling habits and attitudes is often poorly included within data as co-mingled. See chapter one – subsection ‘Textile recycling’.
Summarised data from Friends of The Earth research report ‘Door Stop Recycling in England’ shows how each of the districts are performing and what services they are providing:
Ten of the best doorstep collections in England
1.Daventry District Council
The council runs a sophisticated collection for 100% of its households: a weekly separated collection of dry recyclables alongside a fortnightly alternating refuse / compost collection. The scheme has catapulted
Daventry to the top of the UK recycling league table.
The council provides a collection of 6 materials to 100% of its households and separates the recycling onBorough Council street. Households have to opt-in and the participation rate is around 44%.
3.Lichfield District Council
Lichfield is the only authority in the West Midlands region which offers a collection of more than 5 materials to 100% of households. In fact, 7 materials are collected separately every week. The collection is separated on-street and run in-house. There is an 8090% participation rate.
The council uses ECT recycling (a not for profit Borough of company) to offer a 6 material weekly collection to 100% of its households. The collection is separated onstreet. The participation rate is around 50%.
5.Wear Valley District Council
A council-operated collection of 5 materials is offered to 100% of households on a fortnightly basis, separated on-street.
6.Darlington Borough Council
The collection of 5 materials once a fortnight is offered to 100% of its households, with an estimated participation rate of 50-60%. The in-house operated collection is separated on-street.
The council offers a collection of 6 materials every Metropolitan fortnightly to 100% of households. The scheme is Borough Council separated on-street and run by Cheshire Recycling.
8. Vale of White Horse District Council
A 6 material collection is offered every week to 100% of households and the participation rate is estimated at Council 74%. The materials are separated on-street and the scheme is operated by ECT recycling (a not for profit company).
9.West Oxfordshire District Council
ECT recycling offers a fortnightly 5 material collection to 100% of households. The separated scheme will expand to collect plastic bottles, aerosols, cardboard and batteries from April 04.
10.North Cornwall District Council
A 7 material separated collection is offered to 100% of households fortnightly, operated by Cornwall Paper Council Company. The participation rate is 55%.
The worst doorstep waste collections in England
Bromsgrove District Council No doorstep collection is offered. The council is planning to introduce one between March 04 and January 05.
East Riding of Yorkshire No doorstep collection is offered. There is a proposal to introduce a paper collection but the start date was not provided.
Warrington Borough Council Only 6% of households in Warrington get any kind of doorstep collection, and that just picks up paper – once a month. The scheme is run in-house.
Sheffield City Council In April 2003, waste company Onyx introduced a doorstep collection of paper and cardboard which picks up just once a month. Households put out their mixed paper, magazines and cardboard in large (140 litre) wheelie bins. Sheffield’s recycling rate was just 4 per cent in 2002-3 one of the lowest in the count